Help With Situation

[rowyourboat]

at this lake i fish, there was a large 15ft flat that my graph showed to have a lot of fish on it. i tried several different things and only caught a couple. the fish seemed to be about 12-13ft deep. i was thinking of trying a drop shot, but was wondering if this is too shallow for that???

any other tips? water is 87* and pretty clear

[dhami013]

Carolina rig might be a good idea.

[1234567]

10 ft diving crank fished fast and erratic in natural color? If the bottom is too gunked up, a spro Deep diver fished the same way.

[kms399]

just checking but did your graph show little cartoon fish or arcs? if it was showing cartoon fish you could have been seeing anything.

[rowyourboat]

just checking but did your graph show little cartoon fish or arcs? if it was showing cartoon fish you could have been seeing anything.

arcs...

[Bluebasser86]

It's possible they might not have been bass. If the shad are there then there's probably lots of different kinds of fish there. There might be a large school of catfish, gar, drum, or any kind of fish that might eat shad. I would probably try the crank like suggested along with a swimbait, flutter spoon, and C-rig. If that doesn't work then I'd probably assume they either are inactive or not bass.

[Packard]

It's possible they might not have been bass. If the shad are there then there's probably lots of different kinds of fish there. There might be a large school of catfish, gar, drum, or any kind of fish that might eat shad. I would probably try the crank like suggested along with a swimbait, flutter spoon, and C-rig. If that doesn't work then I'd probably assume they either are inactive or not bass.

He said he only caught a few of them and wants to know how to get more. So they are schooling bass.

[Catt]

I don’t care if you’re seeing little cartoon fish or arcs that doesn’t make em bass!

He said “i tried several different things and only caught a couple”, not quite a school!

My question to Mr. rowyourboat, was what you saw @ 12-13’ suspended or on the bottom?

[Jig Man]

i was thinking of trying a drop shot, but was wondering if this is too shallow for that???

No that is not too shallow for drop shot, though you might not be able to do it vertically.

[Lund Explorer]

A 15' flat with fish marked at 12'-13' seems to sound like whatever those fish were, they were suspended. If so, I wouldn't think that's too shallow for a dropshot rig even in clear water. Perhaps not fishing it completely vertical, but it could work.

What baits/methods did you use to catch the few that you got? What type of cover was on this flat?

[rowyourboat]

A 15' flat with fish marked at 12'-13' seems to sound like whatever those fish were, they were suspended. If so, I wouldn't think that's too shallow for a dropshot rig even in clear water. Perhaps not fishing it completely vertical, but it could work.

What baits/methods did you use to catch the few that you got? What type of cover was on this flat?

youre correct. i could see a well defined bottom at 15ft. and around 12 feet were where the arcs were. i tried a carolina rig, cranks, t-rigged plastics.

i caught 3 total - 2 on the flick-shake and one on the shaky head. all three fish were 13-14" spots

[Bluebasser86]

Just because you catch a few bass doesn't mean they are all bass . It might be a school of cats or gar that are following bait and bass following those fish looking for an easy meal of injured shad. I've caught bass mixed in with all different kinds of fish that were chasing shad and the bass were just trying to get an easy meal.

[WRB]

12" - 13" spotted bass are very aggressive and will hit nearly any lure. Suspended marks could be any type of fish. If the bass were feeding on a shad school then use shad profile and color lures; spoons and Traps are ideal, under spins like a Road Runner and tail spins like a Little George are also good choices.

Tom