Fishing small lakes

[kanbass]

I mostly fish lakes of 100-150 acres. Are seasonal patterns the same on these small lakes as on the big lakes or are there even patterns? I can find fish fairly easily based on patterns in big reservoirs, but I am having trouble on the small lakes.

[Bassboss]

Yup, fish em just like a big lake with similar qualities to it. Bass are bass for the most part, and they'll do the same things they do it big lakes.

I watched a video a few years back by Paul Elias about fishing small lakes (Elias Sportsman's Series: Fishing Small Lakes with Paul Elias), you can get it on Netfix if you have it, otherwise you can probably get you local library to order it (you can always buy it if you want, but it's going for 30 bucks on Amazon! )

Welcome to the forum btw!

[keithdog]

Small lakes often dont have the kinds of structure that larger man made reservoirs have to hold and isolate schools of bass. Often in smaller lakes, the bass are more scattered and less concentrated. That can make it more challenging to locate bass in numbers. But patterns can and do exist in smaller lakes, and once your keyed in it is fairly consistant. I will say this....small lakes are effected faster by changing weather patterns than larger impoundments.

[Tavery5]

Originally Posted by kanbass

I mostly fish lakes of 100-150 acres. Are seasonal patterns the same on these small lakes as on the big lakes or are there even patterns? I can find fish fairly easily based on patterns in big reservoirs, but I am having trouble on the small lakes.

Welcome Kanbass, I am also from Wichita, and there is at least one other member here that is from Wichita as well. Fish in smaller lakes behave very differently than fish in big resevoirs. Fish in resevoirs and big lakes have to follow the bait fish around to eat. In a smaller lake they may only need to change depth moving close to the shore or off of it, they seem to use water temp and cover to dictate where they will locate themselves.


If you can provide a few more details on where you are fishing, we might be able to help you locate fish faster.

Welcome again.