Tough Pre-fish please help

[doc]

I went sunday to pre-fish an area lake for our local tournament next saturday. We had a front come thru saturday, with bluebird skies sunday temps close to 100, water temp 81 at daylight 86 by noon.

We had reports of bass chasing baitfish early (near sea walls, rocks, bridges, etc). We started off near a bridge over a creek channel, baitfish popping right up next to the bank. Started off throwing a popper, then a fluke once the sun came up good. No fish, so we moved to some cypress knees, tried baitfish colored spinnerbaits, no fish. We moved yet again to the north end of the lake,(hoping to fish a natural barrier, and entrance to a gravel pit) where water clairity took a turn for the worse, Lilly pads had taken over, begining to die wich stained the water. We moved away from the lilly pads quickly but did notice schools of small baitfish being disturbed (could of been white bass). Water was significantly warmer in the northern end 3-4 degrees.

Fished some rip-rap right in amongst some schools of baitfish (small, but literally everywhere). We did notice some action but no bites.
Ended up finishing the day pitching a berkley craw under docks for the days only fish 2.5 lb.

It would be worth noting, that everywhere we found deeper water 10-20 ft near shallow water (up by the sea walls, cypress knees, pylings, rip rap) our depth finder would go absolutely crazy at the transition point from shallow to deep. IE fish were consistantly throughout the day located suspending around 10 ft deep near what appeared to be bait balls. We tried crankbaits, spinners, and texas rigged soft plastics (ya, i know texas rigged for suspending fish , but we were hoping they would pick it up once it started down the slopes tward deeper water).



We seemingly found the bass, but our confidence was destroyed by not being able to boat but 1 fish. Here is a link to the lake.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...11487&t=h&z=12

We launch from the little bayou near hwy 257, the north end of the lake that was stained is the end seperated by the dike.
Any advice on targeting those suspended bass, or if anyone sees anything that jumps out at them please feel free.

[bassnman30]

Did you try a shakey head or some other finesse baits ? That maybe all that they would take. The other day we found the fish holding in appx. 10'-12' of water.

[doc]

Did not try a shaky head, what about wacky rigging a senko? I really, really, hate fishing that slow, but will do it on tourney day.

Or tubes on a 1/4 oz jighead (since all the baitfish)

[Bob Smith]

The stained water around the pads would've been a "plus", but you said the pads were dying? If anything they should have been flourishing unless someone sprayed them. My suggestion would've been to throw a white/chartreuse spinner bait (3/8 oz) with a nickle colorado/willow leaf combination and a 4" white curl tail grub as a trailer. Two more bait choices for the pads would've been a Watermelon/Red Flake Zoom super fluke with a the tail spiked in Chartreuse, rigged weightless on a 4/0 hook. Another good bait would be the Chompers Salty Sinker in Dark Melon Pepper, again rigged weightless with a 4/0 or 5/0 hook. Work the fluke and Salty Sinker slowly in the murky water, and probably on braided line in the pads.

That looks like an old ox-bow lake and deep water is probably not very deep and probably not defined by ledges or notable drops. That would make it very hard to position the deeper fish.

[doc]

It is an old oxbow bob, deepest water we found was 20-28 ft, and that was the old river channel slope, not a sharp drop, but enough of one to see the decline on the depth finder.

The pads were green, but starting to have that brown baked look around the edges, wich left a very dirty residue around them in the water. We did find visible schools of baitfish in 2-5 ft of water around the pads, and they were spooked.
Do you think we left the pads too early?

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by doc

It is an old oxbow bob, deepest water we found was 20-28 ft, and that was the old river channel slope, not a sharp drop, but enough of one to see the decline on the depth finder.

The pads were green, but starting to have that brown baked look around the edges, wich left a very dirty residue around them in the water. We did find visible schools of baitfish in 2-5 ft of water around the pads, and they were spooked.
Do you think we left the pads too early?

Quite possibly, my experience with lakes that have little or no other kind of visible cover is that the bass will bury themselves under those pads as the sun gets higher. They will just slow down and wait for something to swim over or through the pads. Hence the suggestions I made about the Super Fluke (Watermelon/Red Flake) and the Chompers Salty Sinker (Dark Melon Pepper. Those colors pretty much cover the type of forage (perch and eel, yes there are eel in your part of the country). They are big enough to offer a well proportioned meal and the presentation is almost irresistable when worked slow to dead. The browning could be sunburn on the pads and shouldn't pose a problem. The stained water will give you an opportunity to get in closer without spooking the fish.

[doc]

Thanks for the info, I also forgot to mention, the reason the lake is seperated by a dike, is at one point it was in trouble of filling itself in with silt, the dike was added, work was done, then the dike was broken in 1 spot. So its a relativly shallow lake. Thanks for the advice and will try.
There is other cover besides pads, there are a ton of docks (with a ton of people fishing them)

[pignjig]

Doc, you may think I'm insane, but try to get ahold of some wacky jigs and flick shake worms. They have been very productive around walls, docks, etc. I'm in no way suggesting that traditional baits and tactics won't work- They still do for KVD, at least. But, when the fish are pressured, something they might not have seen before can really turn them on. I was too lazy to order more of them for my last tournament and I got schooled in the ways of the wiley Lake Anna bass by a certain Mr. 3d. Hey, man, couldn't hurt... Good luck!

-Pig

[BERKLEY83]

Hey Doc, I Would Try Some Dock Fishing If Any I Would Try A Zoom Finesse Worm With A 2/0 Hook Skipping Under The Dock. I Would Also Try A Drop Shot Around The Cypress. Also Try Some Rattle Trap Yo-yo It Back To The Boat.

[Deacon]

Around ANY structure with water temps in the 80s, I would have a frog(floating kind)tied on. Around those lillys you were talking about, I think that Bob was right. Unless they were sprayed to kill them off toss a frog all over that. You can work the frog as fast or as slow as you want.....

[Lilmoosecountry]

Take a look at the Xrap shad rap. It will suspend once you stop cranking. I find it works really nice for me as the water warms up.

[Captmikestarrett]

Carolina rig a big tube with a foam insert.. Fill with shad scent w/sparkles and use a three foot leader. Fish ledges and long points deep to shallow..

Manns made an El Producto tube.. But not any more...so sad..

5 inch minimum..



Capt Mike

[lowrider]

here's a little more info on this place for everybody, and the way weather plays a huge part in this thing called bass fishin'.

go back up and read doc's account of what we did on our pre-fish trip last sunday. on saturday, with overcast skies and the low front hanging over, another local club had thier tourney. the winning bag weighed in at over 18 lbs! i know the guy that came in 2nd and he caught 60 fish, 20 keepers. missed winning by only 7 oz.

i know we can catch fish on "bluebird" days but the bite apparently turned off like a light switch overnight.

wish us luck for this weekend