How would you handle this ??

[Tennessee]

Tourney fishing and the water has been pressured hard for 2 days. Your on day 3 and the water is fairly clear to light stain temps in low to mid 60's. water very choppy. and bass were very active the first day.

What kinda cover would you look to fish

What would you fish

Just give you thought about the question

Thanks Will

[doc]

Small Swimbait, or spinnerbait. Cover depends on conditions IMO sunny look for fish tight to cover, overcast=roamers

[Tennessee]

Doc would you fish a smaller spinner bait ???

Later Will

[doc]

larger spinnerbait, smaller swimbait.

60" water temp, you also couldn't rule out a texas rigged lizard. Great baits in spring because they are natural predators in a bass bed. So the fish might hit them out of spite.

[garry_3000]

I would find some shallow wood and throw an buzz bait. Once the water hits 55 deg I start to throw the buzz and man it has worked with big fish.

[carolina-rig-01]

i would try to locate schools of pre-spawn fish on points and in the mouths of spawning areas. depending on what the weather does i would use anything from a spinnerbait to a jig. if you find schooling activity then topwater could be a major player as well.

[aikenyounggun]

yeah either go big or small.... dont go in between........ big spinnerbait or small one........ or throw a jig and fish it slow..... if they are really pressured they might move deep or get some shutjaw....fish it slow with big trailer

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by aikenyounggun

yeah either go big or small.... dont go in between........ big spinnerbait or small one........ or throw a jig and fish it slow..... if they are really pressured they might move deep or get some shutjaw....fish it slow with big trailer

i was thinking the exact opposite for the jig, if the water is warming and is in the low to mid 60's then you might have a wave of spawners already on beds but the bigger majority will be feeding up for the spawn. i would go with a finesse jig and depending on water clarity either a super chunk or a baby brush hog for a trailer.

[aikenyounggun]

yeah your probable right i totally skipped over the water temp.... they might be spawning

[aikenyounggun]

yeah you might be right about topwater..... throw it in the morning and try to pick off a fish trying to get an early meal or you might get a reaction strike...

[carolina-rig-01]

i don't know if i would spend a lot of time throwing topwater or not, but i would have something like a spook or sammy tied on incase i saw some surface schooling going on (a jerkbait could work here as well).

[Rebbasser]

Water choppy=wind, so if the occasion arises throw a spinnebrait or lipless crankbait parallel to a wind blown bank. That can be good for a few good fish.

[Culln5]

I would have to agree with a large spinnerbait fished relatively slow. And to the other extreme I would try swimming a jig (or that spinnerbait) through some growing vegetation.... most noteworthy, lilypads.

[Bassboss]

I would target cover than people would not be hammering, not necessarily going deep if most people were fishing shallow, but hitting rock if people are hitting pads.

I would try several things.

num 1 - I would use a small swimbait, trying to give a very natural look.
num 2 - a tube or a zoom finesse worm wacky rigged.
num 3 - The bass would probably be seeing smaller baits, right. So I would use a big 10" worm, give them something that they would not normally see. I saw that on the 3rd of the 2008 classic, fishing a very pressured lake. I forget who he was though. .

Hope this helps!

[fish2]

what kind of bottom does the lake have?