need a little help

[twigass]

i recently joined a bass league on wed nights here in MI, we fish 8 diff bodies of water and 3 of them are rivers 5 lakes. my ? is what are some baits to use and when would be the best times to use them through the summer. we fish from 6pm to 9pm. my best luck has been on the senko. i've been catching fish but all are small only 1 or 2 keepers if lucky, and thats funny cause last tournament 2 fish won it so any help would be greatly appreciated. also i work alot so not much time to prefish.

[bassfisher02]

Hm, the best lure to use????????? No description as far as water clarity, structure, fishing pressure????????? The best time to use them???????? Are you even serious????????? No time to pre-fish????? I dont think i can fully answer your questions to my fullest ability because i'm feeling quite left in the dark on this one, and quite baffled as why you would ask the best lure to use and when to use it... i mean even if you just started fishing you outta know there is no such thing as 'best' in the world of bass fishing, also the best times to use them? I mean c'mon man fish them as much as you can, if you have from 6-9 to fish, i'd say the 'best' time to fish them would be from 6-9. If i said the 'best' time was at 7:45, would you get out there and piddle around till 7:45?

BTW, welcome to the forum =]

[Rebbasser]

What 02 is so delicately trying to say() is we need a little more info-what is the water clarity? Cover-trees, weedbeds, lilly pads? Current, expecially in the rivers? You get the idea.

[zooker]

look man he did say michigan-thats a midwestern yankee state- clear water in the lakes stained to dingy in the rivers. probly same baits cranks and worms in daylight topwater baits after that..

what we need from him is more info.on best working crank and worm colors...

zooker

[twigass]

zooker was right im in michigan, clear lakes dingy rivers. the lakes r all diff some have trees pads and docks, while others have almost nothing. the rivers r like nothing u seen before they r filled with stumps u cant c and by the banks it goes from 2 feet to 25 in a matter of yards. the rivers have no cover such as pads but speratic weeds just off shore. smallies have completely shut down every one in the tournament is bringing in large mouths. when i do catch fish its only on a senko weedless style with no weight, i have tried spinners no luck crank baits no luck and 4 inch worms with slider heads and grubs nothing my colors have been chart, white on spin, green, green/white on senko, crank clown, black gold, 4" camo, and grub green, black, also have tried tubes only caught little large mouths and many colors n styles tossed out so i need a little help on some diff ideas please i will give u all info i can.

[bassfisher02]

Try a red shad colored tiki stik weighted. Fish current breaks in the rivers, work the drop offs, and fish those stump feilds with cranks and jigs. Also throw topwaters in the stumpfields. Since these are low light conditions the topwaters should be good. As far as the lakes go try a bubblegum colored zoom trickworm in the pads or any other structure you can find.

[twigass]

thanks for the help anything that i can try is worth it, would u reccomend throwing a carolina rig only 1 i havent tried yet

[bassfisher02]

Deffinitely, work that drop off with a Carolina-rig.

[twigass]

what color works best at 15 to 30 ft what size of worm i am just fusterated that i cant get fish and we only get 3 hrs to do it in. so what would u start with in such little time. and it doesnt help when ur fishing partner has only caught 1 fish all year. so lots a help thanks

[bassfisher02]

In the clear water i would want bubblegum, red shad, chratruese[sp?], red shad dip siks [tiki stiks with the tail dipped in a bright yellowish color] uhh whites, watermelon... even blacks. in that dingy water i would stick with junebug, red shad, black, watermelon, and any other darker color you can come up with. Throw out deep diving crankbaits as well, and jigs. just work the sh*t outta that drop off, and whatever currant breaks you can find, in the lake work any and all structure between deep water and shallow flats. Since it being later work shallow areas with topwaters, Just try and try again, its called fishing, not catching. So you may or may not cacth fish, but you have a better chance fishing as much as possible.

[Botte]

Sounds like your biggest enemy is time. So work smarter not harder. Don't want to waste time tryin a dozen different baits. Where to fish is more important than what to fish. I'd stick with what you're good at, and that sounds like senkos.

So here's my two cent suggestion. Two rods, one would be a white mini-king spinner bait with an add-on purple curly tail for coverin water, but retrieve as slow as possible. And your trusty senko for when you find the honey hole.

[islandbass]

Add the drop shot technique to the rest of the good suggestions.

[lunker-lander]

Hey man, where you @ in MI? I'm form down yonder. Hudson,MI.

[Rebbasser]

Originally Posted by twigass

what color works best at 15 to 30 ft what size of worm i am just fusterated that i cant get fish and we only get 3 hrs to do it in. so what would u start with in such little time. and it doesnt help when ur fishing partner has only caught 1 fish all year. so lots a help thanks

Since time is short and the water is fairly deep in addition to the drop shot a C-rig would be a good choice. covers deep water fast.

[carolina-rig-01]

i fish a weekly night tourny that is only 4 hours long. it's funny we have finished in the money a few times and when you have a good bag, 4 hours seems a lot longer than when you have a dry livewell in your boat. everyone else covered the baits really well so i will leave that alone. keep this in mind though, once the low light hours approach fish will be on the move a lot more. meaning that if you fish a spot in the sunshine and come up empty don't be scared to go back later and try it again. everytime we placed in these night tournies, we caught our fish on points that we couldn't get bit on in the daylight. it is possible that the fish were there all along and just not active until dark, but whatever the reason we went back to them later and saved the night. my suggestion would be this, pick out 2 spots that aren't too far apart, (should be more if time would allow). for me it has been the 2 main lake points at the mouth of a big creek. and just bounce back and forth fishing the daylights out of them. oh and if you do well and people ask where you caught them...lie your butt off! when time is that valuable don't think for a minute someone won't park on your fish if they know where they are at. best of luck!

[twigass]

hey lunker up here in west branch but fish the hale lakes

[reel cool 2]

If you like worm fishin. YOU JUST CAN'T BEAT THAT PURPLE WORM. I may have left myself open for this quote big deal. Your club outings are no doubt
evening events. Being that, purple or grape (solid) could be your best bet.
Lipless crank bait 3 qtr. oz Perch or Moss Green (pea green) to help locate
quality fish. That should be a good start.

[Rebbasser]

Something else you might try is a wacky rig. Cast it out, let it sink, and work it with gentle twitches of the rod tip. If you are not familiar with the rig go to the New to Fishing board and click on the worm rigs stickied at the top. That will show you haw to rig it.

[WallStreetAmigo]

First off, I don't river fish for bass so I have no input there. Lake fishing is another matter though.

To expand on what reb said about wacky rigs: I wacky rig senkos a lot and here is what I try to accomplish when I only have limited fishing time. A wacky rigged senko can provide a lot of fishing information if you know what to watch for. What I mean is that when you have limited time like in your tournament, as many others have said, you should focus on pre-identifying a few areas that should hold fish. You mentioned several good quality areas and this will likely get easier the more times you fish each body of water. I find that working the outside of weed walls or areas where weeds, shallow water, and deeper water meet are great areas to use this technique. What I do is I cast out the wacky senko, letting it sink on a semi-slack line, but paying careful attention to approximately how long it is taking to get bites after it starts sinking. I also pay close attention to how fast or slow I am twitching it when I get a bite. With these two pieces of information, along with the general characteristics of the area I'm fishing, I can usually get a good idea of what other baits might be useful in that area. For example, if its getting bit very soon after hitting the water (top 3-4 feet), I usually have luck following up with a topwater bait or a weightless fluke type bait worked close to the surface when they stop hitting the senko. If it gets close to the bottom before a bite or it gets bit as I am twitching it along the bottom, I usually switch to a drop shot or a carolina rig, which are better rigs for controlling your bait along the bottom to thoroughly work the area. If I am retrieving it relatively quickly to recast and it gets bit (trust me it happens more than you think), I then switch to a spinnerbait. Because of the way it drops vertically (and relatively slowly) in the water, a weightless wacky senko can really help me determine where in the water column the bites are happening and what other presentation will take advantage of this depth. If you are comfortable with a senko (like I am) use it not only to catch fish but also to highlight what other presentations might also work. If you have unlimited pre-fishing time or need to cover vast amounts of water to determine where the fish are, this techniques is not the best one. If you are limited in your time and you have identified a couple of good spots (weedy cover, etc) where you can thoroughly work your bait, this strategy can be a good one for covering the water column top to bottom in a relatively short period of time.

One other thing: I regularly use a weedless hook on my wacky rig and cast it into holes or pockets in the weed cover. It takes some practice to get accuracy (in my case a lot of swearing and recasting...lol), and it will not foul as long as you work it slowly, but it can be fantastic. Its sort of a new twist on a great technique and I have caught some good sized bass where I didn't think there were any by doing this.