Tidal System spring and fall transition

[Bassmagician]

I fish on a tidal system, but Ihave a little trouble nailing down bass location between the post spawn and summer. That is when water temps. are between the high 70s to mid 80s. Also when the fish are between summer and fall paterns, when the water temps. are mid 80s to the upper 70s. Does anyone have an answer?

[gonefishin3]

deep deep rocks jigs is what i go to

[Bassmagician]

Thanks, Where I fish there is a lack of rocks. Most of the lower end of our delta is shallow. The rivers on average 20 to 30 feet at the deepest and the creeks being on average 5 to 20 feet. The river has some banks that are 10 to 20 feet and the creeks having very few areas with deep banks at all. Most of the banks are shallow and littered with either lilly pads, ribbon or eel grass, millfoil or wood cover. The bottom for the most part is silt and mud and void of any distinguished channels or deep stucture. Very little sand and rock, you have to travel 50 to 60 miles north to get into any sandy bottom and even then the structure is either man made or wood cover.

[Amarillo Palmira]

Bass Magician, Post spawn, they are really scattered and junk fishing is the key. Mostly, if you stick to a finesse worm and fish it hard in all the likely spots, you will eventually get on fish. Also, hit likely locations with a spinnerbait or a DT4. Also, many parts of the Delta are great for flipping. I prefer a rage craw, but worms or tubes also work. I usually fish over in Florida but have fished the Mobile Delta a few times. You have much more water than we do, but the cover/grass/tides/depth, etc. are identical. Hope this helps, Amarillo.

[Bassmagician]

Thanks Amarillo, I have never used a rage craw nor a DT4. I'll have to check them out.

Well, I looked at the rage claw online. How do you fish it?

[Amarillo Palmira]

I rig the rage craw on a luck e strike perfect worm rig, 1/4 oz. and pitch or flip it into likely areas. Some real good flipping water over there on the Delta. You can always just rig it like a normal flipping rig with a pegged weight, lead or tungsten, your choice. Most times, they will just pick it up so you've got to watch your line. Best bait for the Delta is a June Bug Zoom Finesse worm on 10 lb. test with about 1/8 oz weight or whatever you need to get it down. hope this helps, amarillo

[Bassmagician]

Thanks Amarillo Palmira, I have a tournament tomorrow. I may get a chance to try them out. I hope they are where I found them on the last falling tide. :-/

I have two words for ya. Spinner Bait. I fish a lot of tidal rivers and what the fish will start doing is actually coming up instead of going down. The bait fish will be on top so I use a spinner bait. I win a lot of tournaments this time of year throwing a spinner bait. You can also throw a rat-l-trap and a fluke. If you ever need to talk about Tidal fishing call me. My phone number is on my website.

[3dkicker]

B-Man that sounds just like Capt Mike's and my playground!!! Sweeeeeet!!

Depending on the type of cover that you spoke of I'd be working flats that have access to deep water and large weed beds. Creek mouths, inside and out, usually hold larger numbers of bass during this time of year. Next you have to find them which takes some work since they relate to bait fish on these flats. Find the bait and you'll find the fish. Use frogs/toads for topwater at low tide. You can also punch the grass mats with heavy weights and craws. Use flukes or shallow running crank, spinnerbait, or chatterbait at higher tide.
I also find that some good fish will also move back into the creeks and sit on grass edges, in pads, or on wood. Low tide they bury up in the grass or move to the center of the creek so higher tides are better. For me they seem to disappear during late August so I move out to the mouths and work deeper grass edges and points towards low tide. Topwater is always fun but I do well on plastics like senko's and floating worms, large plastic worms and craw imitations.
I hope this helps.

[Bassmagician]

Thanks a bunch guys. Most of the bass fishermen arround here are kinda tight with good info & loose with mumbo jumbo. I have a few friends that are good fishermen but will only throw hints & not info you can use.

[3dkicker]

Got out on the Lake on Sat and the River on Sun. Both were difficult compared to two weeks to a month ago. Water temperature was down 10 to 15 degrees in both locations. I found 67 degree water on the lake and 70 on the main river. Both were challenging but fish could still be caught. On the river I caught a couple nice fish on topwater early and things shut down. Caught two more little ones on a trap on a grass edge and that was it for the day. On the lake if you didn't catch your fish early then you didn't weigh in fish. Some caught little fish during the day but very few keepers were caught after the morning bite. Seems that both locations the fish have changed up and are feeding early. Hopefully the temps level off for a little while and the keeper fish get back into a different (longer) feeding cycle.

[Bassmagician]

I also fished Sat. in a tounament & all the fish we caught were holding so tight to cover
you had to flip logs over to get to them. We had a small rise in the river. Came in the top 20 with 4 fish. Still have not found any numbers. The water temp. here was about 83 to 85. That is very cool for us this time of year.

[3dkicker]

What is the difference in water levels between high and low tide? 1 foot or less? Your fish may not be as influenced by the tidal movement if there is little change in water height as we have here in VA, 1.5 to 2.5' change. The more you move north the bigger the change. If you fish the Hudson in NY you get 3' or more.

Sounds like you did ok.

[Captmikestarrett]

70's to 80's I find the fish moving back in the creeks. The bucks are setting up guard posts at prime feeding stations awaiting tide movement. The bigger males are still at the mouths and they move back at 80 degrees. The big females go back to the beds and hunt down there offspring. A good trick is to locate beds and use a small rattle trap in a bass color and cover the beds and any "highway into bed area"..

The big females will gone by 76 degrees and holding deep and very hard to catch.. About 82 they head back in the weeds or creeks with all the rest..

Capt Mike

[Bassmagician]

3dkicker, Our tide has different fluctuations depending on the stage of the moon. It can be 2.1' or so at the quarter moon but as little as .2' on a full moon or new moon or neap tides.

[3dkicker]

That is a big difference. Full moon usually means flood tides for us. Mix in some south winds and a hurricane and you can get way back into areas that most people wouldn't think of.

Once the fish move into the creeks in the spring time I usually start targeting shallow wood cover at high incoming tide. I find that the wood on flats near the mouth will hold some good fish but for a short period only. If they are not there then I work pads. The pads can hold numbers and size. Either the bigger males or spawning females should be around like Capt. Mike said.

[Bassmagician]

3dkicker, Where do you find fish in the summer-fall transition?

[3dkicker]

Grass edges. Flukes and Craws for plastics. Spinnerbait, chatterbait, and shallow running crankbaits. Topwaters too.

[Bassmagician]

Sounds like I have been on the right track with what I have been doing. I allways wondered if I was missing the big picture or fishing the wrong way. They are just scattered and hard to pin down in the transition periods. Here recently I have been catching fish but I can't lock down any particular method or location where they are stacked up. Fall will soon be here and all that will change. Yea!!!!!!!

[3dkicker]

It's always nice to find quantities of good bass stacked up on a piece or type of cover on a flat or point!! Keep on working the areas and you'll find them.