Fished Again This Weekend

[darbwa]

Did my typical weekend routine: stay up too late having cocktails with family and friends, get up too early to get some fishing in, float in the water with a beer in my hand and repeat. I pretty much fish only in the mornings because that is when my wife and kids can't keep me from going. Anyway...

Saturday morning I jumped around a bunch, I fished deep off of points and I fished shallow around structure. I caught several fish, all shallow in and around structure.

Sunday morning I did the same thing and I was shut out.

With the lake being low this time of year there isn't much shallow structure to be found and there is little to no shoreline vegetation so fishing deeper on points seems like the logical place to find the largemouth. But I have had very little success fishing points. I know that others have success on the points but I guess I am not fishing them in the right way. If anyone has any tips for fishing deeper points on Grand, I would love to hear them.

[Bird Watcher]

Man, I don't know where to start.

I think what you are missing is the deep structure. Deep on Grand is 15'-25' deep. There is structure there, but you have to find it.

The easiest way to find it is with a side scan graph. I know that is a little impractical, but it is a completely different ball game when it comes to finding submerged structure on Grand. If you don't have a side scan available, start concentrating on the boat docks that are on points. Find the ones with the brush hanging on the cables and start there. Watch your TM graph while you are fishing and you will find other brush not suspended on cables. The docks themselves are structure so be sure to fish their shadow even if there is limited brush during the day.

If I was only fishing mornings, I would key on the shallow end of the slips and behind the docks in 8-12', but would work out as the sun comes up. I love to fish plastics, jigs and shakey head finesse worms behing the docks early and then move deeper with swimming jigs and crankbaits as the sun comes up. I have never thrown a flutter spoon in the stalls like they do on TR, but I bet that would work great too. if there is brush suspended under the dock, try to just "tick" the jig or crankbait through the top of it. I love to swim a jig in these situations becuase I have fun pitching a jig, but either will catch fish. The LM are usually sitting beside or on top of the brushpile, under the shade of the dock, waiting for the easy threadfin to swim by and will nail the lure when it comes though the top. If you aren't getting bit on top the trees, start working deeper.

All points are not created equal though and I look for ones on the outside of the channel bend this time of year. If you can find a well brushed crappie dock on a point, outside channel bend, 10' under the walkway and 25' under the outside of the dock, I guarantee you there is a large mouth there.

I would also suggest getting up a little earlier and the fish will be shallower after feeding all night. You can catch fish in 5' of water at 4 am but that same stretch of bank will be a dead sea by day.

I don't know if any of this helps and I'm not an expert. I'm just a redneck who has spent too much time goofing off on Grand Lake over the last 32 years.

[ollie]

I fished up Elk river Sunday morning and saw plenty of bass chasing shad in the morning and Bird Watcher is right. I had bass chasing shad in 2-3 feet of water and they were nice size too. I was on the water by 6:00 and by 7-8 I didn't see that kind of action again. I left by 11:00 and I didn't catch any of size, but they are out there!

[darbwa]

Thanks Bird Watcher. This is good info that I can use. This stuff is why I am on this forum - I want to learn more about how to find fish on the waters that I frequent, grand being the first. I hope that we get more activity on the Grand portion of the forum going forward.

Thanks again BW. I will keep at it and let you know how it works out.

[Bird Watcher]

Good luck and please do Darbwa.