fishing 11/23

[merc1997 Bo]

fished down toward cambell point today.  put in around 11.  caught them from 35 to 42 ft deep.  tried some shallow fishing, but did not have one bite.  put all the shallow stuff up and went looking out deeper.

final tally was 15 keepers.  at least three were 3 lbers.  the rest were 15 1/2 to 16 inch keepers.  these fish are still favoring a flat.  caught a lot of them at 35 ft. suspended over 45 to 50 ft. of water.  you have to go looking everyday.  they are never in the same place twice and the activity levels changes daily.  on the right cloudy windy rainy day these same bass can be right up on the bank.  and, they sure enough are at night.

bo

[stinger160]

Without stepping on toes, could you talk a little more about how you fish that depth, especially when they are suspended close to but off the bottom.

 

Thanks in advance!

[m&m]

Bo, thanks for the report.  What was the water temp?  I'm going tomorrow and trying to get a feel for the current WT since last Friday.

Mike

[176champion]

Heading to shell knob as soon as my partner gets here...havent decided which way to go towards campbell point or Big M...may just let my son drive...lol

[merc1997 Bo]

10 hours ago, stinger160 said:

Without stepping on toes, could you talk a little more about how you fish that depth, especially when they are suspended close to but off the bottom.

 

Thanks in advance!

dealing with suspended bass takes practice for one thing, and exact boat positioning for another.  vertical applications is pretty self explanatory.  count or measure your line down to the depth you need to be at, and that is about it.  when you have to cast to the bass, that is an entirely different ball game, and it takes lots of practice.  you have to know the sink rate of what you are fishing with, and be able to maintain a depth while fishing back to the boat.  right now, you have to cast most of the time.  the bass just will not bite with you sitting on top of them.

here is a good practice to be able to swim a bait at a specific depth.  take two buoys and get on a flat.  drop one at a depth of 30 ft.  move off 100 ft. and drop the other one at 30ft.  sit by one and cast to the other.  count your lure down to bottom.  now, you know the time to get to 30 ft.  now fish your lure back to boat and count the length of time to touch bottom each time.  you have to repeat this same process while off the bottom.  this is how to maintain a suspended depth.

so, if you are dedicated enough, you can teach yourself this method of fishing.  the one fishing the lure is the only one that can control and maintain a proper suspended depth.  a sinking lure will not do that for you.  takes lots of practice.  the grub swimmers can chime in on this one.

bo

[merc1997 Bo]

10 hours ago, m&m said:

Bo, thanks for the report.  What was the water temp?  I'm going tomorrow and trying to get a feel for the current WT since last Friday.

Mike

60 degrees.

bo

[m&m]

Thanks Bo. 

Mike

[stinger160]

Thanks Bo!!  I've done a little grub fishing on TR, need to practice with the other baits.

[Flippin]

16 hours ago, merc1997 said:

dealing with suspended bass takes practice for one thing, and exact boat positioning for another.  vertical applications is pretty self explanatory.  count or measure your line down to the depth you need to be at, and that is about it.  when you have to cast to the bass, that is an entirely different ball game, and it takes lots of practice.  you have to know the sink rate of what you are fishing with, and be able to maintain a depth while fishing back to the boat.  right now, you have to cast most of the time.  the bass just will not bite with you sitting on top of them.

here is a good practice to be able to swim a bait at a specific depth.  take two buoys and get on a flat.  drop one at a depth of 30 ft.  move off 100 ft. and drop the other one at 30ft.  sit by one and cast to the other.  count your lure down to bottom.  now, you know the time to get to 30 ft.  now fish your lure back to boat and count the length of time to touch bottom each time.  you have to repeat this same process while off the bottom.  this is how to maintain a suspended depth.

so, if you are dedicated enough, you can teach yourself this method of fishing.  the one fishing the lure is the only one that can control and maintain a proper suspended depth.  a sinking lure will not do that for you.  takes lots of practice.  the grub swimmers can chime in on this one.

bo

Bo 

I must be missing something here. What is the advantage in this method vs. dropping the the lure straight down and counting how long it take to hit bottom?  I don't understand reason for the 2 buoys.

[merc1997 Bo]

it is the working it back to the boat.  you develop the rhythm of when it is time to lift the lure again to maintain an exact depth all the way back to the boat.  you need to be lifting the same time the lure hits the bottom each time.  you can maintain the same rhythm and spacing all the way to the boat, but off the bottom, then you can begin to be able to swim you lure back all the way to the boat, and maintain the same depth.  the reason of practicing this is because as your lure get closer to the boat you line angle steepens and there is an adjustment to the amount of time your lure takes to get back to depth.

the other factor you work on while doing this is keeping the boat sitting right by the buoy that you are casting from.  remember me talking about exact boat positioning?  work on this on a windy day.  you will get more efficient with keeping the boat in place with the trolling motor and fishing at the same time without thinking about it.  i have been in the boat with many bassers that would improve their catching ability if they could fish and run the trolling motor all at the same time.  most are either fishing or running the trolling motor and if you are not doing both at the same time, the boat is hardly ever exactly where it needs to be to properly fish your lure to catch the bass you are trying to catch.  even chunking and winding boat position makes a difference.

i forgot to mention that the length of time a lure reaches depth when it is cast out is slightly longer that when dropped straight down from the boat because of line drag, which can change drastically because of wind.

bo