First time fishing the lower end

[97procraft]

Spent the weekend fishing the lower end for bass for the first time.  I have had several trips to Taney where I brought bass gear but chickened out and always stayed above the landing.  This time I went down with the sole purpose to fish the lower end.  We stayed in a resort around the landing and started out Friday along the main lake and in a small creek south of the landing.  The moss has choked up most of the bank and creeks in this area, so it was tough for us to get anything started.  We ended up with a few small bass flipping soft plastics behind the moss at lay downs.  After that we headed down to Bull Creek.  Again, this area was pretty choked with moss.  We did find some more small bass on spinnerbaits and crankbaits around the docks.  Nothing to brag about.  As the day went on we made our way through Rockaway Beach and a little farther down stream.  We ended our first day a little defeated since we only had around 10 fish and most of them were small.

Saturday we decided to boat to the dam and start there and work our way up stream.  Again we found moss close to the bank, but down here there was a little more room behind the weeds and we had fun pulling little bass off of lay downs similar to the day before.  The good thing was there seemed to be more fish in this area.  My partner kept seeing fish follow his crankbait but wouldn't get any takers.  As we moved up stream we pulled into a small cove and I switched to a crankbait that was just a little different from his.  Immediately I started catching fish, one after the other.  The only thing was they were mostly trout.  We were shocked.  We were using baitcasters with 10-12 lb line and baits that resembled a LC 1.5.  We ended up staying in this one cove for a few hours and lost track of how many fish we caught.  We did end up catching a few bass mixed in with the trout.  Not sure if this is normal, but it was a crazy day for us.  

Sunday we didn't have but a few hours to fish so we decided to try another crazy idea and use bass lures above the landing for trout.   That didn't work out as well as it did at the bottom of the lake, but we still caught a few.  And since we were experimenting, I put on a ned rig just for fun.  I caught 5 trout on it above the bridges.  The trout would pick it up and shake it like a bluegil.  

All in all, it was a crazy weekend and I can't wait to do it again.  Next time I think I will schedule a trip earlier in the year in hopes of less moss.   

[snagged in outlet 3]

2 minutes ago, 97procraft said:

Next time I think I will schedule a trip earlier in the year in hopes of less moss.   

It's always there it seems

[Seth]

We have a really weedy lake near where I live and I ended up buying some 1oz tungsten to punch through it. Wonder if that would work on Taney?

[Johnsfolly]

7 hours ago, 97procraft said:

I put on a ned rig just for fun.  I caught 5 trout on it above the bridges.  The trout would pick it up and shake it like a bluegil.  

 

Congrats on finding and catching some fish!

I know some spots on the upper Current river where I'm sure that the brown trout would tear up a ned rig. Just can't fish that bait in those areas😟.

[Royal Blue]

16 hours ago, Seth said:

We have a really weedy lake near where I live and I ended up buying some 1oz tungsten to punch through it. Wonder if that would work on Taney?

Punching does work.  I also rip a chatterbait through the grass on Taney with very good success. There's a ton of grass on that lake this year, and if I were to hit it again before the grass dies off I'd probably throw a frog a whole lot along with punching gear and a chatterbait.