Please break my afternoon of fishing down

[Bassmaster2008]

I want to hear what you guys would change given the following circumstance:

I fished about 4 hours today on crescent lake in pierce county. for those who aren't aware, this lake is pretty small and bowl shaped with pretty much no special bottom features. I made a quick loop around the lake with the depth finder to verify the weedline depth of about 7-8 feet.

I started fishing at 1:00 with a high sun. There was a little chop on the lake, so I decided spinner baits would do okay in the shallows. I used a smaller chartreuse spinnerbait. I also had a flippin setup with black jig, but the muddy bottom makes me always feel ??? about if the jig is actually working like I'd like it to. I've found its easier to just get lighter baits to land on top of all the soot on the bottom of the lake instead of the jig plowing through a few inches of gunk. I also had a 1/8 oz texas rigged Kalin's grub that was baby bass colored. I tried to match the size/color of the spawning bass and it looked like a good match. I usually use a senko, but forced myself to use a spinnerbait today just to stay away from using 1 confidence bait all day. I had hoped to learn something new.

The main idea here was for me to have a diverse spinnerbait to search for fish. A jig for dense pockets, and a kalin's grub as followup lure and wherever I see fit.

Any comments on the lures/colors/rationale?

I take bass fishing like a jigsaw puzzle, where one tries to figure out the puzzle with clues given to them as the day goes by.

Here were my clues

I started the day looking for the best shade because it was high sun. I found a fair amount of activity with 1lbers swimmin the shallows here and there. I got about 5-6 strikes in 4 hours on my chartreuse spinnerbait, no hookups though! I also got some follows. I tried my best to make the spinnerbait interact with the cover to encourage strikes, which was pretty easy anyways. But I didn't get any fish on because I didn't see any big enough fish really. I spent a lot of my time skimming the shallows for bass as well as fishing. I got a hit or 2 on the Kalin's grub as well. Most of my spinnerbait strikes were reaction strikes, as soon as the bait hit the water, or else it wasn't getting bit.

Overall I just couldn't find the larger fish, I tried to fish the weedline, but I mainly just looked for lots of shade because I saw smaller bass nearby in the shade and the sun was high. If anybody else has been on this lake, it is currently my theory that there is no real weed line on this lake that is deep, it's pretty much lily pads, rarely hydrilla, and gunk on the bottom. I hit all the docks and got no action. I flipped the jig and kalin's grub to shaded spots of thick lily pads, and no action.

So say you are in a tournament, this is the first half of your 8 hour shift, what would you do next? Location switches? lure switches? Speed of fishing switches?

Whenever you guys respond, please provide reasoning as to WHY you are doing one thing or another

Thanks Guys!

[tagwatson360]

Without being on the water and getting a true feel for the lake, water clarity, vegetation, layout of the cover and conditions, it is tough to say exactly which adjustments I would suggest.

However, I do have a solution for making a good presentation in the muck bottom. I like to use a heavy dropshot setup with 20 lb fluorocarbon, a bulky creature bait or tube rigged on an EWG Superline hook, a 3/8 oz. to 3/4 oz. dropshot weight with a 10 to 14 inch tag end. This way the sinker will sink into the muck and the bait will be suspended just an inch or two over the bottom exactly the way a sunfish would be. Another nice feature of this rig is the heavy weight makes a nice cloud of debris when it penetrates the muck. Then when the fish comes over to investigate, there is your soft plastic lure right in its wheelhouse. This technique flat out works. Give it a shot.

[crankbait42]

I would tone down the color of the spinner bait to a black or blue. maybe with a more neutral color than chartreuse you would get more strikes and not only reaction strikes. or maybe change blades or weight of the spinnerbait.

[Bigbass Dez]

BM2008 ,

Its kinda tuff to breakdown your day down based on the info you provided . I have never fished this lake before , So i will just tell you how and what my plan of attack would have been .
First off after a few 360 degree scans of and im looking for two surface targets , Docks & Lilly Pads !! This time of year these shaded areas are your typical summertime ambush spots .
Great baits to explore Docks would be a 9" (zoom Mag 2 worm ) Worm texas rig with a 1/8 -1/4 Bullet weight (peg-it) . I would make my color selection based on clarity , for stained water i would opt for JUNEBUG and for semi clear water i would have opt for GREENPUMPKIN .. As for the Lilly's just a standard Spro frog proberly in Black rainforest would be a good start , and a 3/8 -1/2 spinnerbait (White/chart ) or Alternate with a Buzz bait..

Now that i have a plan of attack lets hit the lake HARD !! I would make it my point to cover lots of water in short time period (45min- 1hour) As this point im simply making lots of cast too shaded areas on the docks and putting that frog in or around lillys as im moving around the lake .
Im mostly looking for a "clue" , What are larger bass relating too ? are they tight to wood ? are they deep into the pads ? are they cruizing the edges of pads or weedlines ? Between the frog,worm & spinnerbait im positive that i could answer these questions and also rule out unproductive water .

So lets just say that nothing pans out of my plan of my initial of attack , it's now 3pm in the afternoon and i havent landed nothing over a pound !

I would now reassess the lake completly , Now im looking at the major lake points and drop offs ! I will tell you in advance that paying close attention too your graph will be key for success . Im looking for wood and rock on major points and im looking for steep or quick drops into deeper water .
In this senerio im rigged up with dropshot and a couple of deep diving cranks . Im cranking the points and dropshoting the drop-offs !! Tag offered you a great dropshot set up so as for the cranks go all you need to concern yourself with is relating the diving depth of the crank to the depth of water you fishing ..
For example if im in 12-15ft and casting up on point i would opt for a DT 10 & DT 15 crank , as for color which is not a important as many anglers think i would stay basic and explore firetiger or shad colors once again based on water clarity .

In summery BM2008 , These smaller lake dont offer a large population of 3-5lb LMB but at the same time your fishing a smaller body of water so you as the angler should take full advantage of the lake and fish the entire lake !
I would like to walk away from that lake knowing that i have covered everything 0-30ft and hit all of seasonal feeding areas spots through out . Hope this gives you a little insight on your next trip bud...

BBD

[Anonymous]

Crankbait? I would NEVER use a crankbait. Expecialy not in Firetiger. Oh ya, I caught a 2lb 10 oz Smallie on a Firetiger 10 foot diving crankbait off a deep dropoff point in the shade this morning. Spinning rod with spinning reel, 10 lb test Stren mono.

[Bigbass Dez]

Crankbait? I would NEVER use a crankbait. Expecialy not in Firetiger. Oh ya, I caught a 2lb 10 oz Smallie on a Firetiger 10 foot diving crankbait off a deep dropoff point in the shade this morning. Spinning rod with spinning reel, 10 lb test Stren mono.

Sounds like someone one here doesnt need any tips !! As they say back home , Dont talk the talk ! just walk the walk !! lol Btw cranks this time of year is proberly my # 1 choice ! but what do i know im just a wkend warrior like everyone else

[Anonymous]

Last Aug. 29th I caught a biggie from a 'trough' off a sloping bank next to a point in 15 foot of water going down to 30 foot or so. Deep crank -not a Firetiger- , 6.4 pound largie. A month or more ago I caught a 2 something Smallie in the exact same spot with the boat sitting in the exact same spot with the cast in the exact same direction.

There are a couple favorite 'troughs' on this lake that I do good, or great, in/on/from.

[tagwatson360]

Pinpointing and catching fish in the smaller bowl shaped lakes on the Westside of the State can be often times be more challenging than finding and catching fish in the larger lakes surprisingly. There are often no points, drop offs, rock piles, defined composition changes, obvious flats, humps, etc. There is definitely a unique challenge to it. Finding and catching fish on larger Westside lakes like Sammamish, Washington, Riffe, Stevens, Goodwin, Whatcom, etc. is often more reliable because there are defined structural features the fish will relate to and similar areas to duplicate a pattern.

Covering every square inch of the lake will do you no good if an important detail is overlooked.

[jbball50]

From my experience fishing that lake for bass, only twice, I haven't caught any large bass in there. Largest were 2-2.5lbs. I've fished it one time in the summer and another time during the end of Sept/Oct time. During summer I had caught fish on the north side of the lake where it's really weedy and shallow and off the deep end of the docks. During the other time we caught about 7 bass with 4 coming from the same area in between 2 docks that were the 2-2.5lbs size. Both times I was throwing cranks so you might want to try that. Like you said though, alot of gunk in the water and not really a weedline on that lake.

[Bassmaster2008]

BM2008 ,

Its kinda tuff to breakdown your day down based on the info you provided . I have never fished this lake before , So i will just tell you how and what my plan of attack would have been .
First off after a few 360 degree scans of and im looking for two surface targets , Docks & Lilly Pads !! This time of year these shaded areas are your typical summertime ambush spots .
Great baits to explore Docks would be a 9" (zoom Mag 2 worm ) Worm texas rig with a 1/8 -1/4 Bullet weight (peg-it) . I would make my color selection based on clarity , for stained water i would opt for JUNEBUG and for semi clear water i would have opt for GREENPUMPKIN .. As for the Lilly's just a standard Spro frog proberly in Black rainforest would be a good start , and a 3/8 -1/2 spinnerbait (White/chart ) or Alternate with a Buzz bait..

Now that i have a plan of attack lets hit the lake HARD !! I would make it my point to cover lots of water in short time period (45min- 1hour) As this point im simply making lots of cast too shaded areas on the docks and putting that frog in or around lillys as im moving around the lake .
Im mostly looking for a "clue" , What are larger bass relating too ? are they tight to wood ? are they deep into the pads ? are they cruizing the edges of pads or weedlines ? Between the frog,worm & spinnerbait im positive that i could answer these questions and also rule out unproductive water .

So lets just say that nothing pans out of my plan of my initial of attack , it's now 3pm in the afternoon and i havent landed nothing over a pound !

I would now reassess the lake completly , Now im looking at the major lake points and drop offs ! I will tell you in advance that paying close attention too your graph will be key for success . Im looking for wood and rock on major points and im looking for steep or quick drops into deeper water .
In this senerio im rigged up with dropshot and a couple of deep diving cranks . Im cranking the points and dropshoting the drop-offs !! Tag offered you a great dropshot set up so as for the cranks go all you need to concern yourself with is relating the diving depth of the crank to the depth of water you fishing ..
For example if im in 12-15ft and casting up on point i would opt for a DT 10 & DT 15 crank , as for color which is not a important as many anglers think i would stay basic and explore firetiger or shad colors once again based on water clarity .

In summery BM2008 , These smaller lake dont offer a large population of 3-5lb LMB but at the same time your fishing a smaller body of water so you as the angler should take full advantage of the lake and fish the entire lake !
I would like to walk away from that lake knowing that i have covered everything 0-30ft and hit all of seasonal feeding areas spots through out . Hope this gives you a little insight on your next trip bud...

BBD

So it is 3pm and you haven't gotten any real results. What are you thinking when you decide to reassess the lake? At this point have you considered the bass may still be where you initially thought, they just aren't liking what you are presenting?

[Bassmaster2008]

Pinpointing and catching fish in the smaller bowl shaped lakes on the Westside of the State can be often times be more challenging than finding and catching fish in the larger lakes surprisingly. There are often no points, drop offs, rock piles, defined composition changes, obvious flats, humps, etc. There is definitely a unique challenge to it. Finding and catching fish on larger Westside lakes like Sammamish, Washington, Riffe, Stevens, Goodwin, Whatcom, etc. is often more reliable because there are defined structural features the fish will relate to and similar areas to duplicate a pattern.

Covering every square inch of the lake will do you no good if an important detail is overlooked.

Agreed. Crescent is just like this. Another poster confirmed the lack of a real weedline. I just don't really know what to do after I hit the visible structure.

[tagwatson360]

Pinpointing and catching fish in the smaller bowl shaped lakes on the Westside of the State can be often times be more challenging than finding and catching fish in the larger lakes surprisingly. There are often no points, drop offs, rock piles, defined composition changes, obvious flats, humps, etc. There is definitely a unique challenge to it. Finding and catching fish on larger Westside lakes like Sammamish, Washington, Riffe, Stevens, Goodwin, Whatcom, etc. is often more reliable because there are defined structural features the fish will relate to and similar areas to duplicate a pattern.

Covering every square inch of the lake will do you no good if an important detail is overlooked.

Agreed. Crescent is just like this. Another poster confirmed the lack of a real weedline. I just don't really know what to do after I hit the visible structure.

That is where the real challenge and art comes to fishing these bowl lakes. When the fish are not relating to visible cover and there are no real structural features, where are they and how do you catch them? Sometimes it is a matter of finding isolated patches of vegetation offshore either visually or with contact baits, then working the applicable clumps properly. Sometimes it is a depth pattern and the fish are not relating to anything specific (suspended just above the vegetation, twice the depth of the twilight zone, three times the depth of the twilight zone, just under the twilight zone, etc. Is there a thermocline? Determining the location/depth of the sunfish can be a great starting point. The possibilities are all over the map. Too many to type. Give me a call sometime if you want to chat about the bowl lake phenomenon. PM sent.

[Bigbass Dez]

BM2008 ,

Its kinda tuff to breakdown your day down based on the info you provided . I have never fished this lake before , So i will just tell you how and what my plan of attack would have been .
First off after a few 360 degree scans of and im looking for two surface targets , Docks & Lilly Pads !! This time of year these shaded areas are your typical summertime ambush spots .
Great baits to explore Docks would be a 9" (zoom Mag 2 worm ) Worm texas rig with a 1/8 -1/4 Bullet weight (peg-it) . I would make my color selection based on clarity , for stained water i would opt for JUNEBUG and for semi clear water i would have opt for GREENPUMPKIN .. As for the Lilly's just a standard Spro frog proberly in Black rainforest would be a good start , and a 3/8 -1/2 spinnerbait (White/chart ) or Alternate with a Buzz bait..

Now that i have a plan of attack lets hit the lake HARD !! I would make it my point to cover lots of water in short time period (45min- 1hour) As this point im simply making lots of cast too shaded areas on the docks and putting that frog in or around lillys as im moving around the lake .
Im mostly looking for a "clue" , What are larger bass relating too ? are they tight to wood ? are they deep into the pads ? are they cruizing the edges of pads or weedlines ? Between the frog,worm & spinnerbait im positive that i could answer these questions and also rule out unproductive water .

So lets just say that nothing pans out of my plan of my initial of attack , it's now 3pm in the afternoon and i havent landed nothing over a pound !

I would now reassess the lake completly , Now im looking at the major lake points and drop offs ! I will tell you in advance that paying close attention too your graph will be key for success . Im looking for wood and rock on major points and im looking for steep or quick drops into deeper water .
In this senerio im rigged up with dropshot and a couple of deep diving cranks . Im cranking the points and dropshoting the drop-offs !! Tag offered you a great dropshot set up so as for the cranks go all you need to concern yourself with is relating the diving depth of the crank to the depth of water you fishing ..
For example if im in 12-15ft and casting up on point i would opt for a DT 10 & DT 15 crank , as for color which is not a important as many anglers think i would stay basic and explore firetiger or shad colors once again based on water clarity .

In summery BM2008 , These smaller lake dont offer a large population of 3-5lb LMB but at the same time your fishing a smaller body of water so you as the angler should take full advantage of the lake and fish the entire lake !
I would like to walk away from that lake knowing that i have covered everything 0-30ft and hit all of seasonal feeding areas spots through out . Hope this gives you a little insight on your next trip bud...

BBD

So it is 3pm and you haven't gotten any real results. What are you thinking when you decide to reassess the lake? At this point have you considered the bass may still be where you initially thought, they just aren't liking what you are presenting?

Well honestly my theory is that i want to first find out if there were any aggressive feeding fish and come 3pm without any success i would most likely re visit some of same spots with a finesse aprroach .
Like TW mentioned its kind hard too pin point what would be the best steps to make without being out on the lake ..
I can tell you only from my experience in fishing the smaller lakes that most of all my bigger fish have either come off docks or in the pads !!
I can think of atleast 5 lakes off top that i fished in one summer years ago that has giving me a 5lb'r or better and in all cases those fish came from under docks or out of the pad fields in late spring thru early fall..

[Jsmooth]

And mabee the bigger fish were ther but not commiting. TRAILER HOOKS 4 the win! I have landed more fish this year than any other and i can say 100% it's the adding of trailer hooks. I have lip hooked, side hooked and even 1 tail hooked by the trailer hook only. Not to mention the few that absolutly inhaled the bait & both hooks.

[8theB8]