Fall bass tips on SML

[bigben]

Hi There,

I'm new to the boards and to the SML area.

I got married last year and my new in-laws have a lake house in Moneta that I'm currently on my first visit to.  I've been here since Sunday and have gone fishing several times without a whole lot of luck.  I've caught a few real small large mouths as well as one maybe 1lb white bass.  My father in law has an old Stratos fishing boat works well for being nearly 30 years old.

I'm a fly fisherman from Colorado, so my experience with bass is fairly limited.  A lot of the reading I've been doing suggests that this time of year bass will be in and around the creek beds as bait fish move to those areas to find algae and plankton.  I've also read that bass can be in the rocks eating crawfish.  I've tried fishing several rocky sections around the state park without so much as a bite.  I've had the fish finder going the whole time and never really saw any fish.  For that I've been using Texas rigged tubes, spinner baits, and crawfish crank baits.

I've also fished in a couple fingers near the airport that have creeks, and that seems to have been my best luck, as that's where I've caught all the above fish on either a shad crank bait, or spinner bait.

This morning I saw quite a few bait fish schools swimming, as well as what looked like feeding bass, but I couldn't get anything to bite.  There also seemed to be quite a bit of activity on the fish finder.  Are there other lures I should be using? Or other areas I should fish all together to find more fish?

Sorry for the noob questions, but I really am out of my element here.  Hopefully over time I'll start to learn this lake the more times I come back to visit.  We don't leave the area until Sunday, so I have several more days to try and use some new techniques.

Thanks for any insight.

-Ben

[bob347]

Bigben,

I'm at the Southern end of the lake & I've had good luck fishing laydowns near main lake & secondary points that run close to creek channels. Best lure has been a Yamamoto double tail hula grub either with a bullet weight and Tx rigged or on a weedless jighead. Shad rap crank baits have also worked pretty well for docks & laydowns. Like you, the last 2 days I've spent 2 hours in the middle of huge bait skchools and busting bass but can't get a bite in that scenario. I've thrown everything from A-Rigs, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, flukes, bucktails, poppers, spooks, I can't get'em to hit on anything... hopefully someone has an idea...

[bigben]

Thanks for the tips Bob. I might try some lay downs tomorrow and see if I have any luck.

In regards to fishing docks, are there any unwritten rules about fishing under boat docks from a boat? For some reason I feel weird about fishing other people's docks.

[2 oars & a trash can]

Everyone throws their lures under any dock they care to. Pulling your boat into a slip and, more extremely, tying up and getting out of your boat, that is a different story. It helps if you don't hook too many lawn chairs and drag them into the lake too. But water is water. AEP owns it all (just ask them).

[greg]

Right now the fishing is kind of tough....need the water to cool down some....try some early morning topwater (spooks, buzzbaits, or poppers) along riprap banks, throw parallel to the bank, vary the speed and the distance off of the bank....fishing should pick up in the coming weeks....have fun, fishing and not catching is still better than working

[bob347]

For me, as far as docks go, I'll fish any of em that don't have people on them and I'll only skip unweighted soft plastics under boats. I'll run a crank bait down the edges & pitch a jig to the outside posts but I don't feel right about trying to get a 1/2 oz of metal up under someone's boat.

I have had a couple of people tell me it's OK to fish their docks when they see I'm going to skip by it. Most of the people on the lake are good folks...

-Bob

[ray]

That is pretty considerate of you Bob. But once ya learn ta skip a jig fairly good them boats aint a problem, For me I have learned if ya don't wanna hit it, Then don't look at it while casting, Cant tell ya how many lipless crankbaits I now have that fell victum to post,rocks props and tha like. Bigben, Try a shakey head rig on them docks, a ripplin red fin will still catch them schoolin bass as will a jr. spook in chrome or clear.

[bob347]

Interesting tip ray, reminds me of when I raced motocross in my much younger days, never look at where you're at, always look ahead to where you're gonna be...

[bigben]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I actually had to head back to Colorado last Sunday, so for now its back to fly fishing for trout.

I'm planning on heading back to the lake in late May next year, hopefully I can get in a little practice bass fishing around here between now and then.

I was able to land maybe a half a dozen bass while I was there, so it wasn't completely fruitless, and I would have caught even more had I been able to keep them hooked once they took a bait. Apparently I'm not setting the hook hard enough because I probably lost a dozen fish that I had on the line. I tried fishing the docks near our dock a couple of times without much luck. Pretty much all the fish I got to bite were either in lay downs along the bank in the State Park, or in the drainage of what looks like Walton Creek on the map, just north of the airport.

How's the bass fishing in late May/early June?

[bass63]

for next year at that time it will have to be night time with a thunder stick

[bob347]

May is good during the day too... I caught the citation bass I'm holding in my icon on May 22, 2011, blue bird day at 3:00 on a laydown in less than 2' of water.

I felt the bite and thought for sure I snagged a branch when I set the hook. I let out some slack and nothing happened so I was SURE I snagged a branch. I trolled over to see if I could unsnag the lure and I'll be damn if that branch didn't take off!!!

When she broke the water & I saw her, I kept saying; "Man that's a fat bass, please don't get off" as she peeled off line. My 3 yr old grandson was with me and when we got to the dock, my wife and daughter were there so my grandson started yelling out, "Mommy, pops has got a fat bass" You know what my daughter thought her was son saying and you could see in her face that she didn't know whether to laugh or beat me with my own fishen rod

[jmr04]

Now that the water temp. has dropped to around 65, are crank baits starting to produce. If so, where? Points, docks???

[mytoyzfishing]

i was catching them on shakey head today.

[jmr04]

I was too. But it was a lot of work with the wind. All on docks. Landed 4 in about 6 hours. Had lots of pick ups but it was hard to get a real bite. Broke a few off on the hook set because I was having to use such lite line.