Leesville Lake Saturday 5-28 Trip Report

[chrisw]

Yes, this report is late, but it's important. 

Water temperature: 69F at 7am, climbing to 70-72 by early afternoon
Water level: about 2 feet below the high water marks on the banks. There was a visible current in the main channel
Water clarity: about 2 feet of visibility in normal (green) color, which surprised me given the heavy rain we had gotten Friday.
Weather: It was clear and mild. Post cold front conditions following the storms that passed the day before. The high was right around 80F and the winds were light.

I had a chance to get out on Memorial Day weekend, and I chose to go to Leesville to avoid the crowds at SML. I had a friend with me along with 4 of my boys, which made for a full boat. My plan was to catch some sunfish along the bank to let the boys have some fun, and then use them as bait for whatever larger fish might be biting, especially, but not exclusively striped bass.

The plan started out well with the sunfish being relatively easy to catch on worms and good sized. They were mostly green sunfish, with some bluegill and redbreast mixed in. After catching a dozen or so, we went looking for striped bass on sonar. There wasn't much to see on the main lake or in the first cove we went into. However, the second (and all subsequent) coves had a consistent amount of fish visible, mostly in the main creek channels. Most were near the bottom, with maybe about 1/3 higher in the water column, all the way up to 10 feet below the surface.

First, we tried trolling. We had out 5 lines (2 on planers, 3 trailing straight back) with live sunfish on freelines. Trolling speed was controlled by bumping the outboard in and out of gear and kept between 0.5mph and 1.2mph. After about an hour with no bites, we switched to drifting the creek channel with 4 live sunfish on downlines just above the bottom. We also had several artificials that we were jigging: spoons and bucktails. After 30 or more minutes of that with no bites, we moved to another cove where we found a large congregation of fish (unknown species, but likely striper or white perch) near the mouth of the cove about 40 feet down. We anchored up and cast live sunfish with weights to get them down, and again had no interest.

Finally, we went back to catching sunfish since the kids enjoyed that so much and it was productive. We didn't keep any this time, except for two black crappies about 9" or 10" long that came home for dinner. We all had a good time, but I still feel like I don't have a clue about how to catch striped bass.

Trolling = 0
Drifting = 0
Sitting = 0

I could see them on sonar, but they didn't seem to pay me any mind. Exception: there was one or two times that there seemed to be a follow on sonar behind a drifting bait. No bite though.

[chrisw]

Obligatory pictures included below.

First: I didn't see a lot of this, but it sure looks like classic striped bass behavior on sonar.

Second: Two separate schools of bait are shifting rapidly, probably to escape a predator. So at least some fish are feeding, even if most of them have the post cold front blues.

Third: My 5 year-old is explaining the finer points of fishing to my friend.

[chrisw]

[johnr]

Well you were certainly marking fish, however I don’t believe the marks you saw were those of stripers. I say this, because the fish you marked are relatively stationary when compared to the position of the boat. Stripers are always moving, so their marks tend to be more pronounced arches or vertically oriented squiggly lines as they “circle” in and out of the sonar cone.

If I had to guess what you were marking, I would say suspended catfish, carp, or bass.

[31Airborne]

Leesville is a neat little lake. You chose wisely - reports from SML this past weekend indicate it was beyond its normal zoo state. Keep those youngsters on the water. memories in the making right there.

[herringbone]

Fish marks resemble either white perch or spotted bass in my opinion. Not sure if spotted bass have made their way into there yet, but I focus on summer time spotted bass at my local lake at offshore structure/areas, and that’s what it looks like. If you come across this again, try dropping a drop shot minnow type bait in their face at the specific depth they are at. Sometimes you can drop it past them and they’ll chase it down, and you will see this movement on the screen as well.

[chrisw]

Jun 1, 2022 16:53:08 GMT -5 herringbone said:

Fish marks resemble either white perch or spotted bass in my opinion. Not sure if spotted bass have made their way into there yet, but I focus on summer time spotted bass at my local lake at offshore structure/areas, and that’s what it looks like. If you come across this again, try dropping a drop shot minnow type bait in their face at the specific depth they are at. Sometimes you can drop it past them and they’ll chase it down, and you will see this movement on the screen as well.

Clearly I need to recalibrate what I’m looking for on sonar. I saw this after the fact and thought it looked like stripers or white perch, which behave similarly but are different sizes. I did not see it in real time because the stern was crowded, the bimini was obstructing the helm area, and I was jigging a spoon off the bow, not able to see the screen. We were drifting at this time. If I had seen it, I probably would have circled back and tried to drift through again, maybe raising the baits and lures to match the depth of the fish. Most of the fish on sonar were relating to the bottom and not moving as much as these fish. We were drifting just under 0.5 mph. In any case, it’s surprising that a white perch or spotted bass or even a catfish wouldn’t have at least chased the spoon. Carp wouldn’t I guess.

So if this is not what I’m looking for, then what am I looking for? Any tips for future trips on Leesville or SML would be appreciated.

[herringbone]

Caught on a jigging spoon! In the mouth. Different lake, but point made.

[herringbone]

Number one thing I’d add to the boat is a trolling motor, it’s more quiet when maneuvering around active fish seen on the electronics, get a remote controlled motor if budget allows. You can sit in the back of the boat and control it while watching the electronics from the back of the boat. You’re thinking right as far as what stripers will look like, but like johnr mentioned, it’ll be more of an upside down “V” rather than long lingering marks. You’ll get those type of marks when fish are interested in what you’ve got under the boat bait wise, the longer marks indicate they’re hanging under you longer and checking out what you have.
Def recommend a trolling motor though.

[herringbone]

What sonar are you using? Lowrance something it appears.

[johnr]

My go-to jigging bait is not a spoon. At one time, I always had one tied on. Livescope has showed me that the spoons spook many more fish than other jigging lures. If you’re gonna use artificial in summer, keep it simple with a transparent-ish fluke on a 1oz jighead. If you want to jazz it up, dip about 1/3 of the fluke in chartreuse dye. And don’t jig it, dead stick it.

Remember the basics:

Find baitfish concentrations and there will almost always be gamefish nearby.

Learn to read and use structure. Stripers, even though they’re a “mostly” pelagic fish, still use structures for feeding and moving.

Knowing the biological drivers of the species you are targeting is a big help.

“Match the hatch”. Yes, even for eating machines such as stripers.

Timing is everything.

Don’t fish at Leesville. 🤣🤣



Sometimes it’s just tough. I still have as many head-scratcher days as good days. Something else that I’ve learned with livescope is that a very small percentage of fish that you present your bait to will actually react to it. And of those fish that do react, you will catch only a small percentage of them.

[chrisw]

Jun 2, 2022 18:59:52 GMT -5 herringbone said:

What sonar are you using? Lowrance something it appears.

It’s the absolute least expensive sonar with sidescan ever produced - the Lowrance Hook2 5” with tripleshot transducer. Bought on clearance right before the Hook Reveal came out. The traditional sonar is good, the downscan is OK, the sidescan is almost worthless. The screen is the size of a smart phone screen, but if I lean in, I can see enough usually. I know there are better sonars, but my choice was this one, or none, so it’s what I have.

[chrisw]

I’d love to have a trolling motor on the boat. Actually, someone gave me a clamp on trolling motor that would probably move the boat, but I would have to make a bracket, buy a separate battery, and drive it manually from the front.

A remotely operated trolling motor is probably in my future, but it’s going to be a big expense, rivaling the initial cost of my boat. First it’s the trolling motor, then I have to get a bracket that either modifies my bow rail or fits around it, then I have to run wires through the sealed and foam filled hull, then I have to get an extra battery and modify my electrical system to isolate my starting battery. And if I’m going to do all that, then I should add some interior lighting and other electronics like maybe speakers and a better sonar. And if I tear into the hull to run wiring, then I may as well paint the thing and do a complete refinish of the appearance. It gets to be a daunting task pretty quickly. Maybe I just need a new boat!

[chrisw]

Jun 2, 2022 21:54:53 GMT -5 johnr said:

My go-to jigging bait is not a spoon. At one time, I always had one tied on. Livescope has showed me that the spoons spook many more fish than other jigging lures. If you’re gonna use artificial in summer, keep it simple with a transparent-ish fluke on a 1oz jighead. If you want to jazz it up, dip about 1/3 of the fluke in chartreuse dye. And don’t jig it, dead stick it.

Remember the basics:

Find baitfish concentrations and there will almost always be gamefish nearby.

Learn to read and use structure. Stripers, even though they’re a “mostly” pelagic fish, still use structures for feeding and moving.

Knowing the biological drivers of the species you are targeting is a big help.

“Match the hatch”. Yes, even for eating machines such as stripers.

Timing is everything.

Don’t fish at Leesville. 🤣🤣



Sometimes it’s just tough. I still have as many head-scratcher days as good days. Something else that I’ve learned with livescope is that a very small percentage of fish that you present your bait to will actually react to it. And of those fish that do react, you will catch only a small percentage of them.

Yes, I know the right answer is that I need more time on the water. I wish I could, but I’ve got a busy family and boating time comes after all that, so I make do with what I have for now. I do have some fluke jigs and I will try them.

I still don’t think I know what everyone means by structure fishing for stripers. I think what I hear is “fish points”, but based on sonar marks of fish, I almost never actually see fish on points. I see them just off points in deeper water, either on the dropoff or over the creek channel bed. (And who knows if most of them are even striped bass.) Many times I see groups of fish in a creek channel not near any point. I rarely see fish in shallow water on sonar, but that may be because of the geometry of the sonar beam and the tendency to spook fish in shallow water. For example, I almost never see sunfish on sonar, but they’re easy to catch along almost any bank. And baitfish are usually scattered in many areas, but rarely do I see big schools or areas with a high density of medium and small schools. So where are the concentrations? I’ve still got a lot to learn.

[johnr]

Structure is defined as any change in the bottom contour. More abrupt changes tend to be better at concentrating fish and reloading. Structure fishing for stripers looks different than that of largemouths, or walleyes, or crappies. Stripers like to use large structures to herd baitfish up against and for transitional movements between feeding areas and resting areas. By finding the high percentage areas, you can put the odds in your favor more often. High percentage areas contain food, structure, and cover in a relatively small area. For instance:

Not long ago I found some bait schooled around 25-40’ deep on the end of a large, broad main lake point that jutted out into an old river bend. The baits weren’t tied to anything that I noticed. Out in slightly deeper water on this point was a stand of old timber. By accident, I found a steep drop off on this relatively flat point, the drop was a change from about 25-35’, fairly steep and isolated, like a chunk of the point was missing. I knew stripers were out in those trees, but they wouldn’t eat my jigs. Trying to stay in the bait schools was hard, as they were moving. So I settled in near the bottom of that drop off, and every few minutes I’d see a small school of stripers come into my sonar, chasing bait up against that drop. And I’d catch a fish or two every time they came up. This was a very high percentage area and it always will be.

A big mistake that people make when “looking” for fish is that they follow the shoreline contour. You should be moving perpendicular to the shoreline in order to find the prominent structures, and thus find likely fish holding areas.

Let’s touch on timing. We all know that the best times are dawn and dusk, typically. Much of that is because the fish are feeding where we are, not because we are where the fish are feeding. The fish won’t be in creeks feeding on 20’ deep structure at noon on a July Saturday, so no matter how hard we fish that spot that is killer at dawn, we won’t catch any if the time is not right. Likewise, if you find a school of fish hiding in a stand of timber on the edge of a deep channel in the mid day, you probably won’t find them there at dawn.

Time on the water is certainly key. But as you said, life is busy and seems like the simulation controllers have reduced the amount of hours in each day. By studying maps and fish habits and habitats, you can greatly reduce the time spent searching and fishing unproductive waters when you do actually get to fish. This is complicated by the migratory nature of stripers, and the overall size of the lake. However, it is still a help to understand the dynamics of your “local” fishing area, wherever you may find it on a given day.

There will always be much to learn, that’s the beautiful thing about fishing. Every day is an opportunity to learn something new about them.