Stoney Creek Outfitters
Your Complete Hunting and Fishing Headquarters!
Stoney Creek Outfitters Hwy 11, Grifton, N.C.
Your Complete Hunting & Fishing Headquarters
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Bass Fishing Tips
Work wood structure In older reservoirs, most standing timber has rotted, leaving stumps and pole timber. Manmade brushpiles and remaining wood hold bass when they're located on appropriate structure. If you encounter this scenario, choose a diving bait that will tick the top of the wood but not snag excessively. Bass strike upwards at lures passing overhead. In other words, the lure will deflect off the cover, making the change in cadence draw a strike. Also when the area you are fishing like this has a lot of fishing pressure use a spinnerbait or smaller baits instead than the crank bait or worm! This will help you in the long run! ---------------------------------------- Preventing snags
Fishing crankbaits in dense timber has become a rage in bass fishing. To prevent snags, the angler must immediately detect the change in line movement, plus an altered vibration, and give slack to let the lure rise over the limb. Oftentimes this action will also trigger a strike.
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Plant brushpiles for spots
With standing timber rotten or fallen on most older reservoirs, anglers make their own hot spots by sinking brushpiles in likely spotted bass bottom habitat. However, avoid planting brushpiles on points, as they are the easiest and most popular locations for this manmade structure. Instead, anchor them to strategic areas that are not obvious to other fishermen. Some examples: the bend of a creek channel; the ledge of a large flat; the outer portion of a large spawning bay; or off to the side of a secondary point.
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Largemouths Prefer Weedbed Cover
Preferred cover for largemouth bass are weedbeds. Always investigate hydrilla, milfoil, lilypads, eelgrass, coontail and other aquatic plants where present. Active largemouths will cruise the outer edges of the beds, while inactive fish will bury in the vegetation.
Weedbeds tend to be very important in clear lakes. Largemouths especially like overhead cover in the form of matted surface vegetation.
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Wood Cover for Largemouths
Next to aquatic vegetation, the most important cover for largemouths is wood. Inactive fish will hold tight to this structure, especially following a frontal passage. Conversely, active fish will roam farther from it.
Wood cover is highly important in murky reservoirs; some biologists feel largemouths use it as a reference point when their visibility is limited.
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Largemouth Migration Patterns
Like most creatures, largemouths have a seasonal migration pattern. Following is the basic outline of their movement.
Spring: Largemouths begin moving shallow when water temperatures consistently reach the mid-50s. They spawn in protected bays and tributaries in shallow water around 68 to 72 degrees as a general rule.
Summer: Largemouths gravitate to large main lake flats with weed or wood cover. When the water warms, they move to channel drop-offs and long points and hold around stumps or brushpiles.
Fall: Points in the main lake and humps will hold active fish. In the tributaries, check out boat docks and other shallow cover.
Winter: Typically, the slowest season for largemouths. Fish any remaining living weedbeds and target submerged wood.
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Rock Magnets
Smallmouths gravitate to rock, especially where one size or type changes to another. In clear lakes, these serve as magnets for smallmouths. Examples: fist-size rock changing to head-size rock; head-size rock changing to gravel. Often, nearly every smallmouth on a long expanse of bank will gravitate to a rock transition.
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Smallie drop offs
Smallmouths gravitate to rock ledges, or places with a series of depth changes or 'stair steps' to deep water. These short ledges are often located along 45-degree rock banks or rock bluffs. Smallmouths will sit on these ledges at their comfort zone (often 15-25 feet), or suspend over them.
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Look for large structures
Smallmouths relate to larger structures such as main-lake points, humps and submerged rockpiles. They tend to avoid the upper sections of larger tributaries, favoring the depth and abrupt contour variations of the lower lake.
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Try these proven artificials for smallmouths:
Hair jig and pork trailer, leadhead grub, soft plastic crawfish, small diving crankbait topwater, soft jerkbait, metal bladebait, metal tailspinner, and jigging spoon. Choose colors that emulate the natural prey of smallmouth, such as crawfish and shad hues.