[Big Bass Rich]

Mid-Summer patterns in effect, much of the bay has algae/dead weed growth. Obviously I will be looking for healthy green weeds.

Any tips on what baits might win it? Or where to look? I was thinking of starting in the shallows with topwater baits then as it gets hotter (gonna be over 100 degrees) switch up to either slop fishing or go deep with the jerkbaits and senkos.

Oh yeah to give you an idea -

Long Point Bay is shallow and weed choked. A massive bowl-shaped bay that goes to about 16 feet in the middle. Weeds are thicker than holy hell right now. There are certain areas with fishable docks but most docks/marinas are closed to fishing and/or filled with wayyy too much boat traffic on opener.

Tips tips I need tips! ;D

Thanks

 

[Jared]

Whats the water temps Rich? Any idea? Are the fish past the post spawn and in their summer pattern yet? If so I would target the outer deep weed edges. I like your choice of lures for it too... senkos and jerkbaits... but I'd also add jigs to the arsenal... maybe even tubes... actually any vertically presented bait you feel confident fishing deep along that weed edge...

mind you, I have never actually been where you will be... but I love deep weed edges once the water starts to get hot and the fish are in their summer pattern. It allows the fish to move vertical... up to eat... down to chill out... perfect amoung of movement for big lazy summer bass :cheers:

Im sure others will have more ideas to add.. but there ya go... my 2 cents worth

 

[Guest]

Wow.  Hitting the century mark up there.  Sheesh, and I thought that we lived in Hell's kitchen..........errr, wait, that's over the pond.  Good ole Andy.  Wish he could come over here as well.

Anywho, you need tips.  Here are a few tips.  Catch fish.  Catch fish in the mouth.  Catch fish in the mouth, with a hook.  Catch fish in the mouth, with a hook, that is sharp.   ;D

Seriously, my first inclination would be to toss topwaters, but that goes without saying.  Moving on, I would go with jerkbaits that would run just above the tips of the grass, suspending models that is, and fish that way.

Rattle-traps, maybe, could work.  You would think that it would be easy to answer this type of question, but being that you are in Canada, it's not so easy.  LOL

I would do like I told a buddy, yesterday.  If you can find docks, that are fishable per the tournament rules, that collide with the weeds, and any other type of cover, I would hit them and see what turns up.

After that, I would say to try to find points that have weeds, and throw a C-rig.  

Other than that, I am coming up with a blank.

Senkos could work, and if you can fish them with a weedless hook, I would go wacky style.  

 

[Jared]

Docks are good fishing BUT if its a tournament, you can almost be guaranteed that there will be many others with the same idea. #1 they are easy to spot and #2 everyone knows docks can be good fishing.

So that makes me think "if i wanna win this tournament I need to find water that wont be shared or used up by the time I get there" which is what I think outter deep weed edges will translate too. Sure there may be others who will fish outter weed edges BUT it is a lot easier for you to find your OWN weed edges than it is to find your OWN dock. I've seen many a tournament won when an angler focused on a weed edge and stuck it out by himself. O.T. Fears once did it on Santee a while back... found a deep weed line that surrounded a small "ditch" in the middle of the lake and he sat on it all day and won the tournament. Kevin Van Dam has done the same himself too.

Hopefully you will get some pre-fishing in and find a good area to test out the idea. Sharp drop offs, channels, rock piles, humps, holes etc... is what I would try to find bordering my deep weed edge.

 

[Guest]

I agree with Jared in that docks are easily recognized by anglers as great forms of cover, but the way that I approach things is to pay attention to what most anglers are doing when they fish the docks.

Around here, the guys on Weiss will constantly flip and pitching jigs and T-rigged soft plastics to each and every dock. So, how is it that I will go right behind them and catch fish that they miss? I will slow my presentation down, and I will fish something that is the opposite of what they have seen all day.

While they are throwing something that is compact and that is falling through the water column at a quick rate of speed, I will fish something that is going to stay in the strike zone longer, and that is going to literally mock the fish, and just call them bad names.

The specific example that I am going to make is when I did so well by catching bass from under the docks using a wacky rigged Senko. Yes, a GYCB Senko, and on each Senko, I caught at least 4 bass of off them. While other anglers were doing the spinnerbaits, jigs, and T-rigged creatures, etc., I was fishing something way slower, that was staying in their faces, and that was not moving as quickly.

I cleaned up that day, and caught 10-11 bass, while other anglers weren't catching anything.

So, while docks are easily recognized as cover, if you pay attention to the other anglers, and let them dictate what the fish are seeing, I would be willing to bet that you could go right behind them and get some good fish.

Jared is right about finding a weedline, and I know that he's talking about one that is staging from shallow water into deep water. If he's not, then I am wrong. LOL The ones that I think about are the lines on G-ville...............most come out into the river and into the main lake channel..........and while they are good cause of bass moving into them during all periods of the day, you can literally fish a stretch of weed-line that is 150-300 yds. long, and not get a bite, and then hit a 5-10 yd. patch and get all the fish to win a tournament.

It's finding the little irregularities, like Jared said, that will maximize the potential of an area.

 

[Big Bass Rich]

Actually, all the times I have fished docks on Long Point Bay I rarely see other anglers beating them down. What I do see however, is huge boats going in and out of the narrow channels, causing a wake and turning the bass off the bite. If you can get in there in the early hours you might get a few fish, after that they stay lockjawed. Even with the slow approach John mentioned.

Now, that being said, I got 4th place in this year's opener derby, fishing docks with senkos, lol But we had to get there in the early hours.

For this tournament, we will be far away from any docks and it could be almost an hour run to productive docks and shallows. I think we're going to have to hit the flats, look for the deeper grass and pound it to death.

At first I thought of making the long run to the outer bay for big smallmouth, but I have pre-fished the outer a few times this week with minimal results. Plus, I always do better on largemouth anyway.

Jared the water temps are in the mid-70's right now. Post-spawn is well over with, it's summer patterns for sure.

Did a bit of scouting last night, very little fishing though. The shallow areas we visited were overrrun with algae and brown weeds. That's why I'm dead set on getting out to the deeper green flats.

Anyways, thank you very much for the tips guys, it is well appreciated. Of course I will let you know what ultimately worked (or didn't work) in my report Saturday evening!

 

[Guest]

If you are having a huge algea bloom, that helps out a little due to that information.

Find a Rattle-Trap with chartreuse in it, and rip it over weedbeds. The color and noise will be attractors, and you can rip it outta the weeds for reaction strikes. The same could be said for big spinnerbaits, fished along the weedlines.

When the temps are that low (LOL, I would love to find temps that cold where I fish), on Guntersville, that's an quick way to score a limit.

 

[Jared]

Did a bit of scouting last night, very little fishing though. The shallow areas we visited were overrrun with algae and brown weeds. That's why I'm dead set on getting out to the deeper green flats.

All the brown weeds I have ever run into meant depleted oxygen levels... so good thinking about staying away from them Rich!

 

[Guest]

Jared, all the brown weeds we have around here mean no rain. LOL Just kidding. That's only in our yard. :

I know that they just sprayed the grass on G-ville. Not sure what % of it was sprayed, but I know that with the temps being as high as they are, the lack of current that is on G-ville, and the spraying of the weeds, the fishing for the CFF tournament is going to be tough this weekend.

If they start to pull water, which someone said that they were going to do, someone might find some fish and do well. They are all calling for 17 lbs. to win the tournament, and I honestly feel that's a little low for G-ville.........but under the conditions, it makes a lot of sense.

 

[Big Bass Rich]

Well guys the tournament went really well. I ended up with a 2nd place finish. Sleded (my partner) finished 3rd.

We started out deep, in the green weeds, in about 12 feet of water. The water was crystal clear and first fish missed was a pike. After a little while fishing that deep stuff we realized that was not where the bass were. Time to re-formulate a plan. Our plan of attack was very basic. We attacked pencil reeds in 4-5 feet of water with matted vegetation scattered through them. When we pulled up to the first spot, we could see 3 or 4 nice bass cruising. From there it was just as simple as finding a way to make them bite. I scored my fish on a texas rigged motor oil Exude plastic worm, 7 inch. I tossed to the matted vegetation and small pockets within the pencil reeds. Sleded actually caught his tournament fish off of some docks in a marina that had very little boat traffic (surprisingly). He was using weightless Assalt Salt Sticks in black w/ red flake.

Fish were scattered throughout many shallow spots today. However the winner of the tournament chose to target smallmouth and it paid off for him with a few good ones.

Wish I had some pics to share but I forgot the camera today! :-\

 

[Guest]

Way to go, Rich! It's ok about the camera.

How many bass did you all end up with? What was the weights?

 

[Big Bass Rich]

This was just a small local tournament so it was a 2 fish limit for the combined length of 2 fish. Although between Sleded and I we caught dozens throughout the day.

Lengths were shorter than previous years on the bay. I had a mere 29 1/2 inches, 1st place had 33 inches. Beat Sleded by 1/4 inch! lol

 

[fish4funinfl]

Congrats to you and to Sled

 

[sleded]

I had a blast out there! Fishing was tough locating the hogs but we still did pretty good on the bass nothing huge but i had a fun day on the water and thats what counts

 

[Big Bass Rich]

Here are 3 pics that the measure-in team managed to take:

Me measuring one of my first fish that I eventually culled.

Sleded's biggest of the day (and some weirdo beside him ;D )

Cudocat's winning smallies

 

[Jared]

Congratulations Rich! Congratulations Eric too! :victory: :goldcup: :victory: :cheers: