You Make The Call.

How would you fish this lake?

Water temp is 55 to 60 degrees.
From the shore to a 60 to 45 degree drop off there is at least 5 to 10 feet of 6″ to 2′ of water. The inside weed line begins about 1′ before the drop off.

The lake has a sandy/mucky bottom.

There are a three feeder creeks.

A few points have flats on them, extending out to about 50 to 60′ from shore.

The following lures have not worked:

white spinner baits

DOA Shads

Sink’N’s

Tubes (green pumpkin/red fleck & black/red fleck)

Jigs (yes, I was swimin’em)

Crank bait -fire tiger, naturals shad colors, chart/purple & craw dad colors.

Traps in chrome/blue (1/4 & 1/2 oz) as well as crawdad colors

Jerkbait -though I did happen to see one bass following it in a kind of interested way (that’s been my only action after 8 hours of fishing).

6″ black-purple worm.

I’ve flipped to the inside, outside and right in the weeds as well.

I’ve not tried a net yet .

What’s more, the bass can be seen crusing the drop offs & gills & crappies are in the weeds .

So, what do you think?

Any words of encouragement or direction?

Thanks ,

Go through your back issues of Bassmaster and try to find that same scenero

My experience with seeing fish is this. If they aren’t on a bed cruising and you can see them, they have probably seen you longer. Try staying further away and make longer casts to the area where you saw the fish.

I would mix it up too. Try working suspending baits like a Rogue or Rapala. JC & I watched a guy catch fish on a floating Rapala last weekend, and I’m sure the water temps were in the range you posted. He was working the bait along the top of the water in slow manner. The water temp is in range for early topwater.

Lastly, I didn’t see a Carolina rig mentioned. I would try that too.

first question is how clear is the lake??

If it is moderately clear, say 7-10 ft on the secci, look for the muddiest bay with weeds, try to locat any significant flat (2-5 feet) I would stay clear of areas with big drop offs unless they are adjacent to the flat.

Also any green weeds are worth fishing, try using a small tube lure like you would a slug

good luck

get you a clear worm with some silver flake but not alot i catch alot of strip mine fish this way the will be cruising cast out past them but in front and hop it a couple times then dead stick it seems to me when they are crusing looking for food they will hit this presentation you wont catch alot but a few will bite

also if there crusing looking for a spawning bed id just get to a bedding area and throw a carolina rigg with a water melon or june bugg lizzard out off the bank its really hard to catch these fish when there not hungry and looking for a bed but wont lock up

watching kevin vandams video’s work your baits more irratically especially if you have one chassing your jerk he says they might be getting to good of a look at your bait’s
and one last hurrah throw a buzz bait some times thos male fish will eat it for some reason it irritates them

I agree with the jerk baits, and a buzz bait for sure, but I would first throw an assassin/fluke, maybe watermelon or white… post spawn fish do not like a slow moving/falling bait and are likely to pay attention.

My nickles worth

One thing that has worked for me in the gin clear lakes around the Twin Cities when I can easily see the fish but can’t entice them is throwing an unweighted Zoom trickworm on very light line. I only carry 2 colors, green pumpkin and bubblegum. For some reason the fish seem to be about equally split on which they prefer. Stay well off the flat and when you see a fish cruising cast well in front of it. With the extremely slow sink rate the bait should be down to the fish’s depth when it comes to the bait. There have been many times when this technique has been the cure for an otherwise frustrating day
Steve

ONE METHOD YOU CAN TRY IS A SPLIT SHOT RIG. SORT OF A SMALL CAROLINA RIG. USE WITH A LONG SPINNING OUTFIT FOR LONGER CASTS AND TIP WITH YOUR FAVORITE NATURAL COLORED PLASTIC OR PURPLE WORM. TRY USING A SLOW STEADY RETRIEVE. ALOT OF TIMES YOU CAN WATCH THE FISH HIT THE BAIT. THIS HAS WORKED FOR ME IN THIS SCENARIO. ALSO, TRY TEXAS RIGGING A 4″ PURPLE WORM AND SWIMMING.

TBASS

Try a big old grub natural color maybe smoke and blue fleck swim it on the flats where they are looking to spawn.