What Do You Do When……

There is no deep weedline and all the deep structure has no weeds on it?

I am at my most confident when I can fish main lake points or humps that have a weedline on them. The last few lakes I have had tournaments or upcoming tourneys on have had a weedline that stops at 8-10 ft and I have really struggled. Do you still fish that weedline knowing that there will be fish in it, or do you fish a main lake point or hump even though there are no weeds or weedlines on the deeper breaks?

I will also say the dock bite and frog/punching pads bite has also been brutal on these lakes.

Probably have to try both the 8-10 ft weedline and the bald point/humps to really know any given day. That being said, in June/July I’m starting with the weed edge… this time of year I’d start with the clean structure with a search bait, then drag footballs, C-rigs, Neds, etc.

If there aren’t any weeds I’ll check out the windward side of the structure. If it’s dead calm I’ll move on and look for structure with weeds.

That’s basically what I’ve been doing. Just can’t seem to get bites. Was hoping someone had a secret.

Maybe a buzz bait early… urine ‘em off

I’ve practiced twice now on this lake and fished it twice for tourneys in previous years. I’ve never caught a limit. These two practices have yielded 4 total bass. I have however had a huge bass on punching pads but didn’t land him, and two huge blowups on a frog this morning. So I think I’m going to start there and then just throw a crank until I find some.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I have however had a huge bass on punching pads but didn’t land him, and two huge blowups on a frog this morning. So I think I’m going to start there

You just answered your own question. Head to the slop and start junk fishing. May not be what you’re confident in, but that’s where the fish are.

There should be a slight drop in water temperature. Pretty much just upper 70’s and lower 80’s in the 10 day forecast. I hope we’re past the hot and sweltering heat of summer now.

mahtofire14 wrote:

There is no deep weedline and all the deep structure has no weeds on it?

I am at my most confident when I can fish main lake points or humps that have a weedline on them. The last few lakes I have had tournaments or upcoming tourneys on have had a weedline that stops at 8-10 ft and I have really struggled. Do you still fish that weedline knowing that there will be fish in it, or do you fish a main lake point or hump even though there are no weeds or weedlines on the deeper breaks?

I will also say the dock bite and frog/punching pads bite has also been brutal on these lakes.

I say – Welcome to fishing in Iowa. Most of the little lakes I bass fish in Iowa don’t have any weed growth, water is just too yucky for weeds to grow and it makes fishing hard. I see so often to fish the deep weed line and I cry since I don’t have that option. I mostly fish the shoreline for any structure I can find. Some of the lakes have some humps but I don’t seem to have much luck on them since there is really nothing there to hold fish. The main lake I fish has some man made structure put in, and that is good for pan fish. Once in a great while I will pull a bass from there. All I can say is GOOD LUCK.

I think you’re focused on the wrong grocery store. If young of the year gills and crappies are suspended, follow them

Randy Wieland wrote:

I think you’re focused on the wrong grocery store. If young of the year gills and crappies are suspended, follow them

Randy you nailed it. They are all over my sonar but I cannot get bit near them. I’m going to have a smaller swimbait tied on as well so I can run that through the schools as a smaller more finessier option to the crank.

Down size lipless cranks

Regardless of the lake, bass need two things. Food and cover. It’s just a matter of breaking that down to individual lakes. They will always be relating to one or both, sometimes both in the same place.
In my experience with similar lakes if you can find any good cover you’ll most likely find a concentration of fish. They’ll make the most out of what’s available.
If the available cover is void of fish then I’d assume they’re deep using shade and depth as cover and will be chasing suspended bait/ panfish when they’re active.

Mahtofire – You and I like to fish the same things and we both struggle on the same type of lakes. If its a well defined weedline in 8-10 Ft I’d not give up on the weedline. I often find it easier and more productive to fish the shallower weedlines parallel to the weedline. This will keep you bait in the key strike zone for a longer period. My experience is the shallower the weedline the smaller the fishes strike zone is away from the edge. In deeper water I feel they tend to roam further away from the weedline than in shallow water. I think a DT 6 or a Swim jig would be a excellent choice to fish parallel to a 8 Ft weedline. or even a good old spinnerbait. If its not a defined weedline and more just scattered weed clumps here and there, I’d just cover water with a chatterbait or swimjig and slow down and fish a Jig when you get to the bigger / heavier clumps of weeds.

Went out last night. The 8 to 12 ft weeds didn’t produce much but small fish.
Shifted out a little deeper on some scattered rocks/sand transition and did well on clacking raps, let them sink and then did aggressive rip/falls with it. They would it it on the rip almost every time. The. I tried neko, jigs, and tubes with only 1 bite. The girlfriend got them with dt10s. This was the evening bite. We were going to try to end the night with tip waters but it got dark before we could make that happen.

Well I think I did enough to keep myself in the top 6 and make the championship week. I had a limit of just over 10 lbs by 8 am but just couldn’t cull two 1 lbers out the rest of the day. Everyone had tough days with the winner weighing 13.55 lbs. I took 8th with 10.30 to give you an idea of how tight it was. I was just happy to get 5 fish honestly with as rough as this lake has been to me over the years. Biggest was 3.45 lbs and had another 3 lber as well. Frogging slop and creature bait on docks nearby was what got my fish.

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Nice job! Way to adapt.

Ended up second in AOY points. So I have one more tournament to go!

mahtofire14 wrote:

Ended up second in AOY points. So I have one more tournament to go!

That’s very good. How many teams make the final contest and when is it?

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
Ended up second in AOY points. So I have one more tournament to go!

That’s very good. How many teams make the final contest and when is it?

Top 6 teams make it. Each angler nominates a lake and it is drawn the night before the tourney. It is a week from Saturday. I’m having a tough time thinking of a lake. I want to nominate White Bear because I feel like I have a good shot of winning but I also want to nominate a lake that has a chance at a really nice bag. So I don’t know what to pick.

Sounds cool – congrats on making the cut. Yeah, nominate a lake that plays to your strengths… although with only 6 boats you could pick a smaller, sleeper type of lake too.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Ended up second in AOY points. So I have one more tournament to go!

Congrats on the great season. 2nd in the AOY is impressive. Now hopefully your lake gets picked for the championship and you go out there and get the Win. I’d probably enter the lake I feel I have the best chance to win on. I’ve also had several TOC tourneys that worked this way. Its funny but often the person who’s lake got picked ended up not winning the tourney. So whatever lake gets picked, go out there and fish hard and see what happens.

FryDog62 wrote:

Sounds cool – congrats on making the cut. Yeah, nominate a lake that plays to your strengths… although with only 6 boats you could pick a smaller, sleeper type of lake too.

Yeah that’s what a lot of guys were talking about doing. Smaller lakes that don’t get hit too hard. I am kind of leaning towards Medicine. It’s got some nice fish in it and the weedline bite is usually pretty good.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Top 6 teams make it. Each angler nominates a lake and it is drawn the night before the tourney. It is a week from Saturday. I’m having a tough time thinking of a lake. I want to nominate White Bear because I feel like I have a good shot of winning but I also want to nominate a lake that has a chance at a really nice bag. So I don’t know what to pick.

That’s a really neat format for the final match. Good luck to ya