Help!(Lake Tillery)

[dcfisherman9]

If there are indeed any North Carolina anglers on the board, I would like to know of any information on Lake Tillery. I need help, unless it's too much to ask on what lures to use, what colors work, if there are any community holes that hold a good concentration of fish. I'm 17 and have fished Lake Tillery twice with little success as far as finding good spots and lure selection with a few fish. I've found that the new toads work well around shallow grass when the weather is warm, but other than that i'm at a lost at what I did wrong this weekend. The air temperature was in the lower 80's with influxes of wind, however the water had cooled to about 76 degrees and even closer to 70 in some spots throughout the lake. I noticed a lot and I mean a lot of baitfish on the surface in the backs of coves and figured that the fall transition period had begun. I picked up the spinnerbait and Pop-R with little success, what did I do wrong? (Lure colors where white spinnerbait, green pumpkin horny toad, and baby bass pop-r)Help!!!

[carl]

Well, I'd like to know a little about the lake. how big, the water clarity, how deep. Do you have a fish finder? In our lakes the bass and forage are still holding deep, 25' exactly. I have had some success with a drop shot rig. We've had a week of blue bird skys which hasn't helped. The shore lines have been absolutely empty. If you use cranks waite for Johnnie to weigh in. Do you use any plastics? Fall can be feast or famine, and some lakes are just darn tough for anybody. Good luck Carl.

[dcfisherman9]

Lake Tillery
Water Clarity-4 feet (varies)
I fished the clearer water (6 feet clarity) with a lead head jig with a 3X watermelon red worm and had a bite, I also tried a black chrome colored crank with no luck. It was about 10ft.deep in this area.
I fished the dirtier water 3ft.-4ft. clarity with a toad and a pop-r allowing the popper to settle for about 5 seconds at a time in shallow water next to grass. The toad I fished at a steady retrieve on the edges of the grass and caught a 3 pounder( my only fish the whole day)
My depth finder is a hummingbird and is temporarily out of order.
The lake is pretty big, but only about half the size of Lake Norman(site of tour stop number 5 this year on the BASS tour, another NC lake)im not sure how big in acres it is however.
And about the crankbaits, I've recently began to gain confidence with them this year and started using them as my second choice to a spinnerbait. I did locate a few summerged trees of the bank towards 8-10ft. of water but no bites. This is the same black chrome colored crank

[johnnie crain outdoors]

DC Fisherman 9, I suggest staying with the shad schools in the backs of coves. I would use a crankbait that runs deeper than the shad school is deep. Shad schools can be up to four feet thick from top to bottom, bass underneath can't see the bait. Often, topwater baits are simply lost in the crowd when shad are tightly schooled. The crankbait swims beneath the shad allowing the bass to see the bait before the shad. Also, go with a completely different color scheme, don't try to match the hatch. Why add one more shad to ten thousand? I really like the fire tiger color or bluegill pattern Bomber Fat-A-. Bass take offense at bluegill or other fish trying to horn in on their turf, in this case the school of shad. Last week I caught some really nice fish on Norfork Lake, Ark., on a diving Rat-L-Trap, chrome/black, while fishing it under tons of shad. Topwaters and spinnerbaits failed.
Don't give up on the trees either. Use a deep diving crankbait, one that runs at least fifteen feet and crash it through the root systems of the trees and directly into the trunks. Again, fire tiger or bluegill pattern. Good luck. Johnnie

[dcfisherman9]

Thanks for all the help you guys, I enjoyed reading what you wrote about how the bass cant see through the shad all the time. This taught me a thing or two, Ill put it to good use.
However, I was wondering, I enjoy fishing water around 4ft. deep that has submerged grass and I have found an area like this and caught my only fish with a toad here. Should I even fish this area in the fall? It's rather shallow with plenty of grass and it also is at the far, far back of a huge creek lined with boat docks. I just dont think the bass have had a chance to get there from the main lake, or most of them anyway. My dad caught one on a buzzbait here also. I enjoy throwing buzzbaits and know they are a good fall lure, especially black. But what color should I use in deep clear water (10ft.)? Ive experimented with a 1/4 oz. buzzer in a chartruese white skirt but to no avail. I saw a guy catch about a four pounder when I pulled into the cove throwing a huge white buzzer to the bank. This area has a lot of laydown trees and a lot of gravel on the bottom. Water clarity is about 6ft. What should I do? What colors work good in this water? Would a green pumpkin tube work well this fall?

[carl]

DC sounds to me like you've picked one heck of a lake to fish. With water that clear a lot of finesse fishing is in the books. We have one lake like yours, and use subdued colors like browns, watermelons, pumpkins. If your fishing gravel a football jig with a creature bait can work well. In a tourney watermelon Senkos and green spinnerbaits took home the money. The willow leaf blades were spray painted with Rustolium, the skirts you probably have to order. Check "Fall Baits". Johnnie offers some good advice. Remember in water that clear you have to make long casts so fish don't spot you first. Pitching a jig/pig and swimming it along those lay downs can pay off. Once again neutral or dark blue colors. Guaging the fall bite is a tough one for me. I was out yesterday, caught 4 keepers on a drop shot rig, and when I came in talked to several guys about the fall bite. They said last year in the last week of Oct. and first week of november they were catching 4 to 8 poundrs by fihing grass beds with scum frogs. We've just had a drastic change in weather so I'm hoping those lunkers will get active. good luck, carl