Bassin' USA - Bass Fishing Forum Archives

New to fishing a local resovoir close to home and looking for suggestions. Sorry for the long post, but want to be sure to give all the details. Water is 9000 acres. Very shallow (most under 10 feet, except by two dams which are rocky and drop to 60 feet. Water temp. 56-59. Stained water. The resovoir is surrounded by submerged trees (very thick and snags everywhere) extending out several hundred yards from shore with depth ranging from 1.5 to 4 feet in the trees.
How do I dissect this lake with unlimited cover? What should I look for as higher percentage areas? Fishing on or anywhere near the bottom (weedless or not) is virtually a guaranteed snag. I've fished it once, and we scratched our way through the trees fishing the pockets and managed 3 decent bass. We threw Senkos, craws, tubes, lizards but all three came on a Vibrax spinner/minnow combo.
Any suggestions, other than blindly heading into the unlimited expanse of trees? I typically fish smallmouth and am used to fishing structure. This all looks the same to me. Thanks for any suggestions. This is a great site!

Smallie Guy,
When faced with overwhelming structure, I've found that no structure may be the key to success. Since you like smallmouth, you should be able to fish deeper water and rock structure. I would fish the dam areas with crankbaits, from very shallow with shallow divers to about fifteen feet with deep divers. Carolina rigged worms with also work in the same area as will tubes.
If you must fish the timber, look for any tree that is slightly different, a little larger, smaller, wider, different species of tree, just find something different and usually the quality bass will use these trees.
When reading timber, if all the trees appear to be about the same diameter, look for taller trees or shorter trees. The taller trees are likely standing on a submerged hump, the shorter trees are in a ditch or depression, either of these spots could be great fishing.
Different trees grow on different bottom structure. If some of the trees are fir trees, it's a good possibility the bottom structure will be solid, either sand, gravel or rock and mud. Willow trees, Poplars, Sycamore etc grow best on wetlands, usually by a creek, pond or swamp, there can be good spots. Oak, walnut and other hardwoods growm best on hard bottom areas and usually with some sand, clay or rock mixed in. Good luck. Johnnie

SmalliegUy, when you are faced with so much of the same cover and structure, look for some thing different. That will likely be the key to catching fish. Look for areas that have more than one type of cover. How about a spot where the shallow water leads to deeper water with quick escape routes for bass.

I would look for creek channels. The channels may be easy to find by looking for pathways through the timber. Try and find turns in channels where the original creek would have made a hole before the reservior was filled. Also concentrate on channels that swing close to the bank, the bass will use these channels like roads leading into spawning areas.
There are so many things to look for in reserviors filled with wood cover, I will list a few here. Try and locate each one, and if you find an area where two or more of these things are together, fish it well! You may find a ton of bass.
1. Weeds! If you can find weeds of any kind you will find bass. This gives the bass a different kind of cover, and more importantly oxygen. I know of many lakes in my area that are very low in disolved oxygen because the flooded timber uses oxygen at it rots. ( Thats the simplest way to explain it. )
2. Steeper shorlines. Being a smaller lake I am guessing you have a hard time finding maps, right? Look at the lay of the land around the lake. In a lot of cases the shoreline will continue at the same pitch under the waterline. This is a good way to find different depths.
3. Rock or hard bottom areas. Johnnie already covered this.
4. BAIT, find baitfish and find bass. Look at windblown banks, points or flats.

These should get you started. I suggest you cover a lot of water with spinnerbaits, lipless and shallow cranks and if water temps permit, buzzbaits. Get some bites and try and figure out why the bass were in that location. Were they holding at a specific depth, specific type of cover, water color, sun/shade? And try and duplicate that pattern.

Guys, thanks a ton for taking the time and giving great advice. You're right, no maps are available for this lake, so I'll spend a bit more time learning the water before concentrating on fishing it. It seems to me that most everyone blindly heads into the endless expanse of trees, which is what I did. I'll look for the things you've all mentioned and focus on those areas. I know this lake has good populations so hopefully I can find better numbers. Thanks again!

To me, when you have a vast amount of trees, it's like a cove or shoreline that is wall to wall docks. What I do alot of times is visually take the trees, or in my example the docks, away from the water. If you would fish the area with no trees, then you have a good area. Like others have said, look for hard bottoms, small ditches or humps, and anything different. Look for 1 or 2 trees by themselves. I have found that 1 or 2 stumps or trees in a good area can be better than a hundred.
Good Luck and let us know if any of this has helped.
Roger Spaulding