Category: Days on the Lake

Fishing Flooded Lakes For Bass In The Grass

We've had a good amount of rainfall here in California this year and a lot of small lakes are full already. With each passing storm some are even flooding for short periods of time. This is a luxury we have not had for a number of years and it gets me really exited about going out and shore fishing.

Bass start gravitating towards the shallows whenever there is a high water. High water means food, as all kinds of small forage will get up in the grass and other vegetation that has had a chance to sprout up during the low water period. I really watch the weather this time of year. Whenever there is a stormy, balmy day I will drop everything to go spend a couple hours fishing from shore.

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Bass fishing in grass – tackle recommendations:

For the most part I am burning a spinner bait, swim jig or chatter bait. The water clarity is usually not too good but the fish are up feeding and will key in on a fast moving bait. This is a technique I also use fishing out of my boat as well. I will usually wake the bait, otherwise I keep it in the upper six to eight inches of water.

The strikes are usually pretty voracious this time of year. A lot of times you will be watching your bait wake and you will see another wake rise up behind or to the side of your bait moments before you get crushed. Color selection is simple as well: I go for white, chartreuse, a combo of the two, or an orange color scheme.

There is going to be a lot of different forage up in the grass this time of year. Bass will be chasing bluegill, shad, crawdads, worms that have been washed in, salamanders and a number of small prey. Look for coves and areas where water is running in and you will find the highest concentration of fish.

My favorite baits include a Revenge Spinner Bait or Viberator in 1/2 ounce, Black Dog Weedslinger, or a Dirty Jigs No Jack Jig with a small swimbait trailer. The trailer on the jig or spinner bait can resemble either a craw or a small fish. Sometimes they seem to prefer one over the other. I suggest trying the red or orange color scheme as well as the chartreuse or white set up. Sometimes they also like one color over the other.

Photo

Not a big fish but this was one of nine in two hours

So there you have it, when everyone else is either fishing deep still or not out fishing at all. You can be out in a crushing bass in the middle of winter in the shallows.

Scout Low-Water Lakes While You Still Can

Low water lake fishing

We are reaching the end of summer, and it looks as if we are going to have a nice fall. Before you know it, the lakes are going to start filling up again. Now is the time to scout your favorite lakes and document cover that will be underwater again soon.

low water lake

I have been photo documenting lakes for years, and now that we have digital cameras it makes it much easier to keep track of the photos.

Before I started to do this, I figured I would remember where stuff was when the lakes filled back in again. Well I was partially right, but for the most part I would have to seriously fan-cast areas before I was able to pinpoint structure to locate fish.

Photo documenting – and even GPS locating – certain structure will greatly reduce the amount of time you will spend looking for that one piece of structure you know is there. . . somewhere.

For the most part the actual documentation, is easy it is just a time consuming process. And lets face it, most of the time if you're at the lake you would rather be fishing. But taking a little time out is well worth it.

Lakes with boat access:

Lakes you take your boat out on are easy. You can simply bring a hand held GPS and stand on a piece of structure whether it be a tree, a log, a rock, or maybe a ledge off an old roadway, and just mark your location. You can make note of this and enter it into your boat GPS at a later date. You can also keep a numbered photo reference in your boat corresponding with it. You will want to take photos from different angles using visual reference points on shore that will remain high and dry when the lake is full again.

lake bottom structure

Shore fishing lakes:

For lakes you fish from shore this works great, too. Take photos of the piece of structure first. You can do this from a few angles, noting the orientation to shore, distance, etc. After this is done you want to take a photo from behind the object back towards shore. Try and find the place you think you may be fishing from when the lake is full. Use trees, rocks, telephone poles, etc., things that don't change too much if at all. Keep in mind that using more permanent objects is a better plan.

lake bottom

A lot of times the process of going out and doing this will burn it into your memory just a little more.

So what are you waiting for?

Put on your hiking boots, put down your fishing rods, and pick up your camera before its too late. There could be some improved catches in your future.

low water lake structure

Finally Some Underwater Footage

When I first started this blog I promised to bring you some underwater footage. Well after a year or so of getting our act together, we finally got our hands on some Liquid Image cameras and away we go.

I'm not going to name the lake, however there are some spotted bass up to 10 pounds that roam these waters. The ones in the video above are in the 5-7 pound class.

We will have more to come soon, so stay posted. My friend Paul is the one doing the diving. Follow it over to YouTube and check out the others.

We intend to bring some underwater footage of Bass getting caught it will just be a matter of time.

You can see all 12 of Paul's videos on his YouTube Channel

Enjoy.

Warm Weather Has Been Heating Up the Delta Bite

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I have to admit I have not been posting much lately, but sometimes a guy just has to spend some time fishing, right?

Honestly, I have been developing some new baits and most of my fishing trips have been prototyping. However on my last two trips to the Delta I put work aside and just went fishing for once.

The topwater bite is picking up and the bigger fish are pretty stupid right now. Of course, out on the Delta the big fish get stupid quite often, which I do appreciate.

Nothing inspires you like a few 20 plus pound days of fishing though.

A Day On The Water With Cal From Tackle Tour

A few weeks ago I spent a day on the water with Cal from Tackletour.com

Cal has completed a write up and can be seen on their site.

Here is a video Cal edited together as well. Unfortunately the bite was non-existant but we had a great time and the video turned out great.

Link to Tackle Tour

Previous Tackle Tour post on The Wired Angler:

TackleTour Lure Preview of the Snack Size Swimbaits – Updated

Snack Size Trout On Clear Lake

I finally grabbed a tape out of my camera bag today and put a few short clips together of bass being caught on the Snack Size Trout. This was from Clear Lake this last July, I can not promise a G rating on the language.

Previous Snack Size Swimbait posts on The Wired Angler:

New on the Horizon, The Snack Size Bluegill

Snack Size Hitch Takes 2nd Place at the HBC Clear Lake

TackleTour Lure Preview of the Snack Size Swimbaits – Updated

Snack Size Trout Takes 3rd at Won Bass Clear Lake Swimbait Tourney

NewsFlash: Snack Size Shad Wins on Clear Lake

New Snack Size Trout swimbait color

Fishing the Snack Size Trout Swimbait

Return from the HBC Clear Lake CA

I just got back from the HBC last night up in clear lake. I would like to start by saying Ron and his entire list of sponsors put on a really cool event.

I did not sign up in time to fish this event so I signed up as a camera boat. They ended up being short VTO’s so I did not get the opportunity to shuttle around the camera crew, but had a great day anyway.
We ended up going to different parts of the lake in case there were any surrendered fish that needed to be turned over. This is a rule that is specific to the HBC. Link

I was assigned to the rattlesnake arm of Clear Lake. Ron said it was ok for us to fish so I got a couple hours in. I ended up changing out hooks on my crank baits.  I then messed around with my new Hummingbird 997 for a good portion of the morning.

I had not been down to that end of the lake in while so it was kind of nice. I got bored after a while and came to the conclusion that no fish were going to be surrendered.  And if they needed me -Hell , my boat does 70mph. No big deal.

I headed north where I met up with Matt Allen, who I had just met that morning.
Matt is no stranger to fishing big baits and fished the HBC 1 down south.

He was fishing an area I told him about and had apparently killed them there that morning. I guess we should have both been fishing this tournament because each of us had a couple Bass in the 5 pound range just messing around with 3:16 JR and the Snack Size Chartreuse Shad.

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As boats started heading back towards the north end, we did not want to get in the way of anyone participating in the event so we headed back to Konocti Vista where the event was being held.

Matt had volunteered to be the check in boat so we both grabbed all we needed and headed out in my boat.
We missed most of the weigh in but had fun talking to everyone as they came in.

Shaun Bailey took the HBC belt and a check for $10,000 with the big fish weighing 9.01. Robert Cepek came in third with 8.21. Jerry Ballesteros came in third with 7.52 and worm-chuckin’ Scott Green came in fourth with 7.20. If Scott had not just caught a 14 pounder on a worm a couple months back I would be making a lot more fun of him right now. They say size does not matter, Scott so don’t feel bad.

Here is a Link to the Full list of results.

I met a lot of great people at this event and would love to fish the next one if it wer at freakin’ Amistad. They are however raising the bar to a $1,000 entry fee and a $50,000 winner-take-all prize pot, so we will see what happens.

I will leave you with a picture of the swag bag all the competitors and camera boat guys got just to make you jealous.

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I do have to say though it made it extra worthwhile.