Hunting Big Fish

They all look bigger in the water.

This spring I did some of my first sight fishing during the spawn. We
spotted many good sized fish during pre-fish outings and caught a few. One
particular area rather amazed me. As backwater lakes along the river go it
is rather deeper than average. I spotted a lot of fish up shallowon deep
banks spawning in the smallest of ledges. On one spot I noticed an easy
five plus guarding a bed, and an amazingly large bass cruising out off the
ledge or drop. If I had to guess I'ld put that fish in the 12-15 pound
range. I haven't seen that many big fish up close so... take that with a
grain of salt. For comparison it looked a lot bigger (to me) than this
11.48 a friend of mine caught a week later in a different area.

My friend's 11.48
http://www.yumabassman.com/cgi-bin/y...m=1117413 687

I have never caught many fish in that particular backwater, but I have heard
it is a rather well known spawning area.

Anyway, I am curious as the water temps rise where I am most likely to find
those big fish. It is a deeper than average backwater (8-9 feet). I know
in another deep backwater of similar depth I have caught or hooked a few
nice fish later in the summer. The conventional wisdom around here though
is that the majority of the fish head out for the river as the temps climb
towards our searing summer heats, and there is no doubt that they guys who
flip the main river in summer tournaments weigh in a lot of decent fish.

So if you were to go hunting to for that big girl this late in the year
where would you look for her?

For any who may be passing this info on to my local competitors. Its a
difficult backwater to access. If you know the river that should put them
right on it. LOL.

--
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com

Hunting Big Fish

Group: rec.outdoors.fishing.bass Date: Thu, Jun 30, 2005, 7:55am (CDT-2)
From: (Bob=A0La=A0Londe)
They all look bigger in the water.
This spring I did some of my first sight fishing during the spawn. We
spotted many good sized fish during pre-fish outings and caught a few.
One particular area rather amazed me. As backwater lakes along the river
go it is rather deeper than average. I spotted a lot of fish up
shallowon deep banks spawning in the smallest of ledges. On one spot I
noticed an easy five plus guarding a bed, and an amazingly large bass
cruising out off the ledge or drop. If I had to guess I'ld put that fish
in the 12-15 pound range. I haven't seen that many big fish up close
so... take that with a grain of salt. For comparison it looked a lot
bigger (to me) than this 11.48 a friend of mine caught a week later in a
different area.
My friend's 11.48
http://www.yumabassman.com/cgi-bin/y...ish;action=3D=
display;num=3D1117413687
I have never caught many fish in that particular backwater, but I have
heard it is a rather well known spawning area.
Anyway, I am curious as the water temps rise where I am most likely to
find those big fish. It is a deeper than average backwater (8-9 feet). I
know in another deep backwater of similar depth I have caught or hooked
a few nice fish later in the summer. The conventional wisdom around here
though is that the majority of the fish head out for the river as the
temps climb towards our searing summer heats, and there is no doubt that
they guys who flip the main river in summer tournaments weigh in a lot
of decent fish.
So if you were to go hunting to for that big girl this late in the year
where would you look for her?
For any who may be passing this info on to my local competitors. Its a
difficult backwater to access. If you know the river that should put
them right on it. LOL.
--
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
I know the spot well Bob! grin

Don't give up on the shallow water for the big bass, even in the
heat....I have found them there feeding on the "fry" in really hot
temps.

JK

John Kerr wrote:

Hunting Big Fish

Group: rec.outdoors.fishing.bass Date: Thu, Jun 30, 2005, 7:55am (CDT-2)
From: (Bob La Londe)
They all look bigger in the water.
This spring I did some of my first sight fishing during the spawn. We
spotted many good sized fish during pre-fish outings and caught a few.
One particular area rather amazed me. As backwater lakes along the river
go it is rather deeper than average. I spotted a lot of fish up
shallowon deep banks spawning in the smallest of ledges. On one spot I
noticed an easy five plus guarding a bed, and an amazingly large bass
cruising out off the ledge or drop. If I had to guess I'ld put that fish
in the 12-15 pound range. I haven't seen that many big fish up close
so... take that with a grain of salt. For comparison it looked a lot
bigger (to me) than this 11.48 a friend of mine caught a week later in a
different area.
My friend's 11.48
http://www.yumabassman.com/cgi-bin/y...m=1117413 687
I have never caught many fish in that particular backwater, but I have
heard it is a rather well known spawning area.
Anyway, I am curious as the water temps rise where I am most likely to
find those big fish. It is a deeper than average backwater (8-9 feet). I
know in another deep backwater of similar depth I have caught or hooked
a few nice fish later in the summer. The conventional wisdom around here
though is that the majority of the fish head out for the river as the
temps climb towards our searing summer heats, and there is no doubt that
they guys who flip the main river in summer tournaments weigh in a lot
of decent fish.
So if you were to go hunting to for that big girl this late in the year
where would you look for her?
For any who may be passing this info on to my local competitors. Its a
difficult backwater to access. If you know the river that should put
them right on it. LOL.


--
Rodney Long,
Inventor of the Long Shot "WIGGLE" rig, SpecTastic Thread
Boomerang Fishing Pro. ,Stand Out Hooks ,Stand Out Lures,
Mojo's Rock Hopper & Rig Saver weights, Decoy Activator
and the EZKnot http://www.ezknot.com

Bob La Londe wrote:
The conventional wisdom around here though
is that the majority of the fish head out for the river as the temps climb
towards our searing summer heats, and there is no doubt that they guys who
flip the main river in summer tournaments weigh in a lot of decent fish.

So if you were to go hunting to for that big girl this late in the year
where would you look for her?

Big bass require quite a bit of food,, not much in the deeper waters, so
believe it or not, these girls will be in the shade, in very shallow
water, they work themselves way back in lilly pads, logs, and weeds
where they ambush all those little guys in there.

These big bass hang in some of the worst possible places for you to try
and fish, and once hooked, they are close to impossible to pull out of
that trash. You've heard those giant splashes way back in that mess,
well that's where they are, at least most of them are, sometimes if
there is a steep drop off real close to their hunting grounds they may
spend some parts of the day down there, but only if they are well fed
for the day.


--
Rodney Long,
Inventor of the Long Shot "WIGGLE" rig, SpecTastic Thread
Boomerang Fishing Pro. ,Stand Out Hooks ,Stand Out Lures,
Mojo's Rock Hopper & Rig Saver weights, Decoy Activator
and the EZKnot http://www.ezknot.com

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
They all look bigger in the water.

This spring I did some of my first sight fishing during the spawn. We
spotted many good sized fish during pre-fish outings and caught a few.
One
particular area rather amazed me. As backwater lakes along the river go
it
is rather deeper than average. I spotted a lot of fish up shallowon deep
banks spawning in the smallest of ledges. On one spot I noticed an easy
five plus guarding a bed, and an amazingly large bass cruising out off the
ledge or drop. If I had to guess I'ld put that fish in the 12-15 pound
range. I haven't seen that many big fish up close so... take that with a
grain of salt. For comparison it looked a lot bigger (to me) than this
11.48 a friend of mine caught a week later in a different area.

My friend's 11.48

http://www.yumabassman.com/cgi-bin/y...m=1117413 687

I have never caught many fish in that particular backwater, but I have
heard
it is a rather well known spawning area.

Anyway, I am curious as the water temps rise where I am most likely to
find
those big fish. It is a deeper than average backwater (8-9 feet). I know
in another deep backwater of similar depth I have caught or hooked a few
nice fish later in the summer. The conventional wisdom around here though
is that the majority of the fish head out for the river as the temps climb
towards our searing summer heats, and there is no doubt that they guys who
flip the main river in summer tournaments weigh in a lot of decent fish.

So if you were to go hunting to for that big girl this late in the year
where would you look for her?

For any who may be passing this info on to my local competitors. Its a
difficult backwater to access. If you know the river that should put them
right on it. LOL.

--
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com



For me, I tend to start where they "should be" and then work shallow. Where
they "should be" in the two lakes nearest me (with surface temps at or above
80º, and both lakes' deepest pockets in the 45'-60' range) is in the 8'-18'
range of water, usually near some sort of structure (these are man-made
lakes mind you) such as tree stumps, old road beds, and in one instance, an
old railroad rail bed. Of course this is heat of the day fishing I'm
talking. Early mornings and early evenings before/after the temps break 90º,
I will hit the rip-rap sections where elevated roads cross the lakes, and of
course, long flat points that abut deeper pockets/channels, and so on.

*IF* all those areas fail to produce, I will move shallow and look for lilly
pads or hydrilla clumps, sometimes in as little a water as 2 feet. Even
during the heat of our NC summers, it is not unusual to find cruising bass
near pads/shade, anytime of the day sometimes it seems. But they usually
aren't fatties, just lean, smallish, buck bass as best I can tell.

But to specifically target early summer, big gal bass here, usually one has
to go below 10' once the water hits 80º on the surface. The only 5lb
(8.4lbs) bass I've boated this year was taken in 15' of water, by slowly
dragging a wacky-rigged Senko down a ledge that started to falloff at about
4 feet and descended down into about 28' of water. This was 3 weeks ago, 95º
ambient, 82º surface, and 78º at 15 ft on a 13,000 acre impoundment (We
boated 8 bass in this area, with this method, on that day.). The only water
that was cooler was "down by the dam", and a thermocline showed up at 35
feet (72º at that depth). The only things we caught in there were a couple
of small stripers, a hybrid and a pickeral. Go figure.

"SimRacer" wrote in message
om...

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
They all look bigger in the water.

This spring I did some of my first sight fishing during the spawn. We
spotted many good sized fish during pre-fish outings and caught a few.
One
particular area rather amazed me. As backwater lakes along the river go
it
is rather deeper than average. I spotted a lot of fish up shallowon
deep
banks spawning in the smallest of ledges. On one spot I noticed an easy
five plus guarding a bed, and an amazingly large bass cruising out off
the
ledge or drop. If I had to guess I'ld put that fish in the 12-15 pound
range. I haven't seen that many big fish up close so... take that with
a
grain of salt. For comparison it looked a lot bigger (to me) than this
11.48 a friend of mine caught a week later in a different area.

My friend's 11.48


http://www.yumabassman.com/cgi-bin/y...h;action=displ
ay;num=1117413687

I have never caught many fish in that particular backwater, but I have
heard
it is a rather well known spawning area.

Anyway, I am curious as the water temps rise where I am most likely to
find
those big fish. It is a deeper than average backwater (8-9 feet). I
know
in another deep backwater of similar depth I have caught or hooked a few
nice fish later in the summer. The conventional wisdom around here
though
is that the majority of the fish head out for the river as the temps
climb
towards our searing summer heats, and there is no doubt that they guys
who
flip the main river in summer tournaments weigh in a lot of decent fish.

So if you were to go hunting to for that big girl this late in the year
where would you look for her?

For any who may be passing this info on to my local competitors. Its a
difficult backwater to access. If you know the river that should put
them
right on it. LOL.

--
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com



For me, I tend to start where they "should be" and then work shallow.
Where
they "should be" in the two lakes nearest me (with surface temps at or
above
80º, and both lakes' deepest pockets in the 45'-60' range) is in the
8'-18'
range of water, usually near some sort of structure (these are man-made
lakes mind you) such as tree stumps, old road beds, and in one instance,
an
old railroad rail bed. Of course this is heat of the day fishing I'm
talking. Early mornings and early evenings before/after the temps break
90º,
I will hit the rip-rap sections where elevated roads cross the lakes, and
of
course, long flat points that abut deeper pockets/channels, and so on.

*IF* all those areas fail to produce, I will move shallow and look for
lilly
pads or hydrilla clumps, sometimes in as little a water as 2 feet. Even
during the heat of our NC summers, it is not unusual to find cruising bass
near pads/shade, anytime of the day sometimes it seems. But they usually
aren't fatties, just lean, smallish, buck bass as best I can tell.

But to specifically target early summer, big gal bass here, usually one
has
to go below 10' once the water hits 80º on the surface. The only 5lb
(8.4lbs) bass I've boated this year was taken in 15' of water, by slowly
dragging a wacky-rigged Senko down a ledge that started to falloff at
about
4 feet and descended down into about 28' of water. This was 3 weeks ago,
95º
ambient, 82º surface, and 78º at 15 ft on a 13,000 acre impoundment (We
boated 8 bass in this area, with this method, on that day.). The only
water
that was cooler was "down by the dam", and a thermocline showed up at 35
feet (72º at that depth). The only things we caught in there were a couple
of small stripers, a hybrid and a pickeral. Go figure.



Were you fishing Falls Lake or Jordan?

"Craig" wrote in message
ink.net...

"SimRacer" wrote in message
om...

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
They all look bigger in the water.

This spring I did some of my first sight fishing during the spawn. We
spotted many good sized fish during pre-fish outings and caught a few.
One
particular area rather amazed me. As backwater lakes along the river
go
it
is rather deeper than average. I spotted a lot of fish up shallowon
deep
banks spawning in the smallest of ledges. On one spot I noticed an
easy
five plus guarding a bed, and an amazingly large bass cruising out off
the
ledge or drop. If I had to guess I'ld put that fish in the 12-15 pound
range. I haven't seen that many big fish up close so... take that with
a
grain of salt. For comparison it looked a lot bigger (to me) than this
11.48 a friend of mine caught a week later in a different area.

My friend's 11.48


http://www.yumabassman.com/cgi-bin/y...h;action=displ
ay;num=1117413687

I have never caught many fish in that particular backwater, but I have
heard
it is a rather well known spawning area.

Anyway, I am curious as the water temps rise where I am most likely to
find
those big fish. It is a deeper than average backwater (8-9 feet). I
know
in another deep backwater of similar depth I have caught or hooked a
few
nice fish later in the summer. The conventional wisdom around here
though
is that the majority of the fish head out for the river as the temps
climb
towards our searing summer heats, and there is no doubt that they guys
who
flip the main river in summer tournaments weigh in a lot of decent
fish.

So if you were to go hunting to for that big girl this late in the year
where would you look for her?

For any who may be passing this info on to my local competitors. Its a
difficult backwater to access. If you know the river that should put
them
right on it. LOL.

--
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com



For me, I tend to start where they "should be" and then work shallow.
Where
they "should be" in the two lakes nearest me (with surface temps at or
above
80º, and both lakes' deepest pockets in the 45'-60' range) is in the
8'-18'
range of water, usually near some sort of structure (these are man-made
lakes mind you) such as tree stumps, old road beds, and in one instance,
an
old railroad rail bed. Of course this is heat of the day fishing I'm
talking. Early mornings and early evenings before/after the temps break
90º,
I will hit the rip-rap sections where elevated roads cross the lakes, and
of
course, long flat points that abut deeper pockets/channels, and so on.

*IF* all those areas fail to produce, I will move shallow and look for
lilly
pads or hydrilla clumps, sometimes in as little a water as 2 feet. Even
during the heat of our NC summers, it is not unusual to find cruising
bass
near pads/shade, anytime of the day sometimes it seems. But they usually
aren't fatties, just lean, smallish, buck bass as best I can tell.

But to specifically target early summer, big gal bass here, usually one
has
to go below 10' once the water hits 80º on the surface. The only 5lb
(8.4lbs) bass I've boated this year was taken in 15' of water, by slowly
dragging a wacky-rigged Senko down a ledge that started to falloff at
about
4 feet and descended down into about 28' of water. This was 3 weeks ago,
95º
ambient, 82º surface, and 78º at 15 ft on a 13,000 acre impoundment (We
boated 8 bass in this area, with this method, on that day.). The only
water
that was cooler was "down by the dam", and a thermocline showed up at 35
feet (72º at that depth). The only things we caught in there were a
couple
of small stripers, a hybrid and a pickeral. Go figure.



Were you fishing Falls Lake or Jordan?



Thatw as a beaughtiful description of fishing the thermocline. I'm just not
sure how it applies to a river and back water system where the deep areas
are 8-10 feet. There are a few deeper holes, but they are few and far
between.


--
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com

"Craig" wrote in message
ink.net...

"SimRacer" wrote in message
om...

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
They all look bigger in the water.

This spring I did some of my first sight fishing during the spawn. We
spotted many good sized fish during pre-fish outings and caught a few.
One
particular area rather amazed me. As backwater lakes along the river
go
it
is rather deeper than average. I spotted a lot of fish up shallowon
deep
banks spawning in the smallest of ledges. On one spot I noticed an
easy
five plus guarding a bed, and an amazingly large bass cruising out off
the
ledge or drop. If I had to guess I'ld put that fish in the 12-15
pound
range. I haven't seen that many big fish up close so... take that
with
a
grain of salt. For comparison it looked a lot bigger (to me) than
this
11.48 a friend of mine caught a week later in a different area.

My friend's 11.48



http://www.yumabassman.com/cgi-bin/y...h;action=displ
ay;num=1117413687

I have never caught many fish in that particular backwater, but I have
heard
it is a rather well known spawning area.

Anyway, I am curious as the water temps rise where I am most likely to
find
those big fish. It is a deeper than average backwater (8-9 feet). I
know
in another deep backwater of similar depth I have caught or hooked a
few
nice fish later in the summer. The conventional wisdom around here
though
is that the majority of the fish head out for the river as the temps
climb
towards our searing summer heats, and there is no doubt that they guys
who
flip the main river in summer tournaments weigh in a lot of decent
fish.

So if you were to go hunting to for that big girl this late in the
year
where would you look for her?

For any who may be passing this info on to my local competitors. Its
a
difficult backwater to access. If you know the river that should put
them
right on it. LOL.

--
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com



For me, I tend to start where they "should be" and then work shallow.
Where
they "should be" in the two lakes nearest me (with surface temps at or
above
80º, and both lakes' deepest pockets in the 45'-60' range) is in the
8'-18'
range of water, usually near some sort of structure (these are man-made
lakes mind you) such as tree stumps, old road beds, and in one instance,
an
old railroad rail bed. Of course this is heat of the day fishing I'm
talking. Early mornings and early evenings before/after the temps break
90º,
I will hit the rip-rap sections where elevated roads cross the lakes,
and
of
course, long flat points that abut deeper pockets/channels, and so on.

*IF* all those areas fail to produce, I will move shallow and look for
lilly
pads or hydrilla clumps, sometimes in as little a water as 2 feet. Even
during the heat of our NC summers, it is not unusual to find cruising
bass
near pads/shade, anytime of the day sometimes it seems. But they usually
aren't fatties, just lean, smallish, buck bass as best I can tell.

But to specifically target early summer, big gal bass here, usually one
has
to go below 10' once the water hits 80º on the surface. The only 5lb
(8.4lbs) bass I've boated this year was taken in 15' of water, by slowly
dragging a wacky-rigged Senko down a ledge that started to falloff at
about
4 feet and descended down into about 28' of water. This was 3 weeks ago,
95º
ambient, 82º surface, and 78º at 15 ft on a 13,000 acre impoundment (We
boated 8 bass in this area, with this method, on that day.). The only
water
that was cooler was "down by the dam", and a thermocline showed up at 35
feet (72º at that depth). The only things we caught in there were a
couple
of small stripers, a hybrid and a pickeral. Go figure.



Were you fishing Falls Lake or Jordan?



Jordan, right down at the dam/Haw River. Haven't made it to Falls this year,
it's a good haul from my Fuquay-Varina area home. I went a couple of times
last year to Falls, but haven't had the time to invest in finding the "good"
spots on that lake. Shearon Harris and Jordan are both just minutes from the
house and I get to fish them both a lot more regularly. And for stripers, I
normally head to Kerr, but the population in Jordan is growing I hear, so we
may start targeting them more specifically there soon.

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...

"Craig" wrote in message
ink.net...

"SimRacer" wrote in message
om...

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
They all look bigger in the water.

This spring I did some of my first sight fishing during the spawn.
We
spotted many good sized fish during pre-fish outings and caught a
few.
One
particular area rather amazed me. As backwater lakes along the river
go
it
is rather deeper than average. I spotted a lot of fish up shallowon
deep
banks spawning in the smallest of ledges. On one spot I noticed an
easy
five plus guarding a bed, and an amazingly large bass cruising out
off
the
ledge or drop. If I had to guess I'ld put that fish in the 12-15
pound
range. I haven't seen that many big fish up close so... take that
with
a
grain of salt. For comparison it looked a lot bigger (to me) than
this
11.48 a friend of mine caught a week later in a different area.

My friend's 11.48



http://www.yumabassman.com/cgi-bin/y...h;action=displ
ay;num=1117413687

I have never caught many fish in that particular backwater, but I
have
heard
it is a rather well known spawning area.

Anyway, I am curious as the water temps rise where I am most likely
to
find
those big fish. It is a deeper than average backwater (8-9 feet). I
know
in another deep backwater of similar depth I have caught or hooked a
few
nice fish later in the summer. The conventional wisdom around here
though
is that the majority of the fish head out for the river as the temps
climb
towards our searing summer heats, and there is no doubt that they
guys
who
flip the main river in summer tournaments weigh in a lot of decent
fish.

So if you were to go hunting to for that big girl this late in the
year
where would you look for her?

For any who may be passing this info on to my local competitors. Its
a
difficult backwater to access. If you know the river that should put
them
right on it. LOL.

--
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com



For me, I tend to start where they "should be" and then work shallow.
Where
they "should be" in the two lakes nearest me (with surface temps at or
above
80º, and both lakes' deepest pockets in the 45'-60' range) is in the
8'-18'
range of water, usually near some sort of structure (these are man-made
lakes mind you) such as tree stumps, old road beds, and in one
instance,
an
old railroad rail bed. Of course this is heat of the day fishing I'm
talking. Early mornings and early evenings before/after the temps break
90º,
I will hit the rip-rap sections where elevated roads cross the lakes,
and
of
course, long flat points that abut deeper pockets/channels, and so on.

*IF* all those areas fail to produce, I will move shallow and look for
lilly
pads or hydrilla clumps, sometimes in as little a water as 2 feet. Even
during the heat of our NC summers, it is not unusual to find cruising
bass
near pads/shade, anytime of the day sometimes it seems. But they
usually
aren't fatties, just lean, smallish, buck bass as best I can tell.

But to specifically target early summer, big gal bass here, usually one
has
to go below 10' once the water hits 80º on the surface. The only 5lb
(8.4lbs) bass I've boated this year was taken in 15' of water, by
slowly
dragging a wacky-rigged Senko down a ledge that started to falloff at
about
4 feet and descended down into about 28' of water. This was 3 weeks
ago,
95º
ambient, 82º surface, and 78º at 15 ft on a 13,000 acre impoundment (We
boated 8 bass in this area, with this method, on that day.). The only
water
that was cooler was "down by the dam", and a thermocline showed up at
35
feet (72º at that depth). The only things we caught in there were a
couple
of small stripers, a hybrid and a pickeral. Go figure.



Were you fishing Falls Lake or Jordan?



Thatw as a beaughtiful description of fishing the thermocline. I'm just
not
sure how it applies to a river and back water system where the deep areas
are 8-10 feet. There are a few deeper holes, but they are few and far
between.


I'm not the sharpest tack in the drawer, but I saw the extra "grey line" on
the LCD near the bottom, and lowered my temp sensor (I have a handheld, on
50' of cable, also supposedly shows the "colors" that are visible at the
depth you're measuring) down to that depth, and sure enough, it was almost
10º cooler down there. Didn't find any black bass while trying that
experiment, but did verify my LCD's ability to pickup on a thermocline.

If I had to guess, and you were speaking of 8-10 depths being a maximum,
that thermoclines aren't going to be present in such a water body. I'd think
the sun could totally heat a pool of 10' and less (based on water clarity
and bottom composition, I reserve the right to be corrected). When talking
about rivers, can't help there either. I fished the Cape Fear River quite
often as I grew up in Fayetteville (NC), but never had a boat with a finder,
much less any temp gauges...my common sense tells me that undercurrents may
produce or at least carry cooler water, but I don't have any experience to
draw from to make a real educated guess. In reality, I guess thermoclines
are possible *anywhere* that there may be an underground spring or well
easing up into an inpoundment. Just like rain runoff during the winter is
often warmer than the nearby lake surface temps...and can drive/hold bass
shallow even in freezing weather around here.


--
Bob La Londe
http://www.YumaBassMan.com