Need Help And I Need It Bad ! 2025
nwoods reply :
Guys,
I need help and I need it quick. I waiting all week for my time to go fishing yesterday at Smithville Lake in Smithville Missouri. I got on the water about 6:30 am and it was a bit chilly outside but I thought it was perfect. Water temp was 74 F and the air temp when the sun came out I think came out to be in 80's. Water color was murky but starting to clear up and I fished anywhere from 4' of water t o40' with fish everywhere in between on my finder. I threw spinners, cranks, jigs, worms and nothing and I MEAN NOTHING would bite !!!! I want to know why and/ or what I was doing wrong. I am a seasoned fisherman, I have fished all my life and I went to this lake last monday and caught two 2 lb bass in 2 hours. So I was feeling pretty good, did a lot of research all week and tried to put that research to use and came up with a big fat goosegg. My fishing buddy was with me and he is the same he is a seasoned fisherman with lots of fish under his belt and he didnt get a single nibble all day as well. Does anyone know if the fish just were not biting or if I was doing something incredibly wrong?!?!? We thought it was a perfect day and all the conditions were perfect so we are just simply baffled. Lake fishing is not our strong suit but I personally want it to become much better on large bodies of water. We fished brush, logs, trees, lillys, any structure we could find and just nothing. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME AND GIVE ME TIPS FOR LAKE FISHING!!!!
Thanks Guys!
NBR reply :
I can't say that I've noticed this in bass fishig but when I've seen this on the great lakes salmon fishing I know it will be a day of frustration. I think the fish are just hanging out and not acrive at all.
nwoods reply :
Yeah, I am curious to find out if they just wernt biting or if it was bad technique or whatever the case my be. There was 2 day fishing tourney happening at the same time, some other people I have spoke with thought that maybe the water was just kinda churned up from all the boats and people everywhere, but when I looked at that depth finder it was full of fish all day and I mean absolutely packed.
nwoods reply :
And it is a fairly decent sized lake, so surely ALL the fish wouldnt be dsitrubed by boat traffic
Texfisherman reply :
Didn't a cool front just sweep across the country over the weekend? I know bass can become quite lethargic post-cold/cool front. Usually takes them about 3 days to adjust to the new conditions. Just my thoughts.
nwoods reply :
Thanks for the reply, that very well could have been the case, it stormed about 2 days prior and the air did become chilly, the water temp dropped from 83 to 74.
BassAssassin726 reply :
Yea I would like to ask what was the weather? If a cold front just passed then it was probably blue bird skies and high pressure which usually turns fish off. I had a rough day yesterday too. Not a cloud in the sky.
J Francho reply :
How do you know what the graph was showing was really fish?
Texfisherman reply :
Like Bass Assassin, we too went fishing yesterday for 6 hours. We hit all of our usual hot spots and the only thing that was caught was a shad that my buddy side-hooked.
nwoods reply :
Yeah that was exactly the weather, not a single cloud to be seen and about 65 in the morning up to about 80 at noon. And I guess I can just assume that it was showing actual fish, I like to think my fish finder is dependable. I mainly only use it for depth and temp and for locating structure, dips, and ditches. But when you see fish all over it you cant help be get excited.
nwoods reply :
Along with the topic of fish on the finder, I do need a tip on how to read it. It scrolls left to right and my transducer is located on the back of the boat, so should I be reading it as in front to back or left to right like it is showing. So when I see a ditch I know where it actually is and which way it is running.
J Francho reply :
What is on the right side of the screen is what is under the transducer at that moment. The rest is just history, not really a picture of the bottom.
nwoods reply :
Sorry guys for the crazy number of posts, but also on the finder it would show some suspended weeds or moss and then show the fish under it, usually at about 8-9 foot deep in 15 ft water. So I think it was fairly accurate.
And thanks again to everyone who is posting and helping me out!
nwoods reply :
Here I am posting an example of what I am talking about, I have a Humminbird so this is purely a close example. I want to know what direction that ditch is going its it is parallel to me or perpidicular ?
J Francho reply :
You have to run a search grid to determine that.
nwoods reply :
Ok, thank you guys for the valuable feed back! Any tips for fishing standard lakes with broken trees and stumps as main structure?
Crestliner2008 reply :
Do you have your sonar set up to show the "little fishy" symbols on the screen? Or the arches? Most sonar manufacturers will tell you that when you look at these fish symbols on your screen, there is a greater chance of mis-representation; that is, you have a bigger chance of the fish return you are looking at actually being floating vegetation and/or brush. This is not me saying this mind you....rather the manufacturer. Take it for what it's worth.
nwoods reply :
On my finder, there are fish symbols and different sizes of fish symbols, I could easily see how it could pick up vegitation and represent it as a fish. It gets a little confusing it becaues you will see what looks like vegitation on the finder and then it will also show fish symbols either below it or sometimes in it.
Goose21 reply :
Hey boss, I'm in your neck of the woods! Fished all weekend on a private lake north of COMO.
I caught lots of dinks, probably only three decent fish 3lbs +. After that major front moved through Friday evening the fishing did slow down.
For what's it's worth, I downsized my bait to a T~rigged baby brush hog or zoom trick worm and the bite picked up for me. Showed down the retrieve, slow bottom hop.
Had my most success thoroughly fishing brush/standing timber and docks on rocky banks with quick access to deep water. I would darn near anchor on a spot that looked fishy. Had 0 luck at the back end of coves so I stuck to points and structure just off the main drag.
I've never been to Smithville but I hear folks over this way rant and rave about the crappie action.
Tight lines, and keep at it.
mikey5string reply :
the issue was probably the weather. I went fishing Saturday in overcast, windy conditions and did well. I couldnt get a bite yesterday. Bright blue skies with few clouds usually means lousy fishing. If the fish arent in the mood, it doesnt matter what you throw.
senile1 reply :
Your issue could have been any number of things already mentioned. Keep in mind that the thermocline at Smithville generally occurs around approximately 15 feet so there is no reason to fish any deeper than that during the hot months. Smithville fish will suspend on channel edge trees at about 10 feet down to the thermocline in Summer. Look for these trees on channel bends and intersections. They can also be found on points at that depth as well. Find these locations and you will increase your chances.
Having said that, I am a regular at Smithville Lake and for me, it is one of the most difficult lakes I have ever fished for bass. I can go out of town to other Missouri lakes that I don't know as well (Table Rock, Stockton, Norfork, Pomme De Terre, Truman, Mozingo, etc) and I rarely fail to put fish in the boat. I have spent a lot of time the last few years learning Smithville and I know it better than all of the other lakes combined, yet, my success rate is lower there, especially during the hotter months. I can only make educated guesses as to why that is the case. As a 7190 acre reservoir near the KC metro area it gets a ton of pressure and numerous tournaments which may have something to do with it.
nwoods reply :
Wow! Thank you for that information, very good to have! Yeah we had good luck on it once, but then the other day just brutal, and we were curious if it was like that for everyone or if we just were horrible fishermen. I think we want to try some other lakes, but with it being the closest lake to us (of any size) we wanted to fish it more and get into hopefully larger bass. Not really MORE , but really BIGGER bass. But, anyways, thank you again for that great information!
senile1 reply :
Smithville does have some nice bass but be ready to work for them. There are times when the bite will be on for only a very short time during the day. I have more success there when I spend my whole day on the water. If you only have 4 hours or less to fish, you may leave with nothing. 
Wayne P. reply :
<p>
On 9/10/2012 at 10:24 PM, nwoods said:Here I am posting an example of what I am talking about, I have a Humminbird so this is purely a close example. I want to know what direction that ditch is going its it is parallel to me or perpidicular ?
You have to cross it perpendicular and have recorded history to see its shape. The only way to find that out is notice the quick depth change and then cross that area at different angles.
If you get the boat speed and unit screen scroll speed correct, you can get a recording of what the creek/ditch shape is:
Without that recorded history, you can be positioned over the creek channel or on one side or the other and only see a flat bottom displayed.
Additionally the transducer is not a camera and the display is not a monitor. What you see displayed is not a picture.
Wayne P. reply :
Same location with Down Imaging sonar:
To see the actual route of a creek, it takes another technology. This is the same location with Side Imaging.
nwoods reply :
Awesome, thanks for the input, I feel kinda silly owning a depth finder and just now being able to understand it properly
nwoods reply :
This model here is essentially the one I have and you can see there is a mass above the fish then all the fish symbols everywhere, this is basically what I saw all day Sunday.
related Fishing Reports topic
previous topic
next topic
© 2025 - fishing.qciss.net. All Rights Reserved.