where are you catching your fish? 2024
skunked_again reply :
right now im having a hard time hooking up in smaller lakes/ponds while finding the fish in the bigger lakes has been a simple task. every larger lake ive hit ive found the bait fish close to deep water and caught fish. bait fish plus structure and im on the fish.
in the smaller lakes/ponds ive fished bait fish, flats, rip rap, beat the banks, everything short of dynamite. its really slow right now.
anyone else seeing this?
EastMarkME reply :
Got a few good size in shallow cover on a Cavitron buzzbait today including this one. The 2 bigger ones were in 3-4 feet or less with thinning lily pads. It was a small shallow cove.
This guy was just over 4 on the digital scale.
Mark
DINK WHISPERER reply :
On the lakes i am still finding them on the deeper weedlines. On the ponds i am like you. The last 5 outings with my daughter have been one big S K U N K!!!
Shane J reply :
Been just the opposite for me. I'm having a harder time on the bigger lakes, and killin' 'em in small ponds near the shore with a top water bait ( Rage Shad). Then again, I spend most of my time on smaller ponds anyway.
ptomacbass reply :
15 to 40 feet of water on jigging spoons, Drop shots, football jigs, and flutter spoons.
Bainza reply :
Just got home from my regular pond...about 5 acres. Was hittin em pretty good in about 2-3 feet of water in the weeds.
KYntucky Warmouth reply :
right now, nowhere...been having a tough time the last few out.
chubaka reply :
Same here last 4 trips to my local lake managed to get one small one, and skunked out the last 3. Sadness, its slowed down big time.
SammyLee reply :
I'm sorta glad it's not just me. I fished a bunch of hours on Percy Priest near Nashville, skunked. My local lake produced nothing for three weeks, top, bottom and the middle. Cranks, worms or surface lures got nada.
Just about 4 days ago, the local 40 acre lake started to wake up on worms on the bottom in about 5 to 10 feet of water. This Saturday they were schooling on the surface and I got about seven. Sunday the same activity but fewer fish. Today, nada again. Oh well.
Al my buds say mid October here in West Tennessee will be fun. I'll be back to Picwick in the next few weeks and my wife is looking for a place for us and the dogs at Kentucky Lake too.
ChiCityBasser reply :
My last couple of times out fishing a small lake I caught all mine in a shallow cove with the water pretty much muddy using a spinnerbait with a bigger colorado blade and on both the Strike King 1XS and the Bandit Footloose. All of them were right around 1-2# including the ones that managed to get off due to my own fault.
So far everything has been in less than 3 ft of water
Dock Master reply :
All of my fish have came off this one creek channel ledge in 12-15 FOW on a Carolina rig.
JLBomber reply :
5-12 feet of water, points. Shallows always produce but no oinks. Plastics still effective but taking backseat to cranks (baby bass/craw) and spins (for me anyway).
Gomer Pyle reply :
As a matter of fact, the fishing has been surprisingly good these past couple of weeks considering the water temps are 87-88 degrees. Ponds and small lakes here in my area of Florida are almost always good for 4-6 fish, if not more. 
I'm heading out to one of my favorite local ponds tomorrow morning, I'm anticipating a minimum 6-8 fish between 6am and 10am. I head to the house after about 10am, gets hot as hell by then.
Lobster Monster reply :
Living in Florida, I pretty much catch all my fish at all times of the year in shallow water because that's pretty much all I fish. It's more a question of if they're hitting worms, spinnerbaits, jigs, or topwater.
Gangley reply :
in the hallows, 1-3 fet around cover.
Crestliner2008 reply :
I agree this has been a very bad year, weather wise. Here in MA, we didn't even start to get the water temps above 70 degrees until 3 weeks ago! Now it's back down into the low 70's again! Tell me that's not to put a crimp in anyone's action!
Hey muddy - Knowing how to read your sonar is not going to help much with this crazy summer we've just had! For instance, I take several screen shots of the depths I fish every trip. So I can go back and learn something for the next outing. Here's some samples:
We spent the day yesterday (SM fishing) working these depths and a lot more. Found bait everywhere on great structures. But the fish had lockjaw. When we hit the first spot (35') at 6:40 am, we hammered them. Only 45 min. later, they shut down. Didn't matter where or how deep you fished....or what you used. We caught nothing after the sun burned through the heavy fog.
In this case, I believe it was a "light" situation. Maybe due to heavy pressure. Not sure. It did pay off, being there early, with about 1/2 dozen decent smallies caught & released. But the action didn't last long.
If you want some tips on setting up your sonar, don't hesitate to let me know. I've been fishing off-shore structures for smallies a lot over the past 1/2 dozen years or more. 
nick76 reply :
Been a rough year here too. The weather has been unusually cool and the biting has slowed to a crawl. Last weekend though it lit up. The bass seem to be heading into a fall pattern. My favorite time of year for catching bass. They are feeding like crazy and the coold nights bring them back. Went out sunday witha buddy and caught 12 bass only one of which was less than 14 inches. Largest was 22 inches and just a touch under 6lbs. They were hitting the shallow weeds and the light cover of the pads. Soft plastics rigged to just go across the top of the cover and it was on.
Did I mention I love fall bass the best.
bottledgt reply :
d**n, they are hitting nothing like that around here...still slow as hell for 2 weeks or more now... end up having to pitch jig the cover to get anything. and even that is nothing big at all. usually not even keepers. im sure they are deep but every time i try that, its a big disapointment and 0 fish.i keep tryin though,just never clicks
bilgerat reply :
Lately here with the cold front our fish are buried DEEP in the reeds. I mean to the point where you have to blast a jig inside and bonk one on the head to get it to bite.
It is a dinkfest in the open water though.... :-/
Fire Arasi reply :
My only success is in the shallow water under the dam of lake. I cannot catch anything in big water. I have no boat so shallow water enables me to wade fishing
TrippyJai reply :
QuoteI agree this has been a very bad year, weather wise. Here in MA, we didn't even start to get the water temps above 70 degrees until 3 weeks ago! Now it's back down into the low 70's again! Tell me that's not to put a crimp in anyone's action!Hey muddy - Knowing how to read your sonar is not going to help much with this crazy summer we've just had! For instance, I take several screen shots of the depths I fish every trip. So I can go back and learn something for the next outing. Here's some samples:
We spent the day yesterday (SM fishing) working these depths and a lot more. Found bait everywhere on great structures. But the fish had lockjaw. When we hit the first spot (35') at 6:40 am, we hammered them. Only 45 min. later, they shut down. Didn't matter where or how deep you fished....or what you used. We caught nothing after the sun burned through the heavy fog.
In this case, I believe it was a "light" situation. Maybe due to heavy pressure. Not sure. It did pay off, being there early, with about 1/2 dozen decent smallies caught & released. But the action didn't last long.
If you want some tips on setting up your sonar, don't hesitate to let me know. I've been fishing off-shore structures for smallies a lot over the past 1/2 dozen years or more.
Can you explain to me what you see from each sonar shot? I usually rent my boats so all I do is beat the banks. I rarely fish in open water, but am looking to buy my first boat soon. Hopefully I can learn from deep water skills.
uicdent11 reply :
I am also rather new to reading sonar and would appreciate it. If anybody has time, could you post some screen shots and explain what you see? You can start a new thread if you didn't want to hijack this one. I am sure Trippyjai would appreciate it as much as I will.
Crestliner2008 reply :
QuoteThats a lot of arches on the weed tops on that hump, in the second pic
That's not a hump. It's a ball of bait (mainly small perch and smelt) with the fish on top of it. The bottom structures I fish are shelves and drop offs with about 1' of mossy weeds on the bottom. I anchor on these structures and let the bait balls - and bass - come to me. Works like a charm. BTW, the second one is where we killed 'em at first light.
Crestliner2008 reply :
TrippyJai - As said in the previous post, what I'm showing are balls of bait at various depths. How you know they are bait balls is by two ways. First of all, I'm anchored. So, when that mass of bait comes rolling in, you know the bottom content hasn't grown like that! Besides, the sonar doesn't shoot through masses of rock (which most off-shore structure is composed of - around here anyway). Secondly, I've used an Aqua View on several occasions to verify the type of bait I'm looking at. I've had enough experience to know which is what, by looking at the screen.
26.3' - Decent size ball of perch. (They were pecking our DS baits to death!) The leading edge shows some minor arches. Probably small bass or larger perch. A smallie will show as a heavy straight line, when you're anchored like I am. The top of the screen is signal clutter and is to be ignored. BTW....the verticle line is my drop shot line.
34.7' - Another ball of bait on the bottom coming through. This one is mixed with bass on top of the screen and some just coming in behind it on the right of the screen. A few fish coming through at about 15' - 20'. These are either rainbows or salmon - again, I ignore these, unless I'm getting desperate!
42.1' - A single ball of bait which stayed under us. It drifted back & forth under us, which is why you see the same sized ball on several locations in a single screen shot. And again, the vertical line is my drop shot. We did not catch anything here however. If you notice, no really decent fish are shown either. But fishing a bait ball like this is always worth a shot. Sometimes the biggest bass of the day will come here!
Hope this was of some help to you.
avid reply :
My old reliable spots are paying off on a regular basis. It's so much shallow or deep, it's more that the spots that have been working in the past are producing steadily.
It's been so reliable at times that I can go to a lake and fish around a little then say "it's time to get one" and go to a particular spot and bang! fish on.
Isn't always like this but right now it's let the good times roll.
Gatorbassman reply :
In the heat of the summer small lakes loose their ability to hold usable oxygen due to high water temps. The fish will move around untill the find oxygen. Find where the water is entering the lake. This will be where the most oxygen is.
Bankbeater reply :
They have been holding tight to cover in the lakes around here. Jigs and topwater baits have been working the best.
CWB reply :
QuoteIn the heat of the summer small lakes loose their ability to hold usable oxygen due to high water temps. The fish will move around untill the find oxygen. Find where the water is entering the lake. This will be where the most oxygen is.
This is pretty much the case on my home lake and I rarely fish deeper than 15 feet. Deep weedline is at about 10-12 feet. Plenty of shallow cover to fish and there always seems to be some active fish shallow for me. Of course water temps aren't 100 deg up here.
TrippyJai reply :
QuoteTrippyJai - As said in the previous post, what I'm showing are balls of bait at various depths. How you know they are bait balls is by two ways. First of all, I'm anchored. So, when that mass of bait comes rolling in, you know the bottom content hasn't grown like that! Besides, the sonar doesn't shoot through masses of rock (which most off-shore structure is composed of - around here anyway). Secondly, I've used an Aqua View on several occasions to verify the type of bait I'm looking at. I've had enough experience to know which is what, by looking at the screen.26.3' - Decent size ball of perch. (They were pecking our DS baits to death!) The leading edge shows some minor arches. Probably small bass or larger perch. A smallie will show as a heavy straight line, when you're anchored like I am. The top of the screen is signal clutter and is to be ignored. BTW....the verticle line is my drop shot line.
34.7' - Another ball of bait on the bottom coming through. This one is mixed with bass on top of the screen and some just coming in behind it on the right of the screen. A few fish coming through at about 15' - 20'. These are either rainbows or salmon - again, I ignore these, unless I'm getting desperate!
42.1' - A single ball of bait which stayed under us. It drifted back & forth under us, which is why you see the same sized ball on several locations in a single screen shot. And again, the vertical line is my drop shot. We did not catch anything here however. If you notice, no really decent fish are shown either. But fishing a bait ball like this is always worth a shot. Sometimes the biggest bass of the day will come here!
Hope this was of some help to you.
Very informative post and it has helped me out big time. I actually had no idea what I was looking at. First impression, I though it was a hump with no fish around. I guess I won't really know until I get my first boat next summer, but it's always nice to get an idea for that little head start.
EastMarkME reply :
QuoteQuoteTrippyJai - As said in the previous post, what I'm showing are balls of bait at various depths. How you know they are bait balls is by two ways. First of all, I'm anchored. So, when that mass of bait comes rolling in, you know the bottom content hasn't grown like that! Besides, the sonar doesn't shoot through masses of rock (which most off-shore structure is composed of - around here anyway). Secondly, I've used an Aqua View on several occasions to verify the type of bait I'm looking at. I've had enough experience to know which is what, by looking at the screen.26.3' - Decent size ball of perch. (They were pecking our DS baits to death!) The leading edge shows some minor arches. Probably small bass or larger perch. A smallie will show as a heavy straight line, when you're anchored like I am. The top of the screen is signal clutter and is to be ignored. BTW....the verticle line is my drop shot line.
34.7' - Another ball of bait on the bottom coming through. This one is mixed with bass on top of the screen and some just coming in behind it on the right of the screen. A few fish coming through at about 15' - 20'. These are either rainbows or salmon - again, I ignore these, unless I'm getting desperate!
42.1' - A single ball of bait which stayed under us. It drifted back & forth under us, which is why you see the same sized ball on several locations in a single screen shot. And again, the vertical line is my drop shot. We did not catch anything here however. If you notice, no really decent fish are shown either. But fishing a bait ball like this is always worth a shot. Sometimes the biggest bass of the day will come here!
Hope this was of some help to you.
Very informative post and it has helped me out big time. I actually had no idea what I was looking at. First impression, I though it was a hump with no fish around. I guess I won't really know until I get my first boat next summer, but it's always nice to get an idea for that little head start.
I agree. This is invaluble to me. Id LOVE to see more screenshots from you guys and explaination of what it is.
Any websites that have folks that do this?
Mark
D4u2s0t reply :
My lake is man made, and there's not a large mount of natural structure. Once you get a few feet from the shore, it's pretty consistently 10-11 feet throughout, but there are a few dropoffs and some great stumps out in the water. I've been catching my fish right out in the middle, with no logical reason for even fishing there. The "Obvious" spots that anyone would think would hold fish are dead. I've been getting my fish like I said just randomly casting out in the middle of the lake, in a pattern that makes almost no sense when thinking about the fundementals of structure fishing. Here's a few from the middle
This one is held right next to my body.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30379991&l=a96d905457&id=1003390062
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30378368&l=9742c10b1d&id=1003390062
In this pic you can really see i'm just out there in the middle
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30310774&l=51165bca81&id=1003390062
These are great fish in my lake, I'm yet to break the 5 pound mark. (lucky southerners that think a 5 lber is a dink i hate you lol ) But I fairly consistently pull out nice 3-4 lbers.
That being said, break the mold. If you're not catching fish on the shore (which is typically not the ideal spot over the summer) just get out there and try new spots. I ended up randomly casting in frustration one day, my thoughts were "Fishing sucks this year! I may as welll just throw my bait where I know there are no fish. That way at least I know it won't be my ability to find fish" and then WHACK! There they were! So give it a try!
basswitch reply :
QuoteQuoteQuoteTrippyJai - As said in the previous post, what I'm showing are balls of bait at various depths. How you know they are bait balls is by two ways. First of all, I'm anchored. So, when that mass of bait comes rolling in, you know the bottom content hasn't grown like that! Besides, the sonar doesn't shoot through masses of rock (which most off-shore structure is composed of - around here anyway). Secondly, I've used an Aqua View on several occasions to verify the type of bait I'm looking at. I've had enough experience to know which is what, by looking at the screen.26.3' - Decent size ball of perch. (They were pecking our DS baits to death!) The leading edge shows some minor arches. Probably small bass or larger perch. A smallie will show as a heavy straight line, when you're anchored like I am. The top of the screen is signal clutter and is to be ignored. BTW....the verticle line is my drop shot line.
34.7' - Another ball of bait on the bottom coming through. This one is mixed with bass on top of the screen and some just coming in behind it on the right of the screen. A few fish coming through at about 15' - 20'. These are either rainbows or salmon - again, I ignore these, unless I'm getting desperate!
42.1' - A single ball of bait which stayed under us. It drifted back & forth under us, which is why you see the same sized ball on several locations in a single screen shot. And again, the vertical line is my drop shot. We did not catch anything here however. If you notice, no really decent fish are shown either. But fishing a bait ball like this is always worth a shot. Sometimes the biggest bass of the day will come here!
Hope this was of some help to you.
Very informative post and it has helped me out big time. I actually had no idea what I was looking at. First impression, I though it was a hump with no fish around. I guess I won't really know until I get my first boat next summer, but it's always nice to get an idea for that little head start.
I agree. This is invaluble to me. Id LOVE to see more screenshots from you guys and explaination of what it is.
Any websites that have folks that do this?
Mark
I agree, I just got a Humminbird PiranhaMax 230 portable, and I'm having a great time learning it. Probably looking at it more than I'm fishing! But I would love a site with some screenshots to give me some ideas. Any site like this I've come across so far has been of really nice expensive sonars, which don't really help me lol. All that being said, the nice bass I caught yesterday was right up under the bushes around an island,1 or 2 feet deep, and not where my finder could see him:)
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