9-13-05 Structure/cover and how you fish it

[bobsfishing2]

  When I catfish I try to find bends,or were the water brakes and cast by it.Other times I try to find pockets where hole can be at.As for bait I usually use worm,chicken liver,turkey liver or shad.

[Lipripper]

Keep them coming Bob  so you fish for kitty-kats too 

[Ouachita]

When surface feeding is in progress around a dock I'll switch from jigs to topwater lures like Zara Spook. I'll cast it well past the back corner of a dock then let it sit still a minute to restore spooked bass. The Spook needs to be tuned by bending the line eye sideways so it will travel more to left or right as needed to bump into the dock wall or pass under the side of the dock. Any lure swimming from outside to inside like that isn't something bass see often from most anglers. The presentation is very convincing. I use the "walk the dog" retrieve, and will get more left travel than right travel with the eye bent right. You'll need two of each lure, one with eye bent right, one left, each for one side of the dock. I'm not saying twist the eye in or out, but bend it over sideways just a little. I never try bending them back out straight. Those tow are reserved for dock fishing. Most any topwater except maybe poppers can be modified to make them swim off to one side to bump into things. That technique is a bass slayer when used to bring a topwater down a long partly downed log with some air between it and the water. The lure can be made to swim under the log where you couldn't possibly cast it. No problem when a bass hits it, as they will be in the water below the log, so lead it out into the open water.

Jim

[Lipripper]

I like to throw a spinner bait and slow roll it over the downed trees and logs.

[Ouachita]

Dock owners often place brush piles nearby, which are excellent fish attractors. I won't neglect fishing those. There are a few crankbaits that'll fish those piles withut hanging up, most having a square bill and action with bill straight down to protect the hooks from snagging. If the lure does lodge on a branch I just stop and let some line out enough to let it sink or float depending on its nature, then continue retrieving carefully, counting on bumping a lot of wood to get a reaction strike. A suspending minnow with a designed depth to keep it barely above the brush is also a good choice. I'll follow that with a Texas rigged soft plastic like a Sweet Beaver and no doubt the newly won (yet to be tried) Ugly Otter, or a Brush Hawg, worm, tube or grub. Knowing crappie also love those brush piles I'll probably send a 1/32 oz hair jig down to it to check on some slabs that could be there. If the brush pile is present it ought to be fished before casting around the dock. I always work my way in to a good looking habitat to minimize spooking the outside guard that can alert fish farther back in an area.

Jim

[Kal-Kevin]

when fishing docks I like to put a ugly otter with no weight just  the hook weight to set it on the bottom in the center of the area and pull it out slowly.

[Kal-Kevin]

when fishing lay down trees I like to set a worm or centipede down near it and pull it down the length of it.

[Ouachita]

In low light hours when a jig isn't very visible under a dock a spinnerbait is effective there. The short armed version can be skipped under a dock like a jig, though any trailer needs to be short to prevent it from tumbling and sinking too soon or tangling line around blades. I will fish the spinnerbait the same way I would any jig.

Jim

[Ouachita]

Kevin, that brings up the whole line of soft jerkbaits that can be skipped under a dock and left to spiral down to bass below. Imitating a dying critter is hard to beat. Sometimes a jig just sinks way too fast for a bass to have time to react to it, but something slowly sinking in front of it has a great appeal. It just depends on their aggressiveness. If they are rising up to snatch a faster falling jig I'll stick to that because it's easier to skip and the time between casts is much shorter, letting me sample more zones before they change temperament. But if they stop biting the falling jig a slower presentation is the logical way to go.

Jim

[pegleg]

At night I slow roll a black spinner bait with twin colorado blades down the edges of docks and boat houses. I wake it on the surface first . If no strikes. I cast to the same spot and let it get about 3 or 4 ft. deep before I start to slow roll again.

[Ouachita]

Many docks have cross beam braces between support posts. I make use of those with an abrasion resistant line like Fireline. I'll cast beyond the brace and let a jig sink then bring it to the brace. I'll crawl the jig up to the board then let it fall back down, yo-yoing it over the beam. Catching a nice bass like that is a challenge, requiring getting the rod tip to the other side and trying to keep the rod from slapping the structure. That's another reason I use a short fiberglass rod besides superior skipping attributes and flexibility. As soon as the bass rises enough to clear the beam I yank it out into open water.  

Fireline, like most superlines used that way, rubbing on wood, will get fuzzy. While fuzzy mono ought to be cut out, that isn't necessary with superlines.

Jim

[mgd0702]

Well I like to throw open water flats with stumps on it.  Beating the stumps with a crankbait works well.

[mgd0702]

If I catch a few on the crankbait then I like to go through even slower with a weigthless senko and drop and flutter the senko down through the stumps. 

[mgd0702]

I like to find a rocky area along a somewhat smooth bank and throw a carolina rigged tube and work it out from the bank. 

[mgd0702]

I love to find a find a boat dock and try and get some kind of topwater lure up under it.  A spook or sometimes a Cavitron buzzbait works well. 

[mgd0702]

When fishing certain lakes with low bridges I like to skip senkos on light spinning tackle under where most people dont cast to.  Let it fall. 

[mgd0702]

When fishing off shore humps or rock piles I like to drag a jig with trailer by it.  Multiple casts will usually pay off even if the first 4 or 5 dont. 

[Ouachita]

Dock fishing on cloudy days requires rethinking. There will be no community of various species of fish trying to use the shade of any dock. Baitfish will roam and so will the bass. But where to? They won't generally move more than a hundred yards or so from their favorite dock. When I had a lake house I would crappie fish a lot from the dock and came to realize the really big bass tend to revisit their dock spot several times a day when cloudy. That taught me they don't wander far (in my opinion because that burns calories, something large bass just don't care to do). Since they come around checking on their usual digs frequently, I suppose to keep another bass from stealing their spot, I figure they are moving out only far enough to be close to where  baitfish will swim by until they need the dock shade again. It's been my experience larger bass stop at the first ledge of creek channel drop off they come to. That same jig, crankbait, topwater, or whatever worked around the docks will usually work in those new spots.

Jim

[mgd0702]

When fishing a moss bed  I will put on a floating worm.  Color depends on what the fish have shown me throughout the day.  Work it slow or fast. 

[mgd0702]

I like to throw a 5 " weightless tube (white) and work it back and forth like a jerkbait.  This is an odd presentation but works when the fish are heavily pressured.  My favorite area to throw this is rocky points or back in a cove where the wind has been blowing all day.  Let it sink slowly then a few quick flicks of the wrist. 

[mgd0702]

When fishing water that has been hit a lot I like to throw a small white jig with twisting type trailer.  This gives the fish a different appearance.  I like to fish this rig away from the bank to where the water drops off around a shelf or channel.  Try and throw from all different angles in front of the drop, in the drop, or on top of the shelf. 

[Ouachita]

Speaking of bridges, there's an excellent structure to fish in many ways. Most bridges are built in the narrowest pass along a river, so there's already a natural wind funneling action caused by terrain around the bridge, concentrated by the bridge. On a windy day when boat control is too difficult in open water I'll head straight to a bridge and position down wind of it where wind effects on the boat can be negligible. I recall a tournament on the Arkansas River in 1986 where I did that, sitting there in calm water while watching other anglers being tossed by high waves and boats being spun around. Very few of them cared to check out my position, from which I caught a lot of bass. Baitfish were pouring through the bridge, their forage forced through by wind and current, with apparently all the bass in the river following. I cast a Johnson Spoon under the bridge next to support pilings where some rip rap was piled around the concrete structures. Almost every cast brought me a bass. When the wind stopped that bite died, but not before getting me in second place and a check for $800. It might look silly and be a little dangerous anchoring in the middle of a river below a bridge with boats screaming by every few minutes, but hey, that was a winning strategy and I stayed dry that day. Several boaters stopped to check on my welfare, not used to seeing anyone do what I was doing.
Message: Think out of the box.

Jim

[bassadict69]

When fishing a dock, I like to fish the edges of it with something like a crank, spinnerbait or buzzbait...THEN...

[bassadict69]

...work the same dock with plastic , hitting each post & getting as far underneath it as possible.

[cable guy]

in the fall on lake of the ozarks you take a 1/4 oz mad dog jig and zoom super swimming chunk and swim the bait just under the styrfoam of the docks.the fish suspend