Liberty Reservoir Bass Fishing Reports

goosehunter4499 · August 24, 2012, 05:44:36 PM

Fished liberty today for about 6 hours. Caught a bunch of quality fish. Water temp started at 76 then got to about 81 before we left. No luck on topwater. Cranks and soft plastics were the ticket. The best fishing was main lake points in the 16-25 ft range. This hog was 22".
Good fishing

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hellbendernut · September 02, 2012, 04:24:26 PM

Goose499 -- That is a really Nice Largemouth (above)..... My friend Jason Rawlings and I, were fishing Liberty today, out of my boat and we caught "a bunch" of really nice smallmouth and a few largemouth also...we caught most of our fish throwing topwater and spinnerbaits.. from 6 am to 1 pm.. here is a pic of the biggest smallmouth caught.....it jumped 4 ft out of the water...wish i had it on video... Nice fish Jason....

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goosehunter4499 · September 02, 2012, 06:19:45 PM

Ditto on your fish. Nothing like catching those smallies on topwater especially big ones...

I'm curious to know, as I've been itching to try for those stripers, if anyone can tell me when the bite for them starts to pick up??

Thanx, Good fishing

Zam · September 02, 2012, 06:34:03 PM

Wow I would love to catch a smallmouth that size, liberty seems to have some real trophys. whats the odds of catching a big smallmouth from shore?

goosehunter4499 · September 02, 2012, 06:46:43 PM

Zam, I think your odds are pretty good. I see alot of shore fisherman catch really nice fish. Find those rocks and you'll be good to go. I'm not sure where to tell you to go but I think a good starting point would be somewhere off the 32 bridge.

Zam · September 02, 2012, 07:22:51 PM

Thanks, I may try it tomarrow morning, I've fished near the 26 bridge, oakland mill rd and nicodemus bridge but I've never caught a smallmouth there, never really ever targetted them though

hellbendernut · September 02, 2012, 07:56:17 PM

Goose... im not a expert on rockfish at all...they are hard to locate consistently but my favorite time to catch them is in mid October through December.... and live bait free lined has worked best for me....water temperatures below 65... low light mornings, evenings and cloudy days are best... but it is a hit or miss deal... spend many hours to catch one, but when you hook one it makes it worth it....

Zam .... My advice on the smallmouth is get yourself near rocks and/or gravel... and main lake points "tend" to hold more smallies then coves....but they can be caught in lots of places..and all over the lake....the spots you named are good.... The Rt32 area is good, but south of the rt32 bridge in the fall seems better "for me" for the smallmouth, i catch more largemouth above/north of the bridge. .... I perfer the liberty Rd area for smallies... and up around oakland pt near the orange floats and the points within walking distance of that are good.. you just might have to walk around some... and cover ground.. the water is starting to drop.. it needs to drop 5 more feet or so, to make walking shoreline easier... also i have had a boat permit for liberty for 31 years, but still my biggest smallmouth to date came when shoreline fishing.... i still do a lot of shoreline fishing,,, your odds are very good... Good Luck tomorrow....

Zam · September 03, 2012, 10:32:01 AM

Quote from: hellbendernut on September 02, 2012, 07:56:17 PM
Goose... im not a expert on rockfish at all...they are hard to locate consistently but my favorite time to catch them is in mid October through December.... and live bait free lined has worked best for me....water temperatures below 65... low light mornings, evenings and cloudy days are best... but it is a hit or miss deal... spend many hours to catch one, but when you hook one it makes it worth it....

Zam .... My advice on the smallmouth is get yourself near rocks and/or gravel... and main lake points "tend" to hold more smallies then coves....but they can be caught in lots of places..and all over the lake....the spots you named are good.... The Rt32 area is good, but south of the rt32 bridge in the fall seems better "for me" for the smallmouth, i catch more largemouth above/north of the bridge. .... I perfer the liberty Rd area for smallies... and up around oakland pt near the orange floats and the points within walking distance of that are good.. you just might have to walk around some... and cover ground.. the water is starting to drop.. it needs to drop 5 more feet or so, to make walking shoreline easier... also i have had a boat permit for liberty for 31 years, but still my biggest smallmouth to date came when shoreline fishing.... i still do a lot of shoreline fishing,,, your odds are very good... Good Luck tomorrow....

Thanks! I ended up fishing around the oakland pt area, I only caught one small largemouth, but I lost three fish that felt nice. I didn't expect to do to well my first time but I plan on putting in some time in the area

infernus1986 · September 30, 2012, 11:23:05 AM

Went up yesterday from around noon till sunset caught a few of small largemouth all along the shore from the boat ramp. I must say having the shore to walk around and the lighter weed cover makes it worth the hour ride and a welcome increase in fish compared to LRR.

Biggest out of the four I caught

gosan81 · October 15, 2012, 04:53:56 PM

Hey, everyone. I'm making my first trip out to Liberty for the first time tomorrow. I have a good plan for what I'm doing tomorrow, but I was wondering if anyonewould be so kind to let me know if they feel the bite is gonna be off because of this cold front coming through tonight. If so, any ideas to alleviate the effect? I'm really excited to finally get out there.

gosan81 · October 17, 2012, 11:24:18 AM

Went for the first time yesterday. On the water by 8:00am and stayed until 1:30pm. Water surface temp was 63-64 degrees. Windy, very windy. 10mph WNW wih gusts up to 23 mph on the main lake. There was some topwater action going on early, but we decided to move to the back of a few coves with feeder creeks to try and see if there was bait back there in light of the recent rain. Threw spinners, topwater, cranks, and some other stuff. No dice. Worked the points with the wind too. Ended up just flipping soft plastic to deadfall and caught a few small LM with the largest being a little over a pound. In fairess, we really didn't go too far from the ramps. My first impression is that it is a beautiful, clear lake with the great potential to catch big fish. I'm looking forward to getting back out there soon. Btw, anyone know where "the canyons" are in the lake?

rhutch · October 17, 2012, 11:57:16 AM

the canyon is above nicodemus bridge about a mile. fished up there last week caught a lot of small fish with a few keepers. biggest was tryin to be 2 lb

deleonjo · October 25, 2012, 06:08:06 PM

How is the water level at Liberty these days? Is it low enough to walk the shoreline? Thanks in advance.

Zam · October 25, 2012, 07:40:16 PM

The water has rose a lot in the last couple weeks. you can still walk the shoreline in most places but the shoreline is smaller

deleonjo · October 26, 2012, 04:54:10 AM

Thanks, Zam. Gonna head out there today.

BigBee · October 26, 2012, 07:21:36 AM

One thing to always remember about smallies is to be near deep water. They are very different than LM bass. LM may cruise the shallows, smallies will cruise from deep water to shallow'er' water to bust baitfish and crawfish. Gotta be near the deeper waters. If the fall will be anything like the Spring - hold onto your rod! Working a carolina rigged lizard or tube was 'the bomb' in the spring. More BIG smallies than I can ever remember - ALL from the shoreline. Maybe this weekend will produce a few???

BenFishing · March 05, 2013, 08:19:25 AM

Getting to be that time of year again!

Heading out to Liberty this weekend, to see what I can find. Hopefully, I'll have some fish to talk about.

mball992003 · March 08, 2013, 07:51:31 AM

My partner and I are headed to liberty tommarrow to do some work and some fishing.

BenFishing · March 10, 2013, 12:54:16 PM

Didn't do much out there. Got a late start, and only had a few hours out there. The further north I went, the muddier the water got. Down south, it had more of a green tint. Caught one 3 inch yellow perch, on a 3 inch jerk bait, not counting the inch long bill. Mostly, scouted out lots of shore fishing areas, since the leaves haven't really come in yet, and it was easier to move around.

20inchbass · April 13, 2013, 05:39:25 PM

Anybody doing any good at Liberty lately? Are the fish moving up?

H8R · April 14, 2013, 02:30:31 PM

I'll be hitting Liberty next weekend . Anyone smacking Smallies yet?

BigBee · April 14, 2013, 09:30:32 PM

Oddly - NO... not yet.

A few here and there but not knocking 'em dead yet. Been hitting evenings - time to do the first light thing sometime this week.. LM different story - they seem to be everywhere in the shallows??? Last year smallie fishing was fantastic. I guess gotta be patient... ANy body else?

20inchbass · April 27, 2013, 08:50:17 PM

Dad and I fished from 4:30 to 7:30 tonight, caught 15 bass and Dad caught 3 big rock bass. This one was the last one of the evening, also the biggest of the day.

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H8R · April 28, 2013, 07:58:25 AM

That fish is about a pretty as she can be! Noce job

BigBee · May 07, 2013, 07:48:55 AM

Well, how did anyone fair this past weekend with the sunny, warm weather?? Only able to spend about 2 hours Saturday evening - my son landed 4 - 3 SM and 1 LM. One smallie was almost 3.5 pounds, a big, skinny male. The LM had about a dozen big black spots on it. I'll have to see if I can post a pic. Weird. Also all 4 fish had tears on their lips. Kinda strange, but nice to see him pull a few out from the shoreline. Using a 4" tube on a Carolina rig - on secondary points... Water is still HIGH.

Liberty Reservoir Bass Fishing Reports

H8R

H8R