HELP HELP!

[PunkBass]

There is a lake i fish that is open all year because of a powerplant that warms the water and i fished there a few days ago and having an outcome i didn't expect.
There is a channel that pushes out the warm water to the main part of the lake and that is where i usually fish in the winter because of the waters warmest temperature. The water is stained and it cant be over 8 feet in some of the spots there and on the channel it is covered with a lot of rocks on the shoreline and then im pretty sure that is most of the bottom by the channel is mostly rocks.
There isn't much cover that i know of other then in the rocks and maybe some structures underwater.
Anyways i was just really looking for some help if anyone had any ideas i should be going out there tuesday again and i want to be ready this time.
I was out saturday morning and the Temp. outside reached about 40 degrees and i tried plastics(lizards, ribbontails, tubes) to jerkbaits and then i managed to pull out one pound and a half bass on a black and blue jig. At the time the current was so fast that it was drifting along hitting rocks on the way and while i started to reel it went towards the surface from the force of me reeling and it hit it then and i could see the whirl in the water. The bass seemed to come from the rocks over hanging in the channel.
So i ended up fishing the jig for most of the time and was out there for 4 hours and just ended up with one. and then one strike that i missed.
So that pretty much sums it up if you got through all that haha, but i live in North Dakota and all of our lakes freeze up except that one, so it's a little harder for me to read.
oh and by the way the lake consists of Largemouth Bass, Pike, Walleye, Crappie and blugills.
If anyone has any advise i would really apprectiate it.
thanks!!!
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[davetclown]

ok, sounds like walleye teritory.

if you can out there with a boat, ancor in the center up river of a hole, I am sure there are holes there even if they are only a foot deep. but no matter if you cant find a hole, center or near a shelf is where you want to be.

place a slip bullet or egg sinker to get your line down but not enough to make it sink to the bottom you want it to stay up just off the bottom but you dont want it to rise to the top

or a tip sinker with a wire that will stand up and hold your leeder up off the bottom of the river.

here you will want a single hook leader, one with beeds and spinner blades will enhance your hits. you can use soft plastics, live bait works best on the walleye, using walleye sized shiners on a single hook harnes and maybe a stinger hook for you if you are a late hook setter.

depending on the current speed you will want different leader lenths. slower speeds you want shorter leaders faster speeds longer leaders work better.

when you ancor and you put your line streight down and it goes out to a 30 to 45 degree angle before you hit bottom you are in optimal conditions. so take different weights sizes.

other wise tie on a large sinker to a three foot leader below a large swivel snap cast it out and place your rod in your holder. now take your harness and atach it to a smaller swivel snap and clip it on to your line and drop it down, it will hit the prefered depth of three feet and sit there and spin for you.

you will pull up any bass and walleye that pass though.

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for blue gill and crappie you need to get near the bottom, I am sure you are past first ice so they are no longer hitting on top of the water, if by chance they still are fly rod is the way to go. get away from the river and use small jigs and fish straight down over the side of your boat. you will need to find structure of some kind, even if it is a dead weed bed, the fish will remember where it is and come back all year to feed and hide there.

the gills only want a mouth full, so again small jigs tipped with a gurb from your local bait shop. they will ocationaly when they put on the feed bag go after minnows. size #8 hooks on your jigs, This method produces bass as well

Crappie you want to do the same over the side of your boat, you can use larger jig or plain arbordeen hook size #6 hook. use your favorite single minnow set up. This method produces bass as well.
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[PunkBass]

Hey,
thanks so much daveclown.
i'm heading out there tomorrow morning, the thing is i wont have a boat but i have a tube this time. so i will come back with my report, thanks again.
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[Dryrod]

[center][cool][font "Poor Richard"][green][size 4]Hi there PunkBass hope that you had some good luck the other day. Something else that you could consider is using a Drop Shot setup. That is how I caught my first bass in stained water that was about 10 -12' deep.[/size][/green][/font][/center]
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[PunkBass]

hey dryrod
it feels really good to be back on the boards again, i was gone for sometime but now im back and it feels good to know that all of the people here are willing to help.

sorry to say but i didn't get out yesterday morning because of the freezing rain and the road condition but i just got myself up and i am preparing to go.

the drop shot rig has been really tuff for me to like. part of it is because its not like fishing a jig or some kind of plastics that i can repeatedly find new spots and stuff like that. and i can be pretty hard on myself especially with patients lol, if you'd like i was wondering if you could get me some more info on rigging up a drop shot rig.

thanks[]
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[Dryrod]

[center][cool][font "Poor Richard"][green][size 4]Good to have you back PunkBass. Ask & yea shall receive. Here are some illustrations on Drop Shotting. Now get out there rain or shine.LOL[/size][/green][/font][/center] [center]
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[dabluz]

Well, it looks like you have a great spot for catching fish. Due to the current, you must fish close to bottom. Yes, you will snag up often. Since you are fishing from shore, you will have to do a lot of experimenting in order to memorize the depths of the water in various places where you fish.

Since you can't go out on the water, you could use a sliding float with a stopper on your line so that your bait will drift along just off bottom.

For sinkers, use various size split shot with the lowest and smallest split shot about 18 inches from the bait. Yes, you deducted right....use more than one split shot. You place about 3 split shot about 1 foot apart. The largest split shot is at the top and the smallest on the bottom. This way, your bait will drift ahead of the sliding float. Use a long slim float (Thill style float)...they move a bit slower in the current. The current is much slower near bottom. The larger split shot will be directly below the float, the next size split shot will be a bit further downstream and the smallest split shot will be even further downstream. The first thing the fish will see is the bait. Don't cast upstream until you have figured out the depth you should set up the float stopper. Use a natural bait. The fish are there because they feed on bait that is disloged from the bottom or minnows who have wandered too far from the bottom and get swept down a few feet before they can regain the bottom.

At nightfall, you can use crank baits close to shore for walleye. You can also choose floating or suspending crankbaits that swim at specifique depths.
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[PunkBass]

Well i have some really good news!!!

Went out on my tube and i fished with a black and blue jig and managed to pull one out and then it was slow so i had set up a drop shot rig and was in luck....i pulled out 2 bass with it.. it was really surprizing, i've never had the best of luck with new things. i used a berkely power minnow with it and it worked great.
thanks everyone for helpiing me out : )
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[PunkBass]

hey dabluz
i ended up trying a crankbait and pulled in quite a few crappie lol
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[dabluz]

Great! Glad to see you had good luck. The more you become familiar with your fishing spot, the better you get to know it. When you cast a crankbait that swims at a certain depth and you know that it's close to bottom without hanging up....it's up to the fish to do their part.

For "drop shoting" or "bottom bouncing", I like to use lead weights that have a piece of wire sticking out from the bottom. This way, you can feel the bottom but the sinker has much less chance of getting caught between the rocks. I buy those old style sinkers that have a large split down the center. I just stick a wire down the center and squeeze the weight tightly around the wire. It's not very important when you are anchored but you want to move around in order to catch those fish who are hugging the bottom in front or behind the rocks in order to get out of the current.
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