Need help for Tournment

[Al Greco]

Need some help from the board on a big tournament this weekend. The tournament payout is 9K with first place paying a cool 5K. The format is a buddy tournament with a five fish limit on my home lake. Normally I have no problem catching keeper fish on this lake but the conditions are horrible due to the lack of rain. The lake is continuing to drop and most of the cover is high and dry on the bank. The water temperature last week was 78 degrees and conditions for Saturday are calling for a cold front with rain. My plan is to down size my jig to 3/8 oz. and hit the wood that is still in the water. My c-rig will have a finesse style worm and will cast to the many sloping points that run near a creek channel. I am also planning to throw 10 -12 foot diving small crankbaits on the rocky points and near creek channels. And of course, i will have my trusty topwater rod near just in case we run across schooling fish. One more thing to add: I will be fishing out of my partners Triton and wwill be working these baits from the rear deck, something I am not used too. Looking to prefish tomorrow in the rain and need some advise. What would you do to get five quality fish in this scenario?

 

[Al Greco]

Forgot to add, this is your typical southern reservoir with no grass and plenty of fishing pressure. Thanks.

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Do you have spots? Dry a dropshot rig! But first get your limit. The mental relief will allow you to fish better the rest of the day!

 

[Al Greco]

Rob, I have too many spots as I fish this lake pretty much every weekend. I was in a bass club for many years and deal with pressure pretty well especially when the first one comes to the boat. My spots are mostly dry now except for a few brush piles and ledges I fish with a C-rig. I think the fish are in transition and it's hard to find them in the same area day to day.

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Sorry, I meant spotted bass! They are much like smallies and with cold fronts aren't as affected because they tend to hang deeper than LM.

 

[Texas Transplant]

Al,



Where are you at? What lake will you be fishing?



Tex

 

[Al Greco]

Texas Transplant, I'm in Raleigh NC fishing Falls of the Neuse lake (called Falls by the locals). I noticed you do alot of fishing in NC, mostly the western part of the state.

 

[Texas Transplant]

Al,



Yep. Located in Rock Hill, SC - just across from Charlotte. I need to post some additional reports.



For what it's worth, the fish last weekend on Wateree (not down too far), were holding off the end of docks in and around brushpiles. We couldn't get them to hit anything but 4-6 oz worms. When I finally switched to my zoom trick worm in pumpkinseed, that did the trick. Also used the zoom 6" with u-tail (pink) pumpkinseed.



If I was fishing this weekend, I'd hit every dock that I could looking for brush. You won't be in 'control', but hope this helps.



I keep getting away from that 6" trick worm (pumpkinseed), and every time I go back to it I land fish. I use it either C-rigged with a 10-12" leader, or just standard TX rigged with a pegged weight.



Best of luck!



Tex

 

[Al Greco]

Tex, Good advise! I also use the green/pumpkin trick worm on the end of my c-rig and it almost always does the trick. I also ctch a lot of smaller fish on Zoom's french fry in the pumkinseed color. I have the trick worm rigged up and ready to go for tomorrow. Thanks for your help and let me know if you ever head over to Falls.....Al.

 

[Tim King]

Al,

Another killer pattern this time of year for me is to throw a punpkin/green flake tube to the docks or brushpiles. For some reason the fish just eat'em like candy! I seem to do better on this if the sun is shining bright. Stick with the jig when things get tough and you want the better bite! It sounds like you should know this lake rather well, just go out and do what you know works on this lake!



Good Luck!

Tim

 

[David Jordan]

4inch senko's fished real Slow either Texas rig no weight or wacky style. I mean Real slow like cast and count to 30+ seconds, shake and then bring it back to the boat.

Fish should pull back to deeper water and be on any cover that's avalable. Docks, sticks, and rocks

 

[Brian Allen]

You should try to fish a drop shot rig in and around the same areas. Drop shot is not just for deep spotted bass.

start with a short drop with the weight around 12" from the hook. use four or six inch Robo FX worms.

Give it a try.

Brian Allen

 

[Texas Transplant]

Al,



Got this off a subscription board that I'm on. Hope this provides some additional info for you.



>>>>



With the lake down five to six feet from pool level, the bass have moved back from their typical Fall paterns and are staging on the secondary points unless there is sufficient water in the coves. The bass will move with the bait fish and on some of the deeper coves, the bait fish have moved and the bass are there also. They are feeding primarly in the morning and evenings but with the cloudy weather buzzbaits have been the ticket. Also cranking or running a spinnerbait around visible cover without the normal bump and drop pattern is producing some nice fish. The bass that are not suspended off the ends of laydowns are chasing, so do not stop your bait on the retrieve. Throw your bait well beyound your targeted cover if possible and crank it by the cover. Repeated cast may be necessary. This was posted by a guide.



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Tex