nappyboy28

I specifically target smallmouth at the select lakes here in Texas sometimes. I have two rules I stick to and I always catch at least a few and sometimes I'll catch 20 of them. 1. Find rocks and deeper/cooler water (bonus if you can find shade with it) 2. Downsize your lures some On our lakes and reservoirs out here I'll look for chunk rock and water that's 10+ ft deep. I'll start with a 1/4oz rat-l-trap in chrome or a Storm 360GT swimbait. If that doesn't work I use a 1/5th oz nedhead and canada craw TRD. It never fails.

I'm in the same circumstance as you. I can't prefish 99% of my tournaments. I rely heavily on Google Earth and Navionics Webapp. This video made me instantly boost my average tournament bag by a pound or two.

Rora - where in soCal are you fishing? I have a lot of contacts out there and can help you out. I fished the west coast/southern nevada for the past 3 years and relied heavily on dropshots. If the water has 2 ft of visibility or better I'll use it. I'll use zman trds (slowly drag my rod sideways), baby brush hogs (bounce the rod as I drag sideways), and flukes (bounce it back to me and reel in the slack.) Pressured ponds are odd though. Typically there are one or two things that truly work. Just keeping talking to other fisherman and eventually someone will help you out with some tips. But your ponds don't have a lot of grass to snag on I'd throw a DS with a silver fluke and 1/4oz weight. Then I'd fan cast and hop it back to me.

Lol it actually makes a lot of sense. I use google earth to study what I now know to be breaklines, cover, structure, etc. and have a lot of success casting parallel to the weeds. But I haven't used my topo map to match up the grass/changing in depth too much. I live and die by by Navionics webapp and the google earth program.

I hadn't thought of them as structure to be honest. We have multiple spots on the lake where it transitions from chunk to pea gravel, or sand to clay, but I hadn't thought it so much as structure. I appreciate that insight as well!

I definitely will. I found them spawning last year and it wasn't too bad. I know it sounds ridiculous but I have better luck in the summer than I do this time of year. I'll definitely be targeting females who are looking to pull up. They typically hangout around timber up the river where it feeds into the lake.

Awesome information. Thank you to everyone who responded. You definitely helped me out. There's flats that taper to the back of covers with submerged trees in my local lake that I'll try out this weeked (water temps low 60s.) I understand what you mean by the stumps being different worlds. Thanks again! I hadn't thought about the change in weeds signifying a change in bottom composition. Thank you guys for helping me out! I'll try out some of the different weed beds and their cuts this week. I appreciate your insight!

Served honorably for 9 years before being medically retired as an E-6. Working in logistics in the Air Force. Deployed twice -- last duty station was Creech AFB, Nevada working with drones.

Hey all - new guy here. I grew up fishing creeks in Maryland. Joined the military, didn't fish for 10 years, and got back into bass fishing heavily when I moved to Vegas. Mead fishing like a highland reservoir so I'm keyed into lakes like that. I do pretty well at the one by me (Canyon Lake.) What I struggle with sometimes is fishing the murky lakes here in Texas. I'm fishing from my 20' bass boat. Some days I go out and do really well, while other days I can't catch anything. What do some of you all key in on when fishing lakes with hundreds of grass patches, stumps, bluff walls, submerged trees, etc. I know how and when to key in during the seasons. But what do YOU personally key in on? Certain trees? Certain types of humps or stumps? Thanks for your insight. If you ever want to chat about highland reservoirs I can help you out lol ?