Hey Everyone,

First post for me. been reading tons of great information from this board.

 

i'm pretty new to bass fishing. maybe three seasons in now. i say 'seasons' because i do all my bass fishing in and around Ferguson when it's cool enough to camp out there, (lower colorado, outside of Yuma and just up river from Fisher's Landing). i float tube almost exclusively in and around the backwaters. my friends that i camp/fish with have been fishing that area as well as martinez for 30 something years and are quite knowledgable and have given me lots of great advice on how and what to fish. outside of that small circle though, i'm just curious if any of you guys fish that area and what your go to is. 

 

since i'm in a tube and i'm not going anywhere fast, i'm almost always throwing T-rigged plastics and fishing it slow in the tules. weightless and texas rigged senkos almost always produce fish, as well as creature baits like craws and lizards. i caught a monster on a jig with a craw trailer last season so i'm eagerly anticipating my trip to get that back in the water. that's the only kind of fishing i know. i have no clue if i should fish the open water or just stick to the tules. just wondering if any of you guys have fished this area, and how you do it. i usually take a spinner bait and a couple crank baits, but they hardly ever get used. this season i will have a second pole so i figure i'll be more open to messing around with those things since i won't have to re tie every time i want to change it up. 

 

if it helps, i have a 6'6" medium action and a 7'1" heavy (just got it in the mail today!) both bait casters. fishing 10-12 lb fluoro. 

 

thanks guys. 

First, welcome to the site!

 

I don't fish open water much unless I know there's some structure below. I've caught nice bass in open water, but tend to stick to areas I know produce. Nothing wrong with that. Laydowns, tules, grassy flats, etc., shorelines, points... All good.

 

Have you tried adding wacky to your arsenal of soft plastics? A different look than weightless TX rigged plastics.

Hey Darren,

thanks for the reply. i have some wacky rigs that are weedless, but can only pitch those right along the tule line. i have caught fish with it, but i tend to hang up a lot. they're basically weighted hooks with a single wire weed guard. fun to fish, but the hang up to fish ratio makes it difficult to use. i have most of my success throwing TX rigged plastics right up against the tules and letting it sink. i get my jigs in a little deeper where i can. 

 

i just learned about pegging weights on my TX rig. i know that there are numerous instances where the weight drops and the bait gets hung. just a lot of dead line in the water and i'm sure i've missed my fair share. face palm. 

 

i picked up something called a Zeka Rig from BPS which is basically a weight and a hook attached to a ring. so they're independent from each other and just connected via the ring. pretty excited about trying it out on my upcoming trip. i like the idea of it...guess we'll see if it produces though. after looking at it, seems like something that could easily be customized or created on your own though. at $5 for a pair, i think i'll be making my own if they work out for me.