I've been fishing seriously several days a week for a couple years now. I fish ponds and reservoirs here and there with the kayak but I do 85% of my fishing at my one local reservoir. Its man made but very old. Several tiny creeks in, one spill way out, almost zero current. The deepest part is around 30 feet out towards the spill way, the majority of the rest is a bowl around 22 feet deep. Very little off shore structure and nothing of size that I've found with my deeper pro+, tons of shoreline cover, mostly wood and low hanging trees over only a couple feet of water. I have had some tough spells in the past but nothing like this. 

 

Normally the biggest bites come up shallow flipping a Texas rig or jig into the shoreline structure. There's a couple steeper banks that historically are good for a jig bite, a couple shady pockets that hold some flippin fish. Occasionally you can get a fish to bite near the edge of some cat tails, but those are up in less than a foot of water. The rest of the morning I have mixed success with a squarebill out and around shallow cover, a 6th sense MVMT up into the cover and a mid range 8-10 foot crank to get reaction bites moving out on the banks. 

 

So we have been pelted with hot days here in Connecticut but the fishing has still been decent. Even later in the morning I've still been doing ok flipping shallow cover and dragging a Texas rigged power worm out to about 10-12 feet. 

 

The heat wave was broken by several days of rain followed by some cooler days. Immediately the bite went to crap. It was a grind during the heat wave, but it just stopped once the rain hit. I had one grind day turned good day just after the rain ended when apparently I found the bass schooling on baitfish. Shortly thereafter I had a day where I only caught one (however it was massive) pickerel and a squeaker and then today I got a squeaker fishing a darter up shallow with a exoswim and then boom. Nothing. I got a couple tiny nibbles that I'm fairly sure were bluegill on the ned right after the squeaker but that was literally it. No nibbles no nothing. Funny thing is I'm not even seeing the bass visually while I'm paddling around. Its like they're gone. Today we had more storms coming in that's why I went out 3 or 4 hours ahead of the storm and fished right up into the rain, still no nibbles. They should have been jumping into the kayak. I'm trying to force myself to frog fish to build confidence in it, I have had 2 blow ups in 2 days.

 

Every time I think hey, it can only get better! and somehow, for a week now, just keeps getting worse. In my 7 or 8 years fishing here and 2 years fishing seriously, I've never seen the bite this bad. What gives? If they were in shock from the sudden temperature drop with all the rain wouldn't they have bounced back in a day or two?

Around the country there are lots of guys having tough days during these hot wet summer months  After several days with big storms sometimes the water conditions can put them into lock jaw for a while. The water PH can get screwed up and it will take a few days to balance out, and the predators to go on the hunt.  They will get hungry and eat again.  Stay after them, you can't catch them unless your line is wet!

Who knows . Here it was July 31st , sunny skies , moderate north wind blowing ,mild temps after a heat wave , the water clearer than   it has been for a long time, a twenty foot thermocline and I managed to catch   one the best limits I have had for several  years . The biggest bass , a 4.5 lb was caught with a Berkely Dredger 17.5 and the rest including three more four lbers came out of shallow water on a buzzbait . I was expecting a deep bite and the fish were found shallow at the mouths of cuts like it was April instead of July.  Bass will keep one guessing thats for sure .Why there were a decent number of  fish at the mouths of cuts ,?   I do not know ,   just glad to have lucked into them . You just have to keep trying and sometimes one makes the right choices and sometimes one doesnt .

I really wish I had taken the deeper out with me the last couple times so I could try to find them. I charged it up yesterday and forgot it on my kitchen counter. The only place I can think they would be is either suspended somewhere or out in 20 feet at the edge of the only dropoff that goes to 30ish feet, but I've honestly never seen bait down there. Maybe there is now, I suppose. 

 

Yesterday I managed to actually get a few in the boat casting a Texas weightless red shad laminate senko up into the shade line on the bank but all tiny squeakers. 

 

I suppose if nothing else I'm learning how to beat a tough bite, so theres that 

On 8/1/2018 at 11:44 PM, Beetlebz said:

a 6th sense MVMT up into the cover

On another note...how do you like that Movement? Which model is it, the wake or the 80X? Is it really that much different from a normal 1.5 squarebill?

Just now, Brett's_daddy said:

On another note...how do you like that Movement? Which model is it, the wake or the 80X? Is it really that much different from a normal 1.5 squarebill?

It's one of my favorite tools in the toolbox. It runs a lot shallower than a 1.5 square bill, only a couple feet deep, maybe 3 at the most. Has a loud but muted (so loud, but not all rattly like a lipless) rattle and a really *really* wide waggle. In the spring it should be illegal it works so well. Now I still throw it now and again when they are pushed up tight to cover and when they are really active. In and around lay downs and over grass.

 

I prefer it because the only cover here is too shallow for a traditional square bill and they get hung or weed bound alot.

Fished a tournament Saturday, just over 8lbs was winning weight.  I came in 4th with 4.5lb.  So yeah, its been slow here as well.  As a reference, it usually takes 12-14lb to win.

Northeast is experiencing some severe T-storms, heavy rain weather this week. Light summer rain is normal, severe storms isn't.

What you need to determine is if there is a thermocline and the depth. It doesn't do any good fishing too deep or too shallow. The weather will settle down and the bass will return to their normal routines.

Tom

On 8/1/2018 at 10:44 PM, Beetlebz said:

 Its man made but very old. Several tiny creeks in, one spill way out, almost zero current. The deepest part is around 30 feet out towards the spill way, the majority of the rest is a bowl around 22 feet deep. Very little off shore structure and nothing of size that I've found with my deeper pro+, tons of shoreline cover, mostly wood and low hanging trees over only a couple feet of water. I have had some tough spells in the past but nothing like this. 

 

 

Several creeks in & one out tells me there's intersections!

 

Several creek channels means lots of offshore structure!

 

Map out the creek channels, you'll find the fish!