Fishing rock for largemouth

[GoneFishingLTN]

Is there a weather condition you prefer to fish rock or do you just always fish that structure?

[king fisher]

I only fish rock when it is windy, calm, hot , cold, clear, cloudy, raining, or dry.

[LrgmouthShad]

Nah anytime is good. I would say ideal is wind blowing into a rock shoreline. Sky conditions I don’t care.
 

Isolated rock out deep, I don’t care

[Zcoker]

I've experienced better fishing around shallow rocky areas when it's cold out, or at least after a chilly night. The rocks retain heat and seem to attract the fish. Could be something to it, maybe so. I've noticed significant temp differences around rock piles compared to, let's say, regular grassy areas. 

[Pat Brown]

I like isolated shallow rock in the middle of deeper water in a steady breeze.  I'll take any rock I can get in general though.  Big largemouth love rocks.

[GoneFishingLTN]

Ok, so it seems at all times. Now the question is do you think they are a key area even in small 300 acres lakes that get trolled all day?

 

I have small lake around here, that’s highly pressured and I just can’t get bit on rock 

[Pat Brown]

This time of year bass kind of start to scatter all over the place, especially when the thermocline dissipates.  My favorite way to target LMB in rock is football jigs, Texas rigs, shaky heads, drop shot, Carolina rig, crankbait, jerk bait, paralleling the banks with spinnerbaits and buzz baits and stuff like that. What presentation I choose typically depends on the conditions that I'm fishing at the exact moment I'm on the water.  There's no one specific thing that works for rock. It's more like the same stuff that works on not rock also works on rock when the conditions are set up for it.

[WVU-SCPA]

Fishing rock/hard structure is my strength.  Sometimes they just are not keyed on it, but I'll always pound it way longer then I should.  

 

I fish bodies of water a little larger then your lake but not much.  There is usually a rock within the rocks that has that higher bite percentage.  Learn those areas and they can really help you make decisions on techniques or if you move on to other structure/areas.  I didn't listen to my own advice and caught 0 fish from the 5 spots within spots I wanted to hit.  Still decided to beat the rocks the next 5 hours for 3 fish before stumbling upon a punching bite that was lights out for the final 2 hours.

 

 

 

 

[the reel ess]

In winter rocks will warm in direct sunlight.

[Bankc]

1 hour ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

Ok, so it seems at all times. Now the question is do you think they are a key area even in small 300 acres lakes that get trolled all day?

 

I have small lake around here, that’s highly pressured and I just can’t get bit on rock 

It largely depends on what else is out there.  

 

In my experience, if there's good vegetation nearby, the bass will prefer that over the rocks.  If there's not much vegetation, then they'll prefer the rocks over mud or sand.  

[papajoe222]

6 hours ago, Bankc said:

In my experience, if there's good vegetation nearby, the bass will prefer that over the rocks.  If there's not much vegetation, then they'll prefer the rocks over mud or sand.  

Same here, especially in the natural lakes in my area. In those rare cases where the weeds transition to rock, my meter points north.

[WRB]

SoCal reservoirs are highland lakes built for water storage. The dams are built across the mouths of steep rocky terrain with brush and a few scrub oak tress native to SoCal.

Vegetation is very sparse and rocky terrain dominates the structure elements. The lake are generally clear water depth of light exceeding 10’ to 15’ sometimes over 25’.

We learn to catch bass in rocky structure lakes with spares cover and  reason finesse bass fishing was borne in our local lakes.

Tom

[Functional]

Small chunk or flat slate like broken rock I will hit but not spend too much time if I dont get any hits or fish with a reaction type bait or a trig/jig.

 

The two conditions I'll hit hard are boulder sized rock or rock of any size that goes right up into weeds. I'll spend a good amount of time trying different baits and picking apart those areas/transitions. Last condition is like mentioned in the cooler water temps I'll hit any shallow rock, especially rip rap in the morning and evening when the air temp is cooler. The rocks holding some heat tend to draw fish....in my limited experience. 

 

Type of baits I'll try are only dependent on season/weather/cloud cover.

 

[TnRiver46]

23 hours ago, the reel ess said:

In winter rocks will warm in direct sunlight.

Not as fast as mud…….

[Jig Man]

I fish Table ROCK.  Enough asid.

[gim]

I associate rocks with brown bass.

 

Largies are more weed-oriented in my neck of the woods.

[J.Vincent]

On 9/19/2023 at 1:30 PM, GoneFishingLTN said:

Is there a weather condition you prefer to fish rock or do you just always fish that structure?

For a shallow water angler targeting Largemouth, I’m looking first at water temp and the time of year. I think post winter leading into early spring is the most productive time of the year to target shallow rock (from my experience predominantly in northern fisheries). I’m sure there are exceptions and others will have their own strengths and experiences and opinions, based on where they fish; but I believe Shallow chunk rock or isolated chunk rock in general is best when water temps are between 45 and 55 degrees. Above those water temps, there is a greater amount of vegetation forming in most waters and the biological urge for bass to spawn and the more comfortable overall water temperatures will change how every Bass relates with available structure and cover. Sorry for the novel, but in a nutshell in shallower largemouth fisheries , rock in 2 to 8 feet is usually most productive before the Bass spawn and again during Shad spawns and again in mid to late fall as water temps begin to fall below 64 degrees again. I have far less experience fishing deep rock structure, but I do think the way largemouth relate to rock in deep water is less dependent on temperature and probably more dependent on current, water clarity and actual presence of a preferred forage. 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

I associate rocks with brown bass.

 

Largies are more weed-oriented in my neck of the woods.

 

I prefer weeds over rocks for lmbs too. If I'm fishing a body of water with smallies and lmbs, as soon as I start catching smallies, I'll look down and see rock. However, if I'm fishing a bog with only lmbs, but without sonar, the only rocks that I knowingly fish are the ones that poke above the water and they nearly always hold largemouth bass. 

[greentrout]

Caught a few right here. Dam Rip Rap. On foot. Year round.

[Darth-Baiter]

when overnight temps start getting cooler.  

 

i think the bass go to rock for warmth.  dunno.  

[thediscochef]

all but three of my LM over 5lb were caught over riprap, small boulders the size of a large boulder
a 4# SM too. I would posit that the SM prefer the riprap the most, as I've caught 90%+ of mine on the ripraps

how and when those fish show up depends on where on the rocks I am and what's around the rocks

there isn't a bad time to fish those rocks but I do best in the dead of summer, but any time I can see shads swimming around it's almost automatic that I will catch something

[Pat Brown]

On 9/20/2023 at 10:03 PM, ol'crickety said:

 

I prefer weeds over rocks for lmbs too. If I'm fishing a body of water with smallies and lmbs, as soon as I start catching smallies, I'll look down and see rock. However, if I'm fishing a bog with only lmbs, but without sonar, the only rocks that I knowingly fish are the ones that poke above the water and they nearly always hold largemouth bass. 

 

 

This is good info.

 

On rock, I almost always catch them on some kind of unique structure or cover within the rock.  They just want something different from everything else that's prominent and featureless but often times it's underwater and hidden and easy to snag in.  ?

[Bankbeater]

Most of the rock I fish has some type of vegetation growing around it.  If it is just bare rock either exposed or submerged then I move on.

[Skunkmaster-k]

In the lake I fish most frequently the largemouth hang out where the rock transitions to red clay .

[crypt]

if I find rock I fish it.....