How are you triggering bass on highland reserviors during the afternoons this time of year with recreational boat traffic on the lake too?

I can’t imagine a more frustrating situation than being in open water with heavy recreational boat traffic. I would find a cove or other area out of the heavy traffic area. Unless I’m in a tournament, there’s always some fish shallow.

9 hours ago, RHuff said:

How are you triggering bass on highland reserviors during the afternoons this time of year with recreational boat traffic on the lake too?

Coike's and FFS is the only answer here, right?

For me it depends on how rough the water is. I'd try and fish the main lake points but if its bad I'd find some docks or other structure probably in a cove in deeper water.

I will find the steeper/rockier banks and start throwing a dropshot or splitshot.

If the wake boats get too annoying, I will run as far up the inlet channel(s) as I can and start flipping the weeds.

So in a tournament situation most of you would go shallow and flip? What would you flip in ultra clear water?

10 minutes ago, ElGuapo928 said:

I will find the steeper/rockier banks and start throwing a dropshot or splitshot.

If the wake boats get too annoying, I will run as far up the inlet channel(s) as I can and start flipping the weeds.

Ultra clear water what would you choose the dropshot? Lighter line small dropshot hooks and smaller minnow profiled finesse baits?

My main dropshot rig is a 3” reaper or a 4” straight tail worm on a 1/0 hook, 1/8 oz weight with an 8lb fluoro leader on 10lb braid.

I like to stick with really translucent colors in the afternoon sun - firecracker, salt&pepper, prizm shad or similar. Rootbeer/green or green weenie if there’s some shade.

I'm gonna go with a 3/16 oz tungsten drop shot weight, a size 1 dropshot hook, and the Berkley Flat Nose Minnow

I vacation for a week every year on mountain lakes in North Georgia, or NC. Being a Florida guy where there are tons of vegetation and shallow natural lakes, my experience on deep mountain lakes has been terrible. My only success has been on Natahaila, in the river that feeds it, and that river was very shallow and loaded with smallmouth.

MY main concern out on my kayak this time of year is my personal safety. With that, I will go out and fish main lake points and main lake shallows early in the morning. By mid morning I move to creek channels, the narrower the better.

By late morning I'm usually off the lake. The heat doesn't really bother me too much. It's the wake boats and the jet skis that get me off the lake.

3 hours ago, RHuff said:

I'm gonna go with a 3/16 oz tungsten drop shot weight, a size 1 dropshot hook, and the Berkley Flat Nose Minnow

Should work good!!

This last week they’ve started at 10 ft and are down to 40 feet by noon….that’s my cue to go sit in the AC for the afternoon

Wake boats can create dangerous situations quickly. They are enemy number 1 this time of year.

Jet skis and water skiers are a piece of cake

On 6/21/2026 at 11:51 PM, RHuff said:

How are you triggering bass on highland reserviors during the afternoons this time of year with recreational boat traffic on the lake too?

I'm not even trying; early mornings work for me.

I'd go with a heavy spinnerbait or lipless crank. If you're targeting the bottom, either a 1/2oz football jig or a C-rig as it will be a chore staying in contact with anything light.

Boat traffic can trigger a deep bottom bite but I can only handle so much before I run and hide

@RHuff

I fish Table Rock Lake a few times a year and in the hotter months I often find the fish to be down in 30 to 40 feet of water. As some have suggested, the dropshot is my main technique to get to these fish especially when they are on the ends of gravel points. However, I have also found that dropping a spoon down to trees that top out at 30 to 35 feet of water can be the ticket as well. I can use a dropshot for these as well but since the dropshot is not touching the bottom the wind and current tend to have their way with the bait. Also, I can often find tree tops holding fish around underwater channels that are closer to the edges of the lake where the pleasure boaters and skiers usually don't go.

I didn’t even account for suspended fish…..for the last couple of years here (Salt River chain) the majority of fish I’ve caught have been either right on the bottom or tight against steeper banks.

My theory is that they are trying to seek respite from the really bad music mix blasting from the wake boats (apparently Ricky Martin’s career is having a resurgence among Tige and Moomba owners/passengers…..there’s been quite a few of them “Living la vida loca” at roughly 200 decibels lately).

I like tubes on points .

Also, if I can hack it, I'll fish shallow where the recreational boat wakes are slamming the banks. Those waves stir up the shallows and sets the food chain in motion. I learned this as a kid fishing on the Mississippi river. When a barge would pass by ,the waves on rip rap banks would create a feeding opportunity . I found the same thing occurs on reservoirs .

6 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I like tubes on points .

Also, if I can hack it, I'll fish shallow where the recreational boat wakes are slamming the banks. Those waves stir up the shallows and sets the food chain in motion. I learned this as a kid fishing on the Mississippi river. When a barge would pass by the waves on rip rap banks would create a feeding opportunity . I found the same thing occurs on reservoirs .

Clever. Good anglers pay attention.

@scaleface you reminded me of a pattern I used to fish when guiding clients in the summer. If the recreational traffic wasn’t “too” bad, I would set up on main lake banks and have them throw crankbaits along the mud line created by the boat wakes breaking on the shore. It normally produced well.

27 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

If the recreational traffic wasn’t “too” bad, I would set up on main lake banks and have them throw crankbaits along the mud line created by the boat wakes breaking on the shore. It normally produced well.

Did you catch an occasional channel cat too? I caught a few and the strikes were vicious.

@scaleface cats are always in the mix. 😂

Im on a kayak and while I dislike the recreational boaters for my safety I often will search out banks with a mudline to target with a glide bait up shallow. Even better if they're bluff walls or have deep water super close.

Edit: To add, I don't believe recreational boating traffic negatively affects the bite. I can't count how many times I've gotten a bite immediately after a boat has zipped by.

Took it back to the old school today, with pretty good results. Started following the flocks of grebes and tossing a 6” 5150 curl tail (Blood clot) on a 1/8 oz darter head in the middle of them and picked up 8, mostly 1.5-3 pounders, but also scored an absolute monster weighing in at about 4 ounces.

After the second time a boat wake came over the bow, decided it was time to head in and procure some “brunch” enchiladas and a couple of Pacificos.