This weekend I fished a tourney on grand lake in NE OK. When I arrived friday night I found out there was a big shad kill due to O2 levels being depleted in the lake. Sat morning this was confirmed when I hit the water and got a big wiff of dead fish as I unloaded and saw thousands of dead shad and smaller fish floating. During practice (15 hrs of it) on sat, I found good size schools of quality fish chasing shad off the ends of points along the main channel and in big creek arms on points relating to the channel. The smaller shad (fry to 4 inches) seemed to be ok and werent dying off, but all the larger gizzard shad were either dead or dying, so I tried to mimic both types of bait and the current state they were in. I watched several groups of 15-20 fish ranging in size from 14 inchers to 5 and 6 lbers schooling up on both types of forage, but couldnt get them to react to anything, and I mean anything. In 23 hrs of fishing between me and my partner we caught 4 bass over 14inches, and 6 bass total. We covered the entire water column for just about any main lake and creek arm scenario you can imagine with every presentation and speed you can imagine including but not limited to: Flipping willows/ Dragging plastics on c-rig, t-rig, Dropshot, splitshot, weightless, etc./ Cranking deep mid and shallow fast and slow and stop n go and grinding/ Top h2o buzzin froggin walkin poppin/ Jiggin/ Yo-Yoing/ Strokin/ Hoppin/ swimmin/ Jerk baitin/ Rippin Vibe baits/ burnin, slow rollin and everything in between a spinner bait/ Swimbaits, and probably more that I cant remember. The only true pattern I could ID was that the fish suspending on the points were hangin between 12 and 17 ft and would become active when a school of bait moved in, this would last for maybe 5 minutes, then they would move back down and suspend. They were unresponsive to lures when schooling on the bait fish. Occasioally you could provoke a strike on top if you flailed em with a barrage of big loud poppers/walkers/buzzers/ and frogs while they were incactive and suspending with no bait in the area. They would not respond to a vertical presentation using electrolics either. What do you do in a scenario like this besides throw in the towel?

Well, I have been scoring consistantly with Mattlures Baby Bass. The issue is reaching the baitfish and this is where the lure really shines. With the assitance of a little breeze, 40 - 60 yard casts are achievable. When the bass are busting on top, target the center of the action and start reeling when the lure hits the water. When your're just a little late, cast past the last spot you saw the bait and let the lure sink for several seconds before retrieving. When there is a break in the action, work the structure on or very near the bottom.

I took a similar approach with some storm/ castic/ and various other swim baits in sizes from 3in to 12 inch, as well as a just about every style hard bait and soft bait you can imagine. To put the numers of types of cranks/swims/ jerk/ etc I put to use in perspective- I have a dozen of the big plano storage boxes full of just cranks, and a comparable amount of the others too, and between 2 of us applied just a bout every style we had and worked them every way you can imagine short of being ADD about changin out lures. In 23 hrs on the water you have time to try lots of different things. I have just never been met with a situation where I found "the" fish, but couldnt coax a bite. Would heading up river hold any promise in a situation like this

To add my two cents to the discussion, bass like current, oxygen and cooler water.

I would think you would do well at the mouths of creeks or channels with a shad colored crankbait or a smaller Rapala in shad color.

However, with that said, the fish may just not be a mood to hit anything unless you aggravate them.

Those Mattlure swimbaits look beautiful.  I would think something would be interested in them.

By reading your post it seems you did not catch any trash fish, like catfish, pike, bowfin, etc.  

I am thinking that the lack of oxygen levels have the fish inactive and they are setting right above the thermocline where there is oxygen.

Any other thoughts out there??????

To put the numers of types of cranks/swims/ jerk/ etc I put to use in perspective- I have a dozen of the big plano storage boxes full of just cranks, and a comparable amount of the others too, and between 2 of us applied just a bout every style we had and worked them every way you can imagine short of being ADD about changin out lures.

Well, although I have limited experience (6 weeks)  fishing swimmbaits, when the bass have been very aggressive I have only caught about three bass per hour and my overall average is about 1 per hour. This includes several 4-6 hour periods where I caught nothing. So, if you're going to fish swimbaits, maybe that's all your can fish.

So, what was the outcome of the tournament?  Did the winners weigh a heavy bag?  Were a lot of limits caught?  

A number of 4 fish limits were caught (200 or so boats), but not many fish over a couple of pounds which is highly unusual for a lake that usually kicks out 20-25 pound winning sacks of 5 fish and sees lots of fish in the 6lb clas come to the scales. I think 16 or 17 won, but I think that was kind of a lone ranger weight, most bags hung around the 5-8 lb range. The bite was obviously way off, and plenty of guys blanked or like us had 2 or 3. It was brutal to say the least to see these 3-6 lbers comin up and crushin bait within a few feet of the boat and then not be able to catch any of em'. And hey RW, I didnt mean to come across sideways at you with the 2nd post, hope it didnt sound that way.

Not at all.

My point is: I don't change lures when I have decided that a specific technique should work. Sometimes it just takes time. On the otherhand, as I have stated in other threads, targeting suspending fish is the toughest fishing you can possibly do. I might be willing to waste an hour or so under the conditions you described, but if I wasn't pretty successsful catching at least "keeper bass", I would move on and take another approach.

From your description, the situation was absolutely bleak in my opinion.  Oxygen depletion and suspending fish = Bleak.  I'm thinking luck is gonna play more of a part then anyone wants it to in this kind of thing.  So, I wouldn't beat yourself up to bad about over it.  If the fish are suspended around a brushpile or tree, rock pile or SOMETHING....I might have a go at them, but if they are just suspended in open water and feeding at will I won't waste my time on them.  I would have ended up just like you though because I probably would have went flipping heavy cover or something else like that rather then drive myself crazy on suspended fish.  The ONLY time I have had any success with them was vertical jigging a Heddon Sonar blade blait and a Hopkins spoon and they were not big fish at all.  They were suspended about 5 ft above a small rock pile off the end of a point in 20 ft of water  I even took some perch from that same spot...LOL

Mark Davis won the Classic one year fishing suspended bass, but they were around/above brushpiles and he took them on a Fat Free Shad if I recall.  

When bass are suspending at a certain depth it's because the water temperature, oxygen level, ECT suit their environmental needs. You can approach this in several of ways, one would be deep diving crank baits, another would be vertical jigging, both of which you stated didn't work. In this scenario what I do is to find deep water structure at the same depths or a little beyond that of the suspended bass. Now the comfort zone is located at the bottom of the lake instead of suspended; bass which are located on the bottom are easier to catch the suspended bass.

Catt-  You ain't old enough to qualify for "wise ole geezer" status.

But your posts always have that wise ole geezer sound to em.

How y'all manage that?

In years I'm 56; in fishing 45+ years of every possible condition you could imagine plus a few you couldn't imagine.

Thanks guys, I kind of figured that was what I was facing, but I didnt know if maybe I had just over looked somthing. I have encountered this situation recently on murray, and dropshotted them vertically with my electronics with great success, but those grand river LM are different. By the way 9 measly pounds got a check and there was only 3 fish over 5lbs weighed. Usually 9lbs is big bass weight on grand, and a 5 lber wont even raise an eyebrow. We got some help from Kreit on places and techniques, the fish were there, but I guess I left the mojo at the house. Anyway, thanks again for the input.