Lake of Bays Bass - Help

[AKRISONER]

Hey Guys,

This is a rare one for me but im a long time contributor here seeking info, Ive been invited to a good friends cottage this weekend with the task of guiding him on his home lake for some smallmouth and possibly largies if I can find what I am looking for.

Ive studied the charts so I have some key places in mind, but if anyone has any intel, please feel free to comment here or shoot me a PM.

Hopefully some of the good karma and info ive put out to the world on here will pay dividends lol.

[jimmer]

All I can say is that I saw some pictures recently from someone's fishing trip there and they hammered the smallies.  I think he was mentioning that they were catching them very shallow; however, that could have changed by now. I believe they were throwing gobie imitation.

[OhioFisherman]

Just from looking at a navigation chart, some serious drop offs in that lake, that eliminates most of the lake for smallies or largemouth? I don't picture either hanging out at those kind of depths.

I would be looking at some of those points and reef areas for smallies, and broader expanses of shallower water for largies if there are weeds lilies cover?

[AKRISONER]

15 minutes ago, OhioFisherman said:

Just from looking at a navigation chart, some serious drop offs in that lake, that eliminates most of the lake for smallies or largemouth? I don't picture either hanging out at those kind of depths.

I would be looking at some of those points and reef areas for smallies, and broader expanses of shallower water for largies if there are weeds lilies cover?

Bingo, I’ve got a run planned out but perhaps someone knows some of the extra details or is willing to trade spots.

[grimsbylander]

Sounds like the pressures on 

[Garnet]

Fun Fun lake do you know how to fizzes smallies. I was on 1 side of rock pile dropshoting

85 ft  smalles and the brothers where on other side getting them in 12.

If they aren't  on points or sand drop-offs they are chasing lake smelt  

over deep water.

[BillM]

LOB and smallies are fairly simple to figure out especially this time of year.   You'll be looking for wolf packs in open water chasing bait.   You'll definitely need a needle to fizz them if you're fishing deep.    I was slamming them on GPool out over the deep water on Tuesday, that was a riot!  

[John]

2 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Bingo, I’ve got a run planned out but perhaps someone knows some of the extra details or is willing to trade spots.

Have only fished Dwight Bay, summer for smallies and winter for lakers. Most success for smallies out from mouth of Oxtongue River. Dwight Bay is deep but goes from 100' + to 18' very quickly there. If you wander into the river there is supposed to be pike however never caught one. Watch the markers if you do.

[OhioFisherman]

Akri, win - lose - draw, let us know how you do, I always have an interest in how people pick apart new waters.

[AKRISONER]

Last year this weekend, I had an absolutely incredible day fishing jerkbaits off of deep walls. I’ve had basically 0 luck ever Fishing them in open water deep.

ive found bait in the fall and caught them in 25 fow, but I know some guys are going all the way down the 40-50+

 

i know how to fizz but don’t have a needle at the moment, anyone know where I can get one for my boat the one I’ve used is in my buddies boat.

[grimsbylander]

spybaits

[aplumma]

The rock walls have been my go to for bass while fishing up North. I use 1/4 oz tube baits and cast to the walls and let it fall. If it stops small jerk and let fall again till it hits the bottom. Reel and repeat. If they are shallow look to the lilly pads and a floating frog or mouse bait. If they are deep in the matts of green use a !/2 oz weedless tube or senco and cast into the holes. Armed with this my first choice of places are the shores that have been wind blown the most in the last week. Moving from there look for the water temperatures that are in the lower 70 F and start fishing from there moving deeper as you go. Hope this helps Art

[OhioFisherman]

3 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Last year this weekend, I had an absolutely incredible day fishing jerkbaits off of deep walls. I’ve had basically 0 luck ever Fishing them in open water deep.

ive found bait in the fall and caught them in 25 fow, but I know some guys are going all the way down the 40-50+

 

i know how to fizz but don’t have a needle at the moment, anyone know where I can get one for my boat the one I’ve used is in my buddies boat.

Akri, TSC or any farm supply company should have them ...  

  Search Results for hypodermic needles at Tractor Supply Co.

Something like this should work?

Producer's Pride Disposable Needle, 22G x 1, Pack of 24 at Tractor Supply Co.

Looked at google images of that lake, some very clear water and not many of any shoreline weed - lilies, the drop offs look pretty clear to me, wind and waves might make them harder to see.

No idea how your weather is there, but pushing 90 here for the next 7 days, still summer conditions?

Like Art mentioned a tube or senko might work anywhere, a fluke style bait in shallow early in the morning might nail fish feeding on baitfish that moved towards shore overnight. Looks like a lot of homes and docks there if they have lights on boat houses or docks those will attract baitfish at night, and bigger fish feeding on them.

It's a puzzle with a short time limit?

[AKRISONER]

hey guys,

well im back...I either am lucky, or I at least kinda know what I am sort of doing, at least for smallies that is...but I have no idea what the largemouth fishing is like on the lake.

I tried three things out...and two of 3 worked. 

On Sunday we headed out and It was a coincidence that we launched the boat 3 minutes from where I figured some decent fishing could be had after analyzing navionics.

I figured a drop shop with a megabass hazedong would be a safe bet.

Sure enough within 3 minutes, we had a smallie on. We then moved onto a rock point that jutted out into the middle of the lake and sure enough bang, 1, bang double header, bang another one. We were doing pretty damn well. I then noticed that there was a lot of fish busting bait out from where we were so I moved out and started marking a lot of bait and fish in about 40 FOW. But for whatever reason these fish were tight lipped. I tried throwing a variety of baits down to them and nothing seemed to intrigue them. I did have one fish take interest in my buckshot spoon, that fish appeared to be a complete monster on the graph, i was able to get it to chase, but it wouldnt take the hook.

Proceeded back to that 23 FOW zone and sure enough started hooking up again. Went a bit shallower, caught a few small ones topwater, then moved back out to 23 fowish and stayed on the dropshots. Any time i came up on a point, we started catching again. Did that for a while until we had worked that shoreline out into the main lake. 

I then took heeded some advice from Bill and went to my second spot...Found that the maps for the area were totally innacurate and actually dangerous as hell (3 fow where its marked 50 ?) but it wasnt a big deal, i drove a few passes with the side image, marked out what the heck was going on and then started up the autochart live on the bird and made one pass shallow casting out off the drop off, then one pass deep, and one pass right down that 23 FOW sweet spot.

Caught more, between 7:30-1 we caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 smallies No giants, but plenty of 2lbers maybe a couple 3's such as this 19" fish below notably 

Lake of bay is gorgeous and seems to be a complete smallmouth factory. My buddy was super happy because he had never caught so many fish so consistently in his entire life. I wish we had caught some monsters, but numbers was going to have to suffice. 

1. The fish were coughing up loads of what I assume are baby smelt? They looked exactly like a dish that I ate in Japan that they called "baby fish" ...you eat it with rice and soy sauce

2. Watching wolf packs of bass busting bate around us I threw a topwater right at them and had a blow up in 50 FOW...that was by far the deepest top water blow up ive ever had lol

That evening I went into an extremely promising looking area right in baysville, full of stumps and pads. my buddy caught a smallie on a whacky rig...I had one hit that Im pretty sure i knocked the fish off on a stump...but aside from that we had absolutely no action, it blew me away. Perhaps someone can speak to the largie fishing on that lake and whether it is even a thing...anyways we gave up after probably 2 hours or so and went out into the main lake. Went to a spot where the water went from 150 to 10 in about 20 feet...insane. caught some more small ones...

All in all i was pretty happy with how it went.

Edited September 4, 2018 by AKRISONER

[OhioFisherman]

Glad it went well for you! I remember a couple new to me lakes I never did figure out.

[grimsbylander]

1 hour ago, AKRISONER said:

hey guys,

well im back...I either am lucky, or I at least kinda know what I am sort of doing, at least for smallies that is...but I have no idea what the largemouth fishing is like on the lake.

I tried three things out...and two of 3 worked. 

On Sunday we headed out and It was a coincidence that we launched the boat 3 minutes from where I figured some decent fishing could be had after analyzing navionics.

I figured a drop shop with a megabass hazedong would be a safe bet.

Sure enough within 3 minutes, we had a smallie on. We then moved onto a rock point that jutted out into the middle of the lake and sure enough bang, 1, bang double header, bang another one. We were doing pretty damn well. I then noticed that there was a lot of fish busting bait out from where we were so I moved out and started marking a lot of bait and fish in about 40 FOW. But for whatever reason these fish were tight lipped. I tried throwing a variety of baits down to them and nothing seemed to intrigue them. I did have one fish take interest in my buckshot spoon, that fish appeared to be a complete monster on the graph, i was able to get it to chase, but it wouldnt take the hook.

Proceeded back to that 23 FOW zone and sure enough started hooking up again. Went a bit shallower, caught a few small ones topwater, then moved back out to 23 fowish and stayed on the dropshots. Any time i came up on a point, we started catching again. Did that for a while until we had worked that shoreline out into the main lake. 

I then took heeded some advice from Bill and went to my second spot...Found that the maps for the area were totally innacurate and actually dangerous as hell (3 fow where its marked 50 ?) but it wasnt a big deal, i drove a few passes with the side image, marked out what the heck was going on and then started up the autochart live on the bird and made one pass shallow casting out off the drop off, then one pass deep, and one pass right down that 23 FOW sweet spot.

Caught more, between 7:30-1 we caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 smallies No giants, but plenty of 2lbers maybe a couple 3's such as this 19" fish below notably 

Lake of bay is gorgeous and seems to be a complete smallmouth factory. My buddy was super happy because he had never caught so many fish so consistently in his entire life. I wish we had caught some monsters, but numbers was going to have to suffice. 

1. The fish were coughing up loads of what I assume are baby smelt? They looked exactly like a dish that I ate in Japan that they called "baby fish" ...you eat it with rice and soy sauce

2. Watching wolf packs of bass busting bate around us I threw a topwater right at them and had a blow up in 50 FOW...that was by far the deepest top water blow up ive ever had lol

That evening I went into an extremely promising looking area right in baysville, full of stumps and pads. my buddy caught a smallie on a whacky rig...I had one hit that Im pretty sure i knocked the fish off on a stump...but aside from that we had absolutely no action, it blew me away. Perhaps someone can speak to the largie fishing on that lake and whether it is even a thing...anyways we gave up after probably 2 hours or so and went out into the main lake. Went to a spot where the water went from 150 to 10 in about 20 feet...insane. caught some more small ones...

All in all i was pretty happy with how it went.

Nice looking area! Question about the stumpy area with pads....what was on the bottom? Water depth? Was it a dark mud bottom?  I guessing yes because you could see the stumps? These areas will hold fish but not with any consistency. Unless there's abundant healthy weed growth, it's pretty hit and miss. I've seen miles of great looking water that just doesn't hold fish. I didn't see it so I'm guessing at this point. 

[BillM]

Those fish are chasing shad.   I haven't caught as many fat smallies as I did on Sunday, all were barfing up bait and their stomachs looked like they were going to explode.  Probably one of the best days I've ever had smallie fishing.  I don't even wanna know how many we boated, but I did count 10 fish on 10 casts.   Had to upsize my offering as well, Buckshot spoons were definitely too small.   When you think you're presentation is too big, go bigger.  A few bonus walleyes as well.   

Glad it worked out for you man! 

Edited September 4, 2018 by BillM

[Rattletrap2]

On 8/31/2018 at 10:38 AM, AKRISONER said:

Last year this weekend, I had an absolutely incredible day fishing jerkbaits off of deep walls. I’ve had basically 0 luck ever Fishing them in open water deep.

ive found bait in the fall and caught them in 25 fow, but I know some guys are going all the way down the 40-50+

 

i know how to fizz but don’t have a needle at the moment, anyone know where I can get one for my boat the one I’ve used is in my buddies boat.

I used to know about this fizzing of bass from deep water and understand why it has to be done, but have long forgotten it! Does anyone have any good info on the subject to share?

Thanks

[AKRISONER]

18 minutes ago, Rattletrap2 said:

I used to know about this fizzing of bass from deep water and understand why it has to be done, but have long forgotten it! Does anyone have any good info on the subject to share?

Thanks

 

[BillM]

 

[AKRISONER]

anyone know what that needle his is using in that video is called. i am still trying to find a hypodermic needle with a reemer to clean out the chamber.

[grimsbylander]

I've picked up my needles(that doesn't sound great does it?) at TSC Stores for years. I don't use the ones with a reamer inside, just a 10 pack of disposable agriculture needles. Easy peasy.

 

PS, I may be able to dig up a new one and get a pic of the info if needed. gauge, length, etc.

Edited September 4, 2018 by grimsbylander
PS

[Garnet]

I use 18 gauge  needle from TSC or farm co-op and bought another needle to go inside.

 

Anything will work stiff wire.

[aplumma]

When deep water fishing schools of bait look at the shape of the ball and how compact or loos it is. A ball that is not being harassed by feeding fish is usually tight and round in nature. Finding a ball that is blown out and scattered is usually what you want to see. I usually fish the blowouts by hitting the edges and deep at or slightly below the main body. This is the natural place for feeding fish to be at and it also will keep the bait from scattering to much by boat position and or lures splashing in the middle. The shallows are not a place bass want to hang out in if the water is to warm. If there are no hits shallow then moving out to secondary points with weeds or wood is the next step. Something to consider smallmouth bass are open water and rock related while largemouth are weed and wood relating. Rarely do the two overlap unless bait is the common thread. 

Art

[OhioFisherman]

7 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

anyone know what that needle his is using in that video is called. i am still trying to find a hypodermic needle with a reemer to clean out the chamber.

Bends Mender Deflator Needle

That may give you a name to look for?

And this?

Fish Life Fizz Needles 2pk