If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
The population concentration is lower in highland reservoirs since there's less aquatic vegetation. I feel like I waste a lot of time straining empty water fishing soft plastics and prefer fishing lures like cranks and spinnerbaits and cover lots of water quickly for hungry fish. That being said, I like Yamamoto hula grubs in green pumpkin. Storm shads are good also.
Olive Trophy 126 - Moored at Rocky Gorge Scott's Cove
Personal Records at Rocky Gorge Largemouth Bass: 21 inches
Northern Pike: 24 inches
Crappie: 12 inches
Channel Catfish: 18 inches
I've done well with husky jerks and DTs. I'm trying to move towards using single hook lures like spinnerbaits nowadays after some embarassing close calls with treble hooks.
Olive Trophy 126 - Moored at Rocky Gorge Scott's Cove
Personal Records at Rocky Gorge Largemouth Bass: 21 inches
Northern Pike: 24 inches
Crappie: 12 inches
Channel Catfish: 18 inches
i fish nothing but soft plastics in the resivors.. very rarley am i throwing a fast moving bait..
ill come away with 15-20 fish a pop at the gorge usually... but i disect every piece of structure i can for multiple minutes..
i also have a hobie and can travel a lot quicker.. but the best way to learn about the bottom is dragging a soft plastic through it..
there are days ill put up the crank and Alabama rig.. but i know where to throw it... and whats holding fish bc i spent the time using the plastics to learn it
i throw alot of smaller baits.. 3-5 inches in the resivoirs.. big fish love a cheap meal..
i use 2/0 hooks for my 4 inch and less baits and a 3/0 for my 5 and 6 and a 4/0 for my 7s and up inch baits..
i drag a carolina rig around a lot.. but my go to baits in the resvioirs are jigs or texas rigged creature baits
For casting to bass try a Senko or similar drop bait. I prefer the 5 and 6 inch Senkos in natural colors and have caught on other brands like Yum, BPS and Z-Man. There's a wealth of info out there on how to fish these on the internet. For rigging, do a search on wacky rig and texas rig. This is my first year freshwater bass fishing and I managed to catch a LMB slightly over 7 lbs with this technique.
2014 Hobie Pro Angler
2018 Viking Profish 400 Lite
i always throw soft plastics at the reservoirs. I use wacky rig 5" senko in green pumpkin. I also throw zoom ol monster worms in the deepest waters green pumpkin as well on 4/0 ewg gamakatsu hooks
7" Senko - catch a big one. LMB or even SMBs have hit that thing (green pumpkin for LMB, white for SMB). When you get a hit, you know its going to be a nice fish. Sometimes the wise old fish that have seen 100's of 4-5" Senkos take a wack!
The 7 inchers are nice and cast very far rigged weightless. I've taken a few 4 and 5 lbers on them.
Also look into O rings and an O ring tool to get more use out of each Senko when rigging wacky style. Without the O ring, I average 1 or 2 fish before the bait becomes useless. Using an O ring usually allows me a few more fish, YMMV. Some of the other brands are more durable but the actions will be different.
2014 Hobie Pro Angler
2018 Viking Profish 400 Lite
Looking to get more into soft plastics fish mostly reservoirs in MD need some ideas on what to buy plastics, hooks etc.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So I spend a lot of hours fishing Liberty (my favorite), Piney Run, and some Loch Raven and Prettyboy- 90% of my fish are caught on soft plastics. So often I see guys in their big reservoir rigs and their fast moving electric motors cruising up the lake throwing spinners etc. I move in right behind them and fish SLOW- and pull out the lunkers they fish way to fast for. Remember, the fish concentration is low- the water is clear- the fish are smart, conditioned, well fed on natural food sources and they are in now hurry to eat something new or different. If you catch 2-3 nice bass in a day, it is success!- Slow down and fish Culprit worm 7.5' Texas style.- Large mouth and my personal best 5 pound smallie out of Liberty all caught on the Culprit worm. Carolina style tubes work great (all natural colors)- something about getting the lead away from the lure and having it float 2 feet above the weight works. You can drop shot 3-2 inch brown soft plastic worms with success as well- In the Spring, throw weightless plastics around everything wood, and you will have a fine morning. Texas or Carolina rigged crawfish pattern kills Largemouth more than I would have thought- Success on Senko's Wacky style as well- Good luck- !-
I used to Carolina rig with a big worm sinker or barrel sinker. Then I bought/tried some of those "walking" sinkers like the walleye fishermen use in the north. I've proved to myself several times that I can use them in rocky water and not get the sinker hung up nearly as often as with the other style of sinkers.
I don't know why, but they work better for me. Oh, I use 4 inch lizards in pumpkinseed with black spots/flecks in them. The 4" lizards seem to work better than the 6" lizards for me.
Oh, I use 4 inch lizards in pumpkinseed with black spots/flecks in them. The 4" lizards seem to work better than the 6" lizards for me.
That is one lure I have never had luck with fishing. Not sure what I'm doing wrong given that I'm catching fish on worms, craws, and tubes. But lizards? Nothing.
I also make a lot of trips to Rocky Gorge Reservoir. Dropshotting and Shakey heads are my go to baits. 90% of the time I will have a Roboworm rigged on them. As for a search bait, I prefer a swing head football jig with a "Biffle Bug".
I used to hate fishing soft plastics for bass, just never had the patience to work them slow. I finally pushed myself to start using them and probably caught more fish on them this year than my usual go to spinner baits.
The best producing bait for me this past year was a 10" blue and black paddle tail worm on a shaky head jig. Pulled in my PB pickerel at 26.25" with that rig along with a bunch of others 24+. Also lost what I would expect would have been my PB LMB on it as well. Working It weedless along weed edges drop offa, and downfalls works quite well.
Comment