Rocky Gorge largemouth 4/27

[perchy]

Yeah it's surprising how quickly the water drops off in some areas when you look on a fish finder.. It can be 6 ft in one spot and then drop suddenly to 25.

[acwatkins]

Exactly, and I know that's where the fish are. Tough to know those areas by just feeling the bottom with a jig though

[perchy]

I used to use cranks and jigs with hit or miss success there. Cranks simply do not have the same dive-curve as a sinking lure like a spinnerbait or rattle trap. They barely tick their max depth before arcing back towards the surface. Spinnerbaits let you stay deep a long time, and this is where you'll run across the biggest fish in there. Jigs are great to, but they lack the flash and thump you get with the blades. Rattle lures are noisy but they're a pain when they get snagged in my opinion.

[acwatkins]

looks like I have to do some spinnerbait shopping . do you prefer a certain blade style? ive always been a silver willow blade guy. understanding the blade styles and colors always gets me confused.

[perchy]

looks like I have to do some spinnerbait shopping . do you prefer a certain blade style? ive always been a silver willow blade guy. understanding the blade styles and colors always gets me confused.

For me, the tandem (one small colorado and one big willow) config has worked better than dual willow because you get more vibration with the colorado. Both gold/silver or a combination of the two have worked there. I think the biggest factor is the vibration instead of flash there since light penetration is poor. The water's very murky and so they're probably using their lateral lines in the deep/darker dropoff areas. White or chartreuse skirts should work well.

[acwatkins]

Awesome, thanks for the tips! I'll let you know how it goes next time I go out!

[perchy]

Good luck man! Make sure you come back with lots of pics

[DrJoel]

Awesome LM and thanks so much for sharing all the tips and details, perchy! When you say you add swimbait tails, is this rigged similar to adding soft plastics to jigs?

[perchy]

Add a bulky 5 inch swimbait or a big grub if you want to weed out the smaller fish.

[perchy]

terminator-short-arm-thumper-and-berkley-havoc-grass-pig.jpg

[DrJoel]

Very nice! Thanks!

[Mbae]

that thing looks pretty! gotta try my luck with some spinnerbaits now!

[perchy]

Yeah that's the only lure I had consistent luck with... have not been skunked once since summer 2014 now. I was considering giving up fishing Rocky Gorge til I realized what I was doing wrong.

[imagine29028]

I went out of Browns yesterday...only got 1 on a black & blue jig right on a laydown. One passing guy said he caught 15....and then when packing up at the dock, guy said he caught a 6 pounder (but you take dock talk for exactly that).

I hate throwing spinnerbaits, but maybe I'll have to invest.

[perchy]

Pics/video or it never happened lol... This is why I document my catches meticulously nowadays.