large mouths - this time of year

[BigYellowYak]

I have only been kayak fishing since the middle of last summer and am having summer trouble figuring out where the large mouths are this time of year and what people are using to fish for them. I went to piney run this morning and caught a decent amount of large blue gills but no no bass. Can anyone give some advice?

[jet]

i havent been out this year yet, but a small white spinner bait or trusty motor oil powerbait worm always work for me in lakes. a white or green crank bait are pretty good for me in the potomac for large and smallies

key is to fish where they are, typically around drop offs, rocks, logs etc

[eastonkayaker]

I have only been kayak fishing since the middle of last summer and am having summer trouble figuring out where the large mouths are this time of year and what people are using to fish for them. I went to piney run this morning and caught a decent amount of large blue gills but no no bass. Can anyone give some advice?

I went fishing in Wye Lake about 10 days ago, caught three LM bass on 6" shakey worm, Gulp, red. No wieght. Water temp was still cool, had to throw it right on top of them wait about 5-10 seconds then shake it. I always have the best luck between 8:00 and 9:00 am, think it has to do with the the sun, warming the water and/or more light, the lake water is fairly dark.

[ictalurus]

Given the water temperatures in the Bay, the largemouth should be getting ready to spawn in some places, so anywhere that looks like a likely place for them to set up their spawning site should have fish. My father and I used to find them in coves with sandy/gravelly bottoms and gently sloping shorelines.

I've had luck with casting 4-6" lizards with 1/8oz swimbait hooks toward shore. Spinners, spinnerbaits, or curly tailed grubs with beetle spin spinner arms work well. My father uses a Texas-rigged 4" electric blue worm, and casts toward the shoreline around fallen trees, logs, rock outcrops, etc.

[Memory Maker]

They should be beginning to stage for the spawn ......... I look for dropoffs by flats ........ not mud flats though .........

[mdmakaira410]

The reservoirs warm up kinda slow. It seems bass at loch raven may still be in prespawn as I found them in 7-10 feet of water. I didn't fish all the way in the back of the coves though so there may be fish bedding up. They should be moving up real soon though if they aren’t already there. I was fishing really slow with a watermelon baby brush hog with a 1/8oz pegged tungsten worm weight. it is pretty hard to fish like that from a kayak, an anchor was a necessity Saturday as it was pretty breezy out there. I only hit one smallish cove right off the main lake saturday and then moved around to fish logs on the banks with the fly rod. Pickerel and palm sized blue gills are always ready to please with any foam or plastic bass poppers...

[Redfish12]

I was at Smith Mountain Lake over the weekend testing out my Revo and I did a little striper fishing, mostly to test my spread for this weekend. My tubes are looking good!

Anyway, I saw a ton of huge largemouth bass sitting on beds and a few on the prowl in the shallows that looked skinny like they had already spawned. Best bait for those big bass that are on the feed for me has always been a live bluegill smaller than your palm. Just free line it near them and occasionally grab the line and make it flash. I know it's not tournament style, but it's effective. If I'm going artificial, I'll try dropshoting a fluke or some sort of scented plastic, but I've had marginal success with that. If the bass is sitting on a bed, best thing is to crawl a soft plastic in and try to agitate them enough to bite at it. Something about fishing for bass on their beds has always irked me though, so I usually just wait till it's over. I would expect bass in this area to be on their beds or just coming off of them, but I'm not really a largemouth guy in any shape or form... smallies are way better!

[Greasyskillet]

rapala skitter walk

need help hooked three good size bass in am at Rocky Gorge on skitter walk all three got off is there a trick to setting the hook with this lure.

[mmanolis2001]

need help hooked three good size bass in am at Rocky Gorge on skitter walk all three got off is there a trick to setting the hook with this lure.

Are the getting off after fighting or never getting a hooked?

I know its easy to pull a lure away from a top water hit if you set the hook to soon. Its amazing how fast you can yank a lure from the water when you get surprised by a blowup.

If thats the case then don't set the hook until you feel the fish.

If you are fighting them and they come unbuttoned then check and make sure your hooks are good and sharp.

[Redfish12]

Got to wait for the rod to load with that lure... really hard to do. I suck at poppers. Try a slower action rod to help too, but its still hard not to pull it out of their mouth when they hit!

[ictalurus]

Like the others said, "Wait for the weight." Set the hook once you feel the weight of the fish. This is the only instance where my corpse-like reflexes are an advantage. If you use braid and your hooks are sharp, the fish will almost set the hook itself.

If your hooks are sharp, another option is to bend the hook points inward very slightly. This trick worked for me with Spro bucktails before they changed the hook shape. I lost a lot of fish at the boat because they threw the hook. There's one treble hook manufacturer that has hooks that are bent inward slightly. I can't remember the brand, but they're used on Rattletraps.

[BigYellowYak]

Thanks for all the good feedback everyone. I think I have a much better idea of where to find them!