Shallow Water Bites?

[borchawk1]

Just curious if anyone has any pointers as to what the best area to hit on a shallow lake full of weeds would be. Several of the lakes in my area have decent panfish and walleyes in them, but bottom out at 8' or less. Most of them have lots of weeds and little in the structure department. I think I've punched 300 holes in the last week on 2 of them with little to show for it. What makes one stretch of weeds better than another?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Borchawk-

Lakes that that can be very difficut to fish as the schools of fish will roam quite a bit. You are doing the right thing by drilling a lot of holes. A few tips I can give you would be this.

#1 In lakes that dont have a lot of depth change you need to try and find bottom content transitions. Forinstance. from rock to sand, mud to sand and so on...

#2 Fish the weeds during the light of day and then pull back to the weed edges at low light. Fish should feed during the day but pull back to the high percentage areas(weedline) at the low light(dawn and duck) for heavier feeding.

Good luck!!

[Maximum12]

I'd agree with most of Dietz' post above.

I fish a lake a lot like this in the Twin Cities with similar results. When you pick up a northern or walleye, they're almost always singles because it seems like they're on the move. Of probably forty-fifty trips over the past three years, I caught two walleyes within ten-fifteen minutes of one another ONCE!

My strategy for this lake consists mostly of exactly what you're doing ~ drill a lot of holes & find which ones yield fish. Over time, I've IDed the holes on the lake where I've caught fish, & it seems that eigth trips out of ten they're moving through the same areas consistently.

That's about the sum of my knowledge on the topic.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Max-Have you ever dropped a camera down to see if there is anything different in the holes that have produced for you.. Or do you feel these are just transistion areas from one area to another and you are just intercepting them? And are you having the success in these holes about the same time of day?

[mistermom]

I don't have a ton of experience with this. However, this year I've made a decision to fish shallower. I'd say that the greener and leafier the weeds the better. This time of year it may be hard to find a lot of green weeds. But if you do they should be good because the green ones make oxygen and the dead ones use oxygen. Good luck sir!

mm

[Willy]

I fish weeds quite a bit in the winter and usually do pretty well for walleyes. If you can, try and find a spot where the weeds thin out (a pocket) or come to a point. Also if you have no other kind of structure whatsoever, fish in the corners of the mouths of any bay. Steepest side if possible. These spots seem to congregate fish. Also if there are any creeks, rivers, channels between lakes, etc. these are good bays to fish.

[borchawk1]

Thanks guys! I'm off to try again. I'm thinking hole hopping is the ticket. It can get frustrating when you're conditioned to looking for structure or the deepest hole to set up on this time of year. I'll post if I find a pattern that pays off.

[Deitz Dittrich]

electronics can really be a key to letting you know if fish are there or not. When hole hopping like that I like a 1-2 punch.. go with a much larger, and very active lure.. a large spoon, or bait that puts off a large ammount of vibration. Then have a smaller version ready to actually catch the fish. You need the larger bait to draw the fish in from further away!

[Maximum12]

Deitz, neither I nor any of my fishing buddies have a camera (yet) so I don't know the particulars of the spots.

However, one thing all the spots have in common is that if I pound my spoon on the bottom, it will frequently come up fouled with dead & dying weeds. The other thing is that almost all of the spots are within a hundred feet or so of the one place in lake that has a lot of scattered rock on the bottom.

I have a question too: in these shallow lakes, do you ever go right into the old weeds, like 6 feet or less? On "my" lake, there's one guy whom I've seen out in around 5 feet of water ~ since I've seen him out several times on this spot, I assume he must be catching something.

As for time, these spots produce anytime from sunup to sunset, randomly, which is why I suspect the fish are on the move a great deal. We've caught walleyes at high noon, early morning, & right at sunset when they're supposed to be hungry.

[Deitz Dittrich]

its possible that he has found some rock that has made a pocket in the weeds... Or its possible that he has found some green weeds.. Dieing weeds dont hold a ton of fish as they take up oxygen in the water. If the smaller bait fish were using it as cover its possible for the larger fish to be in there, but I would think that this guy has found rock or green weed.