June Bass

[junior]

Have the June bass started to go deep yet?,,, or are they still shallow in the weeds, buck brush, and grass.

"To crank or not to crank" that is the question, I figure they are 50-50 some shallow,, some going to the 1st break line.

I just hate to have 6 or 7 rods under foot when looking for different patterns.

Any thoughts?

[fishNnut]

I fished Patoka lake Tuesday and caught 6-7 in about 16-18 foot of water with a crankbait. I was running about 8-10 foot deep. Caught one 3lb. bass on a crawdad on bottom in 16 ft.

Fished Rough River lake yesterday and caught about the same number of bass all on a crankbait. Lost on nice fish right up against bank, but that was at daylight off a point. All the other fish came from about 16 foot of water.

[Moose1am]

To figure out how deep the crank bait was going one would need to know the type of crank bait (model number), type of line (line diameter) and the speed of your crank bait (gear ratio on your reel).

I like to troll crank baits behind my boat. I troll at approx 1.5 to 2.0 mph with 50ft or 75ft or maybe even 100ft of line out the back. I use 10# stren regular fishing line on a 7 ft long Shakespeare Medium duty rod with an Ambassadeur Reel (low profile type Abu Garcia 1003LP) and using Bandit Model 300 Crank baits of various colors. This setup at 50ft of line out and going 2.0 mph will get the crank baits (300 Bandit Series) down to around 11 ft deep. I test the depth by trolling across a flat area and watching the depth on my depth finder. When I am in 10ft of water the bandits start digging into the bottom of the lake and I can see the rods flexing more than normal. That's how I calibrate the depth to the speed of the boat, amount of line out and the type of bait. I mentally remember these variables but you can write down this information in a log book and make a chart to go by next time out. The trick to this system is finding a flat that has a known depth and that does not have a lot of stumps or brush to get the bait caught up on.

The bass can be in the weeds all summer long during the daylight hours as the weeds give them shade and cover and also plenty of dissolved Oxygen which I think is the main reason the fish and the prey hold in the weeds. In a clear lake like Patoka the weeds can grow in even in depths up to 10ft deep. As long as enough sunlight can reach the weeds they will grow. Once the depth is so great that the sunlight can't reach the bottom in sufficient qualities the weeds won't grow.

At Patoka the thermocline will be found as deep as 26 ft. I know this because I have a YSI Dissolved Oxygen Meter that also measures the water temperature. My cord is 25 ft deep. One fall I was trying to determine where the thermocline was located and could not find it. I later checked the Corp of Engineers Web site where they give the temperature and DO profile for Patoka Lake and found that they had measured the thermocline at 26 ft. Exactly one foot below the reach of my probe's cable. At 26 ft there was an abrupt change in water temp and the dissolved oxygen content. I should have got a 50 ft long cable for my YSI unit.

I fished Patoka lake Tuesday and caught 6-7 in about 16-18 foot of water with a crank bait. I was running about 8-10 foot deep. Caught one 3lb. bass on a crawdad on bottom in 16 ft.

Fished Rough River lake yesterday and caught about the same number of bass all on a crank bait. Lost on nice fish right up against bank, but that was at daylight off a point. All the other fish came from about 16 foot of water.

[junior]

Thanks guys,,,,
I'll give you a report Sunday p.m.
where,, what kind,, how deep,, or shallow and the bait that worked the best.

Junior

[junior]

This is how it went.

We got one bass, a 2 pounder right on the rocky bank. the rest of the day every fish was caught about 10 - 20 feet from the shore, on the 1st break line. Throwing a plastic worm or a jig.

Lots of small fry in the weeds we would run a spinner bait through the fry and get "busted" but never caught a fish on a spinner bait or crank bait.

Worms and jigs produced ,
Good luck guys, hope this helps on "early'' June bass.
Junior