bass fishing

T

Toddh

Guest
Hey guys,

Thinking about throwing the fly around for bass in either Prospect, Elk, or Beaver this weekend. This is my first kick at the can with bass. Can anyone give me an idea on where on these lakes is the best spopt for bass. I'm told close to shore with a bugger(reddish or green). Any info would be appreciated...

t
 
Hey Todd, How ya' doin'?

In answer to your question, most fish will be in less than 10 ft of water for the next little while. Places to look for are; any rock cliffs that are coming up out of the water, reed beds are usually a good spot too but tricky to get into, anywhere where there is an overhanging tree or log coming out of the water and you'll want to fish all the wharves you come across at Prospect.

For the rock walls, you can bounce your lure of choice (popper fly or my fave the 5" floating rapala in gold/black) right off the wall and into the water (6 inches away from the wall, very tight) They'll come right out of the water to hammer them.

In the reeds look for pockets to swim your poppers through, although it will be tough to horse them out of there with a fly rod.

For the wharves, if possible go right underneath them, if you can, if not as close to the edge as possible will do, line your self up with the length of the wharf and throw as close to the shore as you can and work it back along the whole length.

As you're going from one spot to the next, be aware that any opening in shore brush or underwater obstacle will be home to these fish and don't ignore them. Try and get that lure right in as far as you can into these "holes". It takes a bit of practice and you will toss your lures into the bushes or get it stuck on the top of the wharf now and then but just go grab it and carry on. The point is, you want to be really tight to the shore line or cover, and my experience tells me that if you're working a surface bug / plug and haven't had a hit in the first 5 feet of retrieve then reel up and cast again to the next spot.

When you're in the shallows (probably retrieving your lure out of that tree, haha) and can see bottom, have a look for the nests, they'll be cleaned off gravel from 2-6 ft. in diameter and you'll see how shallow these fish are in. It can't be too shallow and 1 ft of water is not out of the question.

Hope this helps,
'Hawk;)
 
The smallies shoudl be thinking of spawning (if not already doing so) so shallow should work. But the temp is still a little coldish for a lot of topwater. Summer mornings and evenings are when you really need to try it out.
But for now, I only know that in front of the Elk lake swimming area has a lot of good spawning area. Look for fish there.
Not all that familiar with Beaver tho and if you're in a float-tube or pontoon boat then that may be the place to go.
Good luck
 
One other thing there Todd,

Your retrieve. You want your lure to make a much commotion as possible and here is what I do. After casting your lure to the desired spot, let it sit there until all the rings created from the landing disappear (5-10 seconds) and slowly tighten your line so that the lure swings around and faces you. Once you have it position, give it a twitch with your rod tip so that it swim about 6-10 inches and then pops back to the surface again, HANG ON!!! 'cause that's when they'll usually hit. If not hit, twitch and reel again. About 3 or 4 of those will bring any bass in the area up, so if you don't get a hit then move on. They are very aggresive / protective at this time of year and sometimes you'll get hit almost immediatly.

Also get the fish in and back in the water asap. Remember that it's a C & R fishery right now and these fish are protecting there spawning beds now and the nest can get just about wiped out by another bass if the parent is away for any length of time.

Good luck,
'hawk
 
Me again there Todd, as for other types of fishing for bass, tubes, flies (other than poppers) I would look for some replys from the other folks on this board that have more experience at that than I do. This is usually the only time of year I fish them from mid-April to around the first of June.

Like Eric said though and a good rule to go by is "Hot days are bass days" and you'll find that a stretch of warm weather will pick this fishery up quite a bit. I'll look for a day of 70F degree weather and go out after dinner. Mid day you'll want to concentrate on more cover like overhangs and wharves where the light conditions will be a little better for them.
 
Hey Fishhawk,

throwing some lures up against a rock wall into the water is a technique i have never tried but i hear it is very successful, what lakes would have structure like that that produces for bass at this time of year?

Thanks
RVN
 
Prospect Lake has all kinds of rock ledges / points all around the lake. From the boat launch, look off to your right and there is point just on the other end of that bay with a sheer rock wall on the side facing the ramp. Anywhere along the length of that is productive. As you row around the lake you'll notice quite a few areas very similar, some smaller, maybe only 3 or 4 ft long and other quite large. The island is just one large one and you could hit 4 or 5 fish just working your way around the island.

As for bouncing it of the walls, really, thats just a crappy cast, hahaha, but the bottom line is that you want to have your lure land within about a foot of the wall, how you get there doesn't really matter, but with some practice you should be able to make those casts. The trickier part is trying to hit the little pockets under cover of branches. A good sharp cast with very low tragectory will get you in there, whereas, a high looping cast will usually find you in the tree, assuming that your distance is right. Then you've just got to bite the bullet and let your fishing partner take a couple of quick casts in to the spot before you go retieve your lure.

Try it out, have fun. Prospect should be turning on right quick here with this warm weather. Let me know how you make out, I might even see you out there one of these nights.
 
Bass fishing was good for me anywhere very close to shore (very shallow water) at Pospect Lake during the warm weather. I caught my biggest bass at that lake that put up a good fight at around 3 pm two years ago. Worms, raphalas, red leech flies work for me.
 
Hey Guys!

Great info! i find the attitude and replies are way superior here than on bc fishingreports.com. i've given up with that one...

I'll be out on prospect this weekend with the fly line. I'll let you know how things go..

todd
 
I agree 100% Todd. Bass ARE an introduced species but they are so damned fun to fish for. I know how some of the FishBC members feel but we don't deserve the wrath. The funniest thing is that I have caught my biggest trout with bass gear!

I have never fished for smallmouth with a flyrod but make sure your leader is fairly strong. This time of year you could find some of those 5+lbers. One friend states that he caught a smallmouth off a Beaver lake bed that was almost 7lbs.

Myself, I'll be at Quennell lake in Cedar tomorrow.
 
Todd,

If you're going to use the fly rod. I would go down to Island Outfitters or Robinsons and pick up a couple of bass popper type flys. They should work like a hot damn as they pop and gurgle as you retrieve them. Fish them the same as stated earlier in my posts, whereas that info is generally geared towards the use of Rapala Plugs, same idea though.

Like Eric said, use heavy tippet on there to because there will be some 5+ lb bass kicking around and once hooked they'll bulldog ya' down to the bottom (usually) so you do have to supply a certain amount of pressure in order to control them.
 
Lots of fun in a float tube.They'll actually tow ya.Ya gotta kick like the dickens when they hit so you can keep out of the weeds.
 
loving the excitement...i'm going down to bug matt at robinson's this afteroon. Would it be best to hit the lake during the warmest part of the day??? have to co-ordinate with the wife..
 
From what I have seen lately the big females are coming shallow to lay eggs first thing in the morning. Then they go deeper later in the morning. The males guard the nests and may come and smack an easy meal if it goes over them.
Then there's the smaller guys roaming around now. I think you'd find only them midday. But that's <1 up to 2lbs

Caught a nice trout today in Shawnigan while bassin'. 4 bass over 3.5lbs. Buncha 2lbers. Lotta wind midday.
 
nice work eric. was all set to head out sunday morning after a sat trip down to robinsons for some poppers. woke up to rain and wind and decided against taking the float tube out. Have to wait til next week...glad to hear you slayed.
 
Weather is really unsettled right now eh?
What about an weekday afternoon/evening fish? Could find some smallies OR trout.
 
It's hard for me to find the time weekday eves...gonna try and find some time this weekend. Maybe plan for a sunday morning trip...
 
It's hard for me to find the time weekday eves...gonna try and find some time this weekend. Maybe plan for a sunday morning trip...
 
anyone been doing any bass fishing lately? hoping to head out this long weekend, interested to see how everyones doing.
 
anyone been doing any bass fishing lately? hoping to head out this long weekend, interested to see how everyones doing.
 
Back
Top