Hi Pressure - Reserviors

Clyde - graduate

I am looking for suggestions on high-pressure reservoirs. Let me set the view of this reservoir, as everything about it screams a great spot. There are grass and lily pads from the boat ramp looking directly across at the 12 o'clock position during the spring /summer time frame. It runs from 18 to 4 feet in depth and shallower and has an excellent bluegill population. There are standing, and submerged timber on the ramp's far-right to make you think you are fishing Rodman Reservoir in North FL. Depth at this location ranges from 4-16 feet with an occasional hole at 20 ft. With some good-sized patches of milfoil, lily pads, soft gravel, and timber, the further you push back. Far-left of the ramp is a stone wall that tapers into the water a good 3 ft with a sharp drop from 5-24 ft as it is near the dam's mouth.
Every summer, they fertilize the reservoir to increase productivity, and it has produced some trophy fish up to 13 pounds. Like I said previously, lots of Bluegill, and there are channel cats here as well, but man, I can't figure it out for the life of me. I have thrown; soft plastic rigged Texas, Carolina, Tokyo, finesse. I have thrown crankbaits, deep divers, swimbaits, jerk baits, and underspin. Thrown spinnerbaits with willow, Colorado, and even the old shoestring Dubois spinners and nothing. I have matched the hatch and used many colors that generally catch in this and surrounding areas. This location is the one place that skunks me every time I go, and it's driving me batty.

December 24, 2020 01:47:14 PM
Joshua Massoud - graduate

Find the nastiest spots that nobody throws to. I fish on a relatively highly pressured lake. When the guys who fish it regularly get skunked or catch five or so, I regularly pull out 10-15+ by finding the underwater spots that are unmarked (we have buoys etc for the bigger brush piles) or finding the nastiest trees/laydowns and fish deep into them, often catching those bigger fish that haven't been hammered quite as much. I also differentiate my baits - silent crankbaits, dip my soft plastics in different dyes,, pull legs off frogs, etc. I will also fish full moon nights and wait for the new moon to fish during the day in summer. This year my new trick is to use an underwater blue tooth speaker tuned to shad sounds to hit suspended, inactive fish (I found a cheap option on amazon) Hope that helps.

December 28, 2020 06:44:01 PM
Jason Admin - admin

Clyde, whenever I'm not catching bass, I'll throw finesse baits. You didn't mention the water clarity, but if water is more than 1ft visibility, I would try a shaky head or drop shot rig. If there is high pressure on the lake, I've found that no-action type lures are effective. You might also want to try the technique described in the video we released today, finesse umbrella rigs https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/finesse-umbrella-rig-bass-fishing-bryan-thrift

December 29, 2020 11:07:39 AM
Clyde - graduate

Gents, thanks for the feed back.

December 29, 2020 09:58:34 PM

I got a new bag of gun powder just come in I be making some more new little copper swimbaits with a long waterproof fuse. When you see bass down there on your X-RAY and they won't hit you tie on one swing it back to your buddy and tell him to light it.
you just push the thumb release and let it free fall down to em. They may not bite but they will float up to ya and ya can net em. Take the ones that are not damaged too bad to scales to get your 10000 bucks .

February 16, 2021 05:05:39 PM
DieselDood - graduate

Doug I think the thump and dead fish penalty would probably be an issue.

February 16, 2021 08:03:34 PM
bobby_stripes - graduate

Clyde, try Ike's favorite finesse tactic, the tail weighted french fry

May 15, 2021 08:12:53 PM

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