June 2008 Bass Fishing Tips
for Lake Powell
June 12, 2008
 |
Lake Powell is a bass fishing wonderland. It is considered the most scenic bass fishing lake in the world, and is the home lake of Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits in Page, Arizona. Each month, we'll be publishing a few bass fishing tips for here. This is to assist anglers who visit Lake Powell, including those who will partake in the U.S. Angler's Choice Tournament of Champions ("TOC") on October 23-25, 2008 on Lake Powell. There are over 10,000 U.S. Angler's Choice members. Any one who qualifies in their own region of the country is also eligible to fish the TOC on Lake Powell. So come on! We'd love to have you visit our town and lake for the Angler's Choice TOC - or anytime! |
With water levels that may rise more than a foot per day during the peak snow melt month of June, many anglers tend to lose touch with where the bass are on Lake Powell this month. All the bass and fishing spots that anglers found during the spring spawning season, these hotspots become a bass fishing version of the lost city of Atlantis, covered up and lost forever under the steadily rising water.
Problem is, most anglers are immediately attracted like bees to honey to the newly-flooded brushy cover. Many anglers will rush to fish the good-looking new shoreline about one month before the majority of bass will move up to occupy it.
Anglers rush to fish fresh shoreline like this too soon in June.
Fish the May Shoreline in June
As tempting as newly-flooded shoreline may look, a better strategy for June is to allow the fish (and the entire aquatic ecosystem) about one month to slowly creep up, rehydrate and replenish newly-reclaimed shoreline. It takes a lot of discipline for an angler to do this, but how it works is so simple. Go to www.lakepowell.water-data.com. Take the difference between the water level today versus one month ago. Now don't fish any shallower than that. For instance, on June 1st, the water was 15 feet higher than May 1st. So fish at least 15 feet of water. By June 10th, concentrate on fishing at least 23 feet deep, and so on. It's a simple strategy. You target where the fish and the shoreline were located one month ago. The majority of bass will still be there. Most will not have moved up into the quickly-covered, sterile and relatively barren ecosystem that's not yet been reestablished in the shallower water during June.
Carolina Rigs to the Rescue
The best way to find fish that have been covered by Powell's rapidly-rising water during June is with a heavy Carolina rig.
By varying the bait size, the hook size (from 2/0 to 5/0) and the weight size (from 3/8 to 1 oz), a wide variety of soft baits from small to large can be presented on a single Carolina rig set-up.
In addition to the baits shown above, the Flappin' Hog, lizard, crawdads and others make great Carolina rig presentations.
L to R: Flappin' Hog, Lizard, Medium Craw
Texas Too
Whenever fishing deep with the Carolina rig, it's helpful to have one of these same baits Texas-rigged on a second rod too. The magnetism of nearby, good-looking freshly-flooded brush will draw you in, and the snagless Texas rig is ideal for flipping into such shallow cover. You will get some bonus bass, typically largemouth, doing this - but you'll find it is a secondary pattern that's not as productive most days, compared to the deep Carolina rig. Still, flipping the Texas rig into good-looking, fresh cover is fun, and all you need is one five-pound bucketmouth that's moved shallow to make it worth your time.
Mark Your Spots
Once you find what seems to be an aggregation of deep bass with the Carolina rig, throw a marker buoy overboard. Now you may use either rod, with the Texas or Carolina rig in deep water. Some days it may seem as if the fish prefer one rig style versus the other. There's no way to know unless you try both. Some days you may swear the rig makes a difference. Other days it may not.
However, always use the heavier Carolina rig to find the fish first. The Carolina rig is the prospecting tool. Once fish are located, try the Texas rig too, to see if it makes a difference.
Marker buoys are a must when mining the depths for golden-flanked bass.
Actually, what you are prospecting for first with the Carolina rig is not bites - but detection of rugged, irregular patches of bottom. You are almost grappling for stuff with the heavy sinker. whether it's broken bottom, underwater brush or trees. Essentially, you're searching blindly for the spots you did best in March, April and May - and stuff adjacent to it that was dry then. When you start detecting that stuff with the sinker, get ready to be bit right while you are in the thick of it. Then throw the marker buoy to use as a range marker, and go to work.
What you can dismiss as unproductive is smooth bottom. Any time that heavy C-sinker is sliding along smooth bottom, keep moving until you locate the rough stuff that's bass country.
Don't Forget to Dropshot
Another rig to try (once fish are located in deep water) is the dropshot rig. Save all the baits that got torn in their nose sections on a Texas or Carolina rig, and you can re-rig them as good as new through their middle on a wacky dropshot rig.
Many days I've stood on the bow tonging bass on a heavy Carolina rod. As my baits' noses got torn up, I'd toss them to my partner on the stern who would wacky rig them on a light dropshot rod. Most days, it made no difference to the fish if the same bait was presented on the light wacky dropshot of the heavy C-rig. However, it would be counterproductive to prospect for fish first with the dropshot rig. Again, prospecting is the domain of the heavy C-rig set-up.
The dropshot rig is best executed with a light spinning rod and 6 lb test. The best dropshot rod I've found is Yamamoto's. The best dropshot line for me is Yamamoto's 6 lb test Sugoi fluorocarbon. Not playing favorites, just trying to help you get set-up for success. If I felt there was a better dropshot rod or line, I'd use it.
Top: Heavy 7'6" Carolina rig rod. Below: Heavy 7'0" Texas rig rod.
On the Carolina rig rod and the Texas rig rod, I use Yamamoto's heavy baitcasting sticks with GYB's 16 pound test Sugoi fluorocarbon. The rods are identical, both heavy action, except the C-rig rod is 7'6" (model #SM3661HF). The little longer rod is a little better for casting and hooksetting with the Carolina. The Texas rig rod is identical except 7'0" (model #SM3601HF).
Big Jigs and Blades
Two other heavy rods I work with in June are a Falcon Expert model #EC7H for big jigs (1/2 to 1 oz) and G. Loomis model #SBR864 for big spinnerbaits (3/4 to 1-1/2 oz). On both, I use the 16 lb test Yamamoto Sugoi fluorocarbon.
Any time that any kind of baitfish or small bait-sized fish can be sensed on or close to the bottom with the electronics, then swimming heavy jigs deep or slow-rolling big spinnerbaits are at their best. The jigs and blades need to be big and heavy to hunker down deep, and the rods must be heavy to handle such big baits.
Top: Heavy 7'0" jig rod. Below: Heavy 7'2" spinnerbait rod.
Slamming Tumbleweed Beds
On Lake Powell, in the southwestern desert region, dense ledges of underwater tumbleweeds constitute semi-permanent cover that endures for years, even decades. Each tumbleweed has an odd round shape and averages 2-3 feet wide. At first, they get blown and roll around the shoreline all winter and spring while the water level is low. The wind and natural lay of the land tends to usher them into cracks, ridges or other low-lying depressions in the terrain. Basically, they fill in the cracks and holes. Once that happens, they interlock with each other. They can get piled five or ten feet deep in windrows that are dozens of yards long. Or, there can be five or ten tumbleweeds locked together, forming isolated patches. Like a brush pile in other parts of the country, a tumbleweed pile can last many years, and they make great cover.
They're terribly spiny. A tumbleweed is like a brillo pad, except there's ample room inside for critters to hide within its thorny haven. Small bait can crawl, swim or slip inside tumbleweeds easily, but bass can't go where the hiding bait can go. So deep in the inner sanctum of a tumbleweed is a safe haven. It is similar with dense grass beds of all kinds in other parts of the country. However, bass can push through and flush hiding bait out of many different kinds of grass. Of course, some grass species are stiffer or spinier than others, but no grass is as thorny as tumbleweeds (although spiny naiad is close). Point is, bass can't flush bait out of tumbleweeds. Inside the tumbleweeds, there is an ample, captive food sources for them, but bass can't get at it. They have to wait for the bait to come out of tumbelweeds on their own...
Unless you slam them out of there.
How to do this is, locate submerged tumbleweed beds with the Carolina rig, and then pinpoint the perimeters of the tumbleweed bed with marker buoys. Now put the Carolina rig away, and go to work with the heavy jigs and spinnerbaits. The soft bait used on a C-rig just can't take the beating to ensue - but a stout skirted jig with trailer or a tough spinnerbait can.
Cast, out, let the jig or spinnerbait flutter down, drag it and wait to make contact with a tumbleweed. When you do, sight the rod directly straight down the line without any angle or bend where the line comes off the rod tip, essentially fishing the line straight off the reel - "straight-lining" - so the heavy, tough bait just slams hard and grabs the tops of the windrowed tumbleweeds. This is called "slamming" because the heavy, rugged bait just slams the tumbleweeds hard, jarring loose all sorts of nymphs, fish fry and critters holed up in the protective tumbleweeds.
Slamming knocks - or startles - so much food out of the tumbleweeds that it's almost a method to stir up a chum trail. It starts a food chain going as the slamming lure rips and rocks the tumbleweeds, knocking all kinds of critters loose. Bass go ape when that happens.
Think of it this way, if you are snug as a bug laying in your cozy bed, or hanging out comfortably in your house or whatever safe shelter you're in or under, if it suddenly shook to the rafters, you'd probably run out of there in a panic. That's exactly what happens when a big spinnerbait or jig slams through a bed of tumbleweeds, shaking the foundations, and stampeding everything out of there. Bass will not be far behind!
As the bait grabs, you simply use the reel alone to winch it out of there. Don't lift or snap the rod. Don't move the rod to the side. Have the rod sighted straight down the line, and use the reel alone to winch it out of there. Never sweep the rod to the side, as you'll get solidly snagged if the rod moves to the side. Always keep the rod sighted straight down the line, which will help keep the spinnerbait wire or jig hook straight up. It's hard to imagine a spinnerbait or jig getting stuck when it stays upright. If you sweep the rod to the side, however, the bait will roll onto its side too, and the hook will snag.
Using the reel to power-winch the bait loose really helps rearrange the furniture down there, and that's what upsets all kinds of critters who bolt, attracting bass. So you don't want to use the rod to snap the bait out of there too quickly nor too easily. You want to use the reel to wrestle the bait through the cover, making maximum mayhem moving the cover. Needless to say, this requires the relatively stouter rod, heavier line and more rugged baits than usually used for more mundane tactics.
When you straight-line winch the bait loose from one tumbleweed, you want to repeat the whole process, grab onto the next tumbleweed and the one after that, all the way through the bed. So make sure you use a bait that's heavy enough, and constantly let the bait flutter down and make contact with the tumbleweeds. You're grappling here, and just winching the weeds apart and knocking everything living in them loose - until a nice bass belts you.
So There You Have it for June
Bass are ever-present always on the deep tumbleweed beds - patiently biding their time. They cannot go into the tumbleweeds which are like barbed wire. They watch and wait for an impaired or careless morsel to fall out or otherwise make a mistake and blunder out in the open.
It's often a stalemate and a meager way to make a living, until those epic times when masses of critters are forced to march out on their own such as during a "hatch" when nymphs have no choice but to emerge from water onto land in order to metamorphose or during a species seasonal migration when a species must shift locations en masse or die if they don't, or during June when water rises a foot a day, and the entire aquatic ecosystem must creep and crawl slowly but surely up, using the relative safety of the tumbleweed trails to journey from deep water to the newly-flooded brushy shoreline, which takes about a month to repopulate.
Southwest tournament pros Randy Roundtree and Bump Elliot love Lake Powell.
Check back next month for more bass fishing tips for Lake Powell every month. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the TOC to be held on Lake Powell on October, 23-25, 2008, please contact Vern Price, VP of U.S. Angler's Choice at (702) 896-1198.