Technique Discussions from Maho Yesterday!

fishing is such an ongoing learning experience!

I started the day on the far shoreline where there are a couple of extended rock piles in the shallows that jut out into the lake. Now, as expected there were some nice fish there including the one that this picture shows.....they were caught on Brewer's grub that was being slowly swum along the bottom close to the rocks....

Anyway, that pattern really wasn't consistent for the remainder of the day, oh, yes, here and there it did work and consequently I did get 8 fish, all but one which were good sized, however, it could have been much better, and it wasn't working as well for my boat partners either.

We reasoned that these fish had moved back , so besides the shorelines, we covered mid depths everywhere, mostly by running the brewers deeper and again, along the bottom, by jigging the Snoozer's tube and in my case, I also blade baited the 20 to 30 depths adjacent to each area, again, on the bottom.

well, as it turned out, the winning pattern that some of the guys will go on and discuss and the one that really put the most fish in the boat involved a variation on the thinking: yes, the fish had moved out, however, THEY WEREN'T ON THE BOTTOM!!!

they moved to deeper water, but they were suspended, yet active and running around a couple of feet or so below the surface, right over that mid depth water!

Now, Maho presented a very algae stained water yesterday, a green color of which you usually don't see there. My guess is that with that off color, the fish could be below vision by only going 3 feet or so under the surface and had no need to pin themselves on the bottom.....when you fish the shallow flats of Maho, and there are so many, there is a point where it converts to 6 to 8 feet or so and as expected, you will see a color change and lose sight of the bottom, it is at this transition that the pattern emerged.........very late in the afternoon, when returning to the morning spot because it was now shaded, Paul Mattie and his boatload were already on our spot. I watched the Senko Baron, Jeff, pull up a couple of smallies , and noticed that he was throwing paralell to the boat, however he was throwing his senko and he wasn't letting it drop to the bottom! so I put on a Thrasher and twitched in similar fashion just below vision level and sure enough hooked up with a quality smallie.....it was then that it hit me what had been going on!! We were reasoning correctly in terms of dropping back, but we were fishing below the fish!!

Now, Bass Rat had probably the biggest numbers of the day on his boat, and they were twitching a wacky rigged senko through that very same water level, with great success!

Again, such a constant learning curve in Fishing! Fishing a senko, not unlike a jerkbait....soft plastic jerkbaiting, with the fish suspended, but not in neutral mode, up in the water column that was algae ridden..... I just love it!!

at the get together last year, everything in creation worked, it was just a special day, however at the first one 2 years ago, Travis came up with a great pattern later in the day by creepy crawling a Yammie craw very slowly starting in but going away from the docks....now, with the high bright sun, I thought maybe this was called for again, being at the same time of the year, but of course, same time but far different conditions, and that too did not work yesterday, because as I said, they were not positioned on the bottom....Water temps were about 70 degrees, which is "comfortable" for the fish, water temps having lagged this year because of the cool spring despite the warm winter. That , combined with the water clarity situation, gave the ideal conditions for fishing up in the column over mid depths and thus the best pattern of the day for those that doped it out!!

I sure didn't, but I am a sponge for these observations when fishing.....sure hope some of the others come on and comment on this topic!

here is the pic of the nice LM that took the brewer's earlier in the morning.....

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Well thats not a pattern I hit on! Knowing that they weren't totally on the docks spent time fishing these mid-depth (on the bottom with tubes). Would go back and forth between the two and each one would pick us up fish here and there so we keep at it. Figuring maybe they would turn on or we would make the right change and hit on a pattern. Also spent time on the flats behind the islands were we saw plenty of fish cursing around also had a lot of fallows with out hits.

Was surprised by mid day being hot on sunny that they weren't on the docks more. Did see fish suspended deep on the finder just didn't target them that much opting more for ones I was seeing relating to those first drops into the mid-depth.

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Gregg

we tried

...JPBass, Halfbassed put our collective heads together, but couldnt come up with a pattern....suspended fish?...thats tough fishing in anyone's book...caught one fish early on a jig, JPbass caught about 7-8 fish early on a Sammy, a crank and a nice one on a jig....Halfbassed caught his on a senko, and another nice fish on a prototype, custom made, handcarved , top end, high quality finish, yet to be named , soon to hit the market , endorsed by several top anglers in the pro circuit lure....

..JPbass and I caught a short and quick glimpse of the secret lure that Halfbassed used....all we know is that Halfbassed took the lure out from a cylindrical, styrofoam container with dirt in it....i guess for camouflage....???

..under the green stuff was clear water...

...in hindsight, the senko would have been a great bait on suspended fish....and twitching it would have been the last thing I'd do with the senko, but, thanks to Baron Jeff for telling us uninformed tourney anglers....great tactic..




....docks was not productive for us...neither was shady pockets...


joe

i had a real nice LM on a shallow diver crankbait in about 10ft of water...my second fish was a smallie on a 5in senko...and my third fish was a dwarf bass/sunfish/crappie mutt that i landed on a spitn image...you can see this freak of nature on NYBTV!

well, i obviously couldn't figure it out...even tho paul and jeff were bringing them in steadily thru the day, i couldn't quite get in "the zone"... i saw very well how these guys were working their baits, but it takes more than imitating them to get strikes... jeff gets in some kind of zen state as he meticulously works his lure...he even admitted his big problem is he get's so focused on the bait, he doesn't pay attention to where he is fishing and forgets the spots later!...LOL but true!... and paul works that spook until the fish CAN'T REFUSE!

anyway, as said before, just a terrific and enjoyable day...i'm looking forward to the next one at whaley lake!

Mike de Avila

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I recently started twitching the senko and it has been productive for me......not yesterday though. Fishing with you all made me realize the difference between a good fisherman and a great fisherman. I used the same baits, the same techniques in the just about the same spots and only got 2 fish. I really admire ones that can get into that zen state or zone and remain there when the busines of fishing is at hand.

Good schooling experience..........

I hope I never have to miss an outing.

SC

Pattern you ask? Joe summed it up pretty well when he said we had none, with the exception of the early top water bite on and near a flat. In retrospect we probably should of stuck with it. We spent most of the day fishing the rocky ledges in 10 to 12 ft. and deeper water, with far less results than I usually encounter in those areas.

The bottom seemed to be holding a lot of that "green mucky stuff" in areas I hadn't encountered it in years past. That pretty much rendered my crankbait useless. My jig and c-rig slid through it a little better but rendered few bites. I guess the theory of suspended fish would explain why.

I wish the weeds of yesteryear would grow back so I'd KNOW where to fish. Saw a school of those grass carp swimming around, too bad I forgot my dynomite!!

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Senko Jig???

Wasn't that technique designed to catch those suspended Maho smallies?

John G,

Soft plastic jerkbaits are one of my favorite techniques. I rarely use them in open water, although I did on Chautauqua this past weekend, but they skip docks very well. They also give the angler a bunch of options. For starters, they can be "burned" for aggressive fish, or you can "kill" them and that fall will get those passive fish.

Big tubes, Senkos, Flukes, they can all be used as soft plastic jerkbaits.

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Our pattern findings...

Without a doubt, the vast majority of our fish (BassRat, Meg & myself), came on 4" Senkos, wacky rigged & a few for Meg on a Texas rig. I used 2/0 Gammy EWGs, myself. I brought all my fish to the boat, except one decent one which wiggled off. I love those hooks!

Very few of the fish were caught in really thin water. Most were caught a decent piece from the shoreline as well, in less than 10 feet of water. Some were flat out in open water in various bays and coves, supporting the the suspicion 'open water suspended fish'. All the fish were near some sort of shoreline structure, though, whether it was a dock, rock bar, or timber - typical. Finding shade was the key to the afternoon bite, with the exception being Smallies, which seemed to enjoy basking in the shallow, open water in the bays.

Meg's confidence in the senko really blew wide open in the PM, but the AM brought her success on Yammy grubs, dragged slowly in the shallows.

Although a bonafide early AM topwater pattern was definitely on, I didn't stick with it myself. A Rogue thrown later produced a tiny bluegill and nothing more.

Senko colors that produced the dominant amount of fish were the Pumpkin (Orange) with Green Flakes and 'Junebug' for me (first time I tried that color - now it's a mainstay ). The fish didn't thump the baits hard, so keenly watching the line was the ticket for detecting most fish. I may just have to try the Yo-Zuri Hybrid line that Nick was using. It's purple color was easy to see above the water, and disappeared below the surface. I was impressed.

Water was 68 degrees when we got out at about 5:30am, and rose to 74 by dinner load-out time (5pm). Water had that algae bloom going on, with suspended 'specks' of algae everywhere we fished. Weather was mostly cloudy (high, thin clouds) at launch, clear most of the AM and early afternoon, and partly cloudy by the afternoon (cumulus buildups). Air temps ranged from about 65 at launch to 80-ish by load-out. Some breeziness during certain parts of the day, but fairly calm air dominated our fishing.

Lake Mahopac is certainly the quality fishery that everyone has extolled for the few years I have been with NYBass.com. It was a pleasure to fish it and meet so many of you!

Tight Lines...

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