Let's face it, not many of today's anglers can afford a boat, and with our current economy, some of us are lucky we can afford a decent pair of waders. So I've decided to write a small guide to help a few people find a couple of spots to fish this year. Places that not only will produce nice fish, but places with easy access that anyone with a little motivation can fish. Now before some of you get your reel in a backlash about the spot burning issue here, realize that these aren't any secret spots and they are owned by the state. We're talking about a state park here. First lets talk about gear. When wade fishing, the longer the rod the better. Not only will this allow you to cast a bit further, but it will also help when you're pulling that big largemouth out of the grass. Wade anglers are sort of at a disadvantage here. When you're in the water, you're obviously closer to the service. Which will make it hard sometimes to pull that fish out of the weeds. So you want a longer rod with some backbone and a soft tip.
As far as reels go, I don't feel this is really that big of deal, but would recommend something with a faster retrieve ratio. This will help cranking in that bass when it heads for cover. Much more important that the reel is the line that's on it. I personally use PowerPro and highly suggest it. Your casting will improve along with a lot of benefits. I wrote everything you need to know about PowerPro in this article, so take a look if you're interested in trying it out. I like to use about 10 lb test for my wading rods if using this braid, but about 12 or even 15 lb test if going with mono.
Lures to use! I could go on for pages with regards to all the different lure out there, but I won't bore you will all that nonsense. Considering the title of this post has the word "budget" in it, I'll narrow it down to three different baits. When you really put things into perspective, you'll come to realize that you don't need everything on the shelves. Here's a list of baits and recommendations for colors and sizes. These three lures will cover most all conditions you will encounter on Presque Isle Bay.
First is the 7" Berkley Powerworm! I like any shades of purple or deep reds for Presque Isle, but my all time favorite color is the "Electric Blue". Not sure why, but I probably catch 80 percent of my largemouth on them. Texas Rigged is my favorite for the bay.
Second is the Spinner Bait! I like double willow leaf blades and my color of chose is plain ole' white. Spinner baits are great for covering a lot of water to locate feeding schools. They can be fished deep or you can rip them on the surface for those schooling fish!
The Third bait of choice is the oldie, but goody, the curly tail grub jig. ( Or the Mr. Twister type baits.) If I had to chose one bait that I had to fish and only had that bait to fish with, I'd pull out a root beer colored Mr.Twister on a 1/4 ounce jig head. 'Nuff said?
Okay, so now that were all geared up and ready to go, lets go over some spots to fish and when to fish them. I'm going to limit this to 5 different locations that are easily to drive to and are great areas to wade. I figured if you can't find fish in the five spots, you may want to reconsider your hobby! Shuffle Board is a lot of fun from what I hear. Anyway, so here are the spots to try......
The Head Of The Bay:
This is the furthest western spot in the bay and you will see it to your right as soon as you enter the Park. You can park in the first parking lot and walk down. This place has great bottom for wading, but be really careful of the drop off. Within 10-15 feet from shore it drops off pretty quickly. This entire are is really good fishing for Largemouth during the spring and early summer months. Weeds can be a problem during the summer, though. I really, really, REALLY like the head of the bay after we've had a strong East wind for a couple of days. An East wind pushes a lot of bait into this small cove so Large schools of bass will feed all day on the baitfish. Look out for the 'gulls. If you ever drive by this area and see alot of 'gulls flying around...FISH IT! Trust me! This is also a great steelhead spot, but we're not focusing on "slimers" here.
The Stink Hole:
This is a really deep hole that offers some really good wade fishing close to shore. You can find it on this map if you look just above Vista Boat Launch. You'll see on the map where it says weeds..That's the stinkhole! If it's spring time, just look for about 9,500 boats anchored off rippin' the lips off the Crappie! It's really good spot to fish those worms. Texas rig them weedless and work that shoreline all the way out to the grassy point that sticks out. If you find this area you'll know what I'm talking about. It gets about 25 feet deep in here, so it tends to hold a decent amount of Largemouth all year long. Also the entire shoreline that runs East of the Stinkhole is really good to try.
Marina Lake:
This is a great spawning area for bass and is really at it's peak in the spring. This is a great place to get that spinnerbait out. You can literally work this entire lake on foot. If you can actually make it all the way around it during the spring without catching bass?!?! Well, you may want to reconsider that Shuffleboard thing! Focus on working baits slowly for these prespawn fish, but remember, repeated cast to a bedding fish is against the law in PA.
Perry Monument Flats:
That entire flat south of the monument is awesome. You can literally walk all the way out to the channels and catch all sorts of bass. This spot is great for working that Grub jig. During the spring this place holds a decent number of smallmouth, too! It's a good, hard sand with grass so focus on casting into the clear spots working your jig slowly through the grass for smallmouth. You may also want to cast that spinnerbait to help find the fish. Rip it along as you walk around this huge flat.
Thompson Bay:
Located more in the lake than the bay, this place is sweet! During the early part of the year, once the main lake hits about 55 degrees, you can find a ton of fish stacked in here. Both smallmouth and largemouth feed in this bay. Grass is a HUGE issue here during the summer, so try to focus on this area early or really late in the year. Here's my warning though, anglers have died wading this area so please be careful. There is a lot of current that runs through here so don't wade out too deep and stay away from the mouth. I've found that this is where most of the current can come from.
No comments:
Post a Comment