OK, I found a map.........I didn't realize how far south in the state this was. What are your water temps? With the power plant discharge, I'm guessing upper 40's to low 50's? I've fished waters around power plant discharges before, and know the temps can change drastically around the discharge and anywhere down current. Assuming the water temps are upper 40's to lower 50's your fish are going to be in a staging pattern between their deep water winter hangouts and shallow water areas where they will spawn. They will still be spending the majority of their time in either deeper water or suspending over it. If you know the biggest spawning flats in the lake, then draw a line to the closest deep water.....and find some good structure between the two and your fish will be in there somewhere. It could be rocks, stumps, trees, deep weedlines, rock walls, ledges, etc. Something between the two will likely hold fish. While fish usually will try and find the warmest water they can, that doesn't necessarily mean they will hang directly in front of the discharge..........In my experience on the Susquehanna River in PA around power plants, the fish won't stay immediately down current but will find bays off the main current this time of year. Bass are like deer in which they will follow terrain breaks, edges, and changes in terrain as they transition between shallow and deeper water......that's what your looking for to start finding a pattern this time of year. Once you find your pattern, then find a handful of places to replicate it so that you aren't fishing other peoples leftovers if you don't get there first. I would spend time before the tournament looking in the following areas with my sonar for some type of structure. I'd start there because they are out of the main current where deeper water transitions into north shoreline (north side always warms first). I would probably start looking on the east side of the map due to proximity of the warm discharge water, and work my way west to find the sweet spot for temp. Once you find spots that are active, remember the water temp, type of cover/structure, depth and find more spots like it. I'd let my sonar unit dictate what type of pattern I'd try to put together there. If fish are on bottom structure, I'd be fishing a jig slow or super slooooow rolling a spinnerbait with a colorado blade bumping bottom. If the fish are suspending, I'd be throwing a jerkbait like a LC Pointer that will dive to the depth the fish are suspending at and giving it a solid 10-20 second pauses between jerks. Good luck and if you can get out to prefish let me know what you find!
Early Season, no current, especially if it is really cold. I love a 3.5 inch Sassy Shad worked as slowly as possible on a spinning rod with light line on underwater humps. Another favorite is if the bite suddenly dies, switch to a tube jig. Don't expect to feel them hit though, they just kind of swim off slowly with it. With good current, rattle trap, finess worms, suspending jerk baits and spinner baits around points and stump rows. Carolina Rigged Lizard, Bitsy Bug Jigs and Spinner Baits in the back waters. Pre-fishing is the trick if it is allowed. One good trick is to ride the lake and talk to different fishermen. Some may not be too nice but most are.
I would love to get back into bass fishing. If I had someone I could fish with in my area I would love to enter some amateur tournaments.
Thanks for all the replies guys. Raceway-None of those lakes are on the schedule for this season, but I will definantly keep it in mind for the future. Thanks man! This was the first time I have seen the plant shut down before in my 5 or 6 trips here, and it definantly effected the bite. Everyone was reporting low numbers of catches. Matt-A lot of awesome info there, I may be picking your brain as the summer wears on and we travel farther to lakes we can't prefish. That is the same map I have in the boat. There may be as many as 15 teams that show up, but I doubt everyone will be there for the first one. Water temps this past weekend were 52-55 degrees. The 3 areas you circled to the NW are probably the 3 best spots we plan to focus around. We have heard from some of the locals that if you get out of sight of the boat ramp, you are wasting your time. As you move up the warm water arm, you can catch crazy numbers, but the size has never shown up much. Saturday, my friend was catching males in the shallows on white rat'l traps and a white spinnerbait, on Sunday I was catching them on a white chatterbait, with a white LFT Magic Shad trailer. We could not get a single bite on any type of plastic in the shallows. Sunday, we did manage to catch a 3.5# female that had already moved up and was full of eggs. Historically, that fish would be in the running for big bass for our club on this lake. We are going to make another trip Saturday morning and stay out a little deeper, and farther away from the spawning flats. Weather this week is supposed to be in the upper 50's to low 60's, but with a chance of rain on Sunday. If the plant is on, this lake has the potential for unbelievable numbers. We have caught as many as 70 something bass in just a few short hours before here, but if it's shut down, it's a totally different lake. This year, the lake has started a new limit. For a team tournament, we are allowed to keep 4 fish under 15", and 2 over 15". I'm guessing that it is going to take around 12 pounds to get in the top 3 and collect a check. VS-This is only my third year of really getting serious about bass fishing, and first season joining a club. I started with 1 baitcaster and 1 spinning setup, and enough tackle that could fit into 1 small plano box. However, after a couple years, I now have more rods and reels, lures, and terminal tackle than I know what to do with. It definantly helps pass the time until bow season rolls around!
If you are out a little deeper and still within site of the ramp try to have one of you throw the Carolina Rig in practice, I know Larry always caught good fish in 10-20 feet of water in March and that was his main go to. I have fished the top two circles on the left that Matt posted and the area across and we all limited the day I fished. Most people hate fishing it including myself, but it was a solid pattern back in the 90's
