The fish mount thread sparked my interest in focusing on smallie fishing this upcoming spring. We have a very good smallie reservoir near my deer camp in upstate NY (Pepacton Res.). The body of water is pretty big, the unfortunate thing is we are forced to use row boats since it's used for NYC drinking water. Anyway, what are some tactics for fishing in a body of water that is extremely deep? When the water is at its normal hight, it can be as deep as 30-40ft just 20 yds off the shoreline and the average depth is around 80-120ft. Just looking for some basic set ups to use in this type of environment, and live bait is an option. http://www.alssportstore.com/catskills-fishing/
Chcek out this site http://www.smalljaw.com/smalljawtackle.htm I recomend jigs and swim baits in combination live bait trailers. I use 1/8 to 3/4 heads with light line 6-8 lb test
What colors tend to work well in clear water? Not sure how much sun is able to penetrate to where the smallies are, but the water is faily clear.
Tubes and dropshots are best in that type. In the morning some top water should be good, like spooks. And if there is any grassy areas in the lake, spinnerbaits over the top of that will do pretty good for you. When it comes to Tubes and dropshotting, I like green pumpkin most in NY. If you get into more stained or muddy water switch to black or junebug, but when its clear like most places there, you want something more natural. Dropshotting I normally use smaller baits, like a 4-5" worm or a small sweet beaver. Tubes use the biggest you can find...4-5". Spinnerbaits I use chartreuse because it looks a good bit like a perch. Another real effective way if you have grass is waky rigged sinkos...5 or 6", same colors as above (green pumpkin in clear, black in muddy). I can go on and on, and its really hard to do without knowing exactly the situation. But that should be a good start. Fish around the drop offs. Cast into shallow water and work the bait into the deeper areas. Once you start getting fish youll be able to figure out roughly how deep they are that day and then you can key on that depth more then covering every part. I wouldnt fish in much deeper then 40' most times of the year.
this was exactly where I was going....and even though this body of water probably doesn't have many crawfish if any DO NOT BE AFRAID TO TRY THEM! I've yet to meet a body of water with smallies in it that won't hit them (and they last a long time on the hook which is a bonus).
