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Posts: 324
Location: Waukee, IA | Just wondering if any of you have any experience fishing LOTS of flooded timber for ol' Esox? If you do, what suggestions for baits might you have. I already use spinnerbaits quite a lot but would like to purchase some lures that will hep me diversify my presentation. I am talking about flooded lakes with standing timber. Water depth from 1 - 40 feet deep with mostly cloudy water.
Anybody have any great ideas? |
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Posts: 7090
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | I havent done it in a few years, but try believers, jakes and other buoyant crankbaits with big lips. Easier to work through the branches and the such. Feel for the hit on the tree, then let them back out. Takes a little touch, and a frabill lure retriever helps, too. |
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Posts: 194
| I've done the same thing thing with Slammer deep divers around lay downs before. Never caught any fish doing it, but I never caught the trees either. Lure retriever would be a good idea, just in case. |
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Posts: 32930
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Suicks, too. they back up beautifully! |
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| If the water is 8 feet or less Topwater has been by far my most productive bait, something like a top raider or one of Lee's Topwater Baits |
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Posts: 551
Location: Columbus, Georgia | I use Suicks, Ducktail Warriors, Bulldawgs, Hawg Teasers and Mantas.
These are all dive-and-rise, jerkbaits, or gliders.
Craig |
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Posts: 4266
| Though my experience with flooded timeber is limited to a few areas that are mor like abandoned train bridges, etc. I think that the muskies will use the top portion of the timber and you don't have to fish it from top to bottom. I used top waters alot, like you said spinnerbaits are good because they don't hang up much and you can helicopter them.
Cranks and pull baits as mentioned must be buoyant, and you have to work them slowly, so when you bump anything you can let it back out of the snag.
Beav |
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Posts: 126
| I fish a lot of flooded timber. A few things that seem to work are mantas, cobbs, and especially Hawgteasers for jerkbaits. Some of the cranks that seen to do well are the depthraider, big ernies, and jakes. Use a little touch and these cranks do very good. If you run a spinnerbait I suggest rigging you up some sort of hook guard, it'll save you some baits. Hope this helps. |
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Posts: 345
Location: In the slop! | Super Believers!!!!!!!!!!!! Or just take the tail hook off of a regular or jointed model. Oh a pacemaker works too. |
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Posts: 324
Location: Waukee, IA | Yeah, I KNOW about your super believers!! Figured I better show em something else!!!  |
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Posts: 3912
| Yes I do.
Timber means lots of opportunities for avoidable downtime: your boat rides up on a deadhead, your boat jams between deadheads, your lure hangs up on wood you didn't know was there, fish hang up on timber and kink the leader so you gotta replace that, you bump a tree and a spider big as your hand drops into the boat and so you have to shoot it with a pellet pistol, etc. Most downtime comes from hooking up on wood you didn't know was there, the rest of the downtime comes from your boat on the wood. Here's some stuff I do to minimize downtime fishing timber....
First, power. And not the gas motor, because hitting wood is way too hard on the prop. When you fish a timbered water for a few humdred hours you can drop the big motor and go, 'cause you know where to go. But untill then it's all electric. I now have a 65# Minn Kota Maxxum tiller on my light 14' semi deep-V boat so that I can move FAST to get where I want to be. I call it tap dancing thru the wood.
Second, lure choice. You never want your lure to get deeper than say 5' because 1) you'll never land a fish that you hook deep in a forest of trees and 2) using a lure retriever in high wind in heavy timber is really hard and 3) you just don't want to waste time unhooking lures from sunken timber. Topwater baits are choice #1, (Jackpots and Topraiders) otherwise, I use high-riding hair like Buchertail 700 series, original ghosttails, etc. You don't want to use gliders or anything else that goes side-to-side. Jerk baits that dive then rise up are great, Suicks are killer. Spinnerbaits can ride over some timber, sure, but they'll hook up, too. And if your boat hangs up while bringing the bait back then you risk double downtime - boat off the timber then go get the sunk bait.
There's some thoughts.
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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | Fish whatever you want just be sure to have a suitable lure retriever/knocker on board thats all.
Karl |
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Posts: 92
| Burts do well in the timber. You got to try the Dunwright Lifelike 12" Pike too, awesome suspending soft plastic crank/twitch bait. Looks just gorgeous twitchin' along the laid down trees.
Jim. |
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Posts: 724
Location: Southern W.Va. | Fished Cave Run's timber some and the river's flooded and falled timber here in W.Va. You'd be surprised what you can pull a spinnerbait thru along with a good jerkbait like the Manta or Sledge. These and a good topwater bait and your in business. Try throwing a Sledge next to a fallen tree and let it sit for 4,5 or 6 seconds and then work on the surface like a Weagle for a short distance before going into your normal retreave, you might be in for a shocker.
Mauser |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | I can't top Mauser's advice, just to add that any crankbait that has a 'go-back' action to it is great for crashing timber. Bang it into the stumps just like you would if you were bassin. m |
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Posts: 1636
| I like to throw gliders or topwaters in flooded timber. The paint on the gliders takes a beating but are easy to work around the timber in my opinion. I don't throw crankbaits much because I go through enough lip baits fishing the river. If you don't own any magic maker I would suggest a few to you for fishing flooded timber. Suiks are also a favorite after fishing last year and seeing other people have success on them as well.
Edited by Reelwise 1/21/2007 8:01 AM
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Posts: 551
Location: Columbus, Georgia | Given that we are scooting around the wood with our bow-mount, I have found it advantageous to keep my primary and kicker motor in the down position when working those standups. Otherwise, it's too easy (especially when there is a little wind) to have the cavitation plates on my motors hang up. This of course requires one to stop casting and manually push-pull the boat free once again.
When I started fishing down here I did raise the motors thinking that was the thing to do, but given that the boat is moving so slowly through wood with the bow-mount, hitting anything submerged at one mile per hour does nio damage at all.
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Posts: 793
Location: Ames, Iowa | Gobbler- Obviously you are talking about Brushy. I find that even if you hangup there, a good pull away to the right or left of the lures direction will free you. The condition of the wood there is very soft. I second the lure retriever idea though. Of course one problem is that some of those trees are in 60 feet of water with tops and stumps 20 feet to one foot under the water. We were slow trolling out away from the creek line "open water" in 47 feet and hit a pole with the prop- soft, no damage. I think there a lot of suspended fish in that lake, so I would work at trolling the top ten feet of water in deep water- trolling at a depth you can get your lure retriever to. Shallow 6-10ft cranks, suicks, spinnerbaits, topwaters. I also plan to work the twitch baits more there.
all the best,
Don
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| I like gliders in trees if the water is clear. I can see them and tap the rod the right amount to work around every stump. |
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| hellbenders and normans, be sure to bang them off every tree. lots of timber down here. |
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Posts: 785
| Brushy or Three Mile? Sugema may be a good brush lake in the near future.
At Three Mile you can actually find alleys and such so I use Mantas, bucktails, spinnerbaits, Jakes/Grandmas/and the unbelievably snag resistant crane bait. I also use a lot of plastics becouse I kinda know where the sticks are.
On the much snaggier brushy creek I use topwaters, grandma/cranes, bucktails and spinnerbaits. I agree that fish suspend in both lakes in summer and have seen them break the surface in over 30' of water in standing timber at brushy. I love both lakes but have a tuff time finding fish once June rolls around. How about you guys? Usually it picks up for me in the fall but I kinda no longer fish Iowa then becouse I'm usually up at the big pond.
One tip for the extremely bad snaggy areas is that if you take off the trailer hook on a spinnerbait it will go over or through almost any log or snaggy mess you can cast to. |
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Posts: 485
Location: On my favorite lake! | Use Big billed lure that will back up. I had really good success with those because they would bump of the stumps . I usually had better success with the Squared billed style. |
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Posts: 324
Location: Waukee, IA | Would it work to use a bulldawg and hook the trebles into the stomach so they aren't hanging down so far??? |
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Posts: 561
Location: Monee, Illinois | One of the best timber baits is the SS Shad know questions about it!
PGA |
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Posts: 785
| Bulldawgs work well in the pockets but usually the first stump you bump into the bait snags instantly. As mentioned use one in tandemn with a good lure retriever. |
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Posts: 2067
| Iowa lakes + timber = Super Shad raps |
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Posts: 2024
| The key to fishing timber: buoyancy. Your lure must be buoyant enough to hit the tree/stump and back up. SS Shads and Super Shad Raps are super buoyant and excellent worked in timber. Suicks are well known for their ability to hit weed clumps and back out without catching weeds; the same holds true for them in wood.
Cast placement is critical, too. Get that bait as close to the tree as possible!
Preferred baits for timber:
Shallow Invader
Super Shad Rap
SS Shad
Crane/Big Game
Depthraider
Single hook spinnerbait (Grim Reaper, Voo Doo Tail) |
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