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I've been a long time lurker and finally decided to create an account. My question is regarding echo bay and lmb/smb fishing.
I have fished echo 3-4 times in the last 2 weeks and can't seem to figure out any pattern to lmb/smb. My last trip was on Sunday 3/23 and I fished the coves looking for any fish on beds without any luck. Then proceeded to fish a little deeper focusing on points and drop offs. Nothing... While trying to find the bass I probably caught a dozen small stripers in the 1-2lb range but none of my target species. Any help would be greatly appreciated and if anyone wants to come out with me and show me the ropes that could be arranged too. I have a 21ft bass boat and usually fish alone.
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The sunny southern side of Gulf Island and Preacher's Cove can hold fish.
Consider taking that bassboat over towards Middle Point Island, Crescent Cove and then if nothing in that area over by the Jawbone..east side across from Napoleon's Tomb.
Just be careful boating around the Jawbone area cause lots of hidden and sudden reefs near the edge of the river channel. Detrial Reef area is worth checking out also..be careful boating there also.
Stay on the sunny banks and near rock the size of melons to grapefruits before moving to smaller gravel banks. Should find fish from shallow to 25 ft on main and secondary points..Then try going back into the coves.....last I checked the lake level has been going down. That may have affected fish positioning. They will often spawn as deep as 25 ft.
No matter how good it looks to you....Generally keep moving till you find them
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Winter/off months kick my butt too. I catch 'em occasionally but not as good as I should. The weekend before last I was out on Echo and only caught a couple. They were down deep and scattered. Almost all of the bass I caught were at locations I would typically never give the light of day to look at or even make a cast at. I have no idea why they were where I found them. Flats, 20-30 feet deep and essentially zero structure areas. Deep diving cranks (ie; Strike King 6XDs). Also a reallllly heavy spinnerbait works this time of the year (ie; Strike King Deep Dweller spinnerbaits.) Neither is fun to cast all day... This won't last much longer with our current weather. They are going to be moving up realllly soon and it will be on!
I should be available Friday. Never been on someone elses boat out on Mead nor have had to pack a "light" tackle/rod assortment before. Would kick my tail. lol But willing to try it once.
Saturday is my daughters fishing day... She'd kill me if I went out without her on a weekend. lol It all comes down to homework for her... Lately it has been a ton and per the warden (shhhh, my wife) she isn't allowed to go fishing if her homework isn't done Friday eve. So there is also a possibility of a Saturday but I never know till the last minute if I am alone or not on the weekend.
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[quote vegas_rob]My last trip was on Sunday 3/23 and I fished the coves looking for any fish on beds without any luck.[/quote]
If you are looking for Smallies you won't find one very far back in a cove. A smallie on a bed that is. They will be on primary and some secondary points and some main lake flats between points. The area you should be looking for will have to have deeper water fairly close, pea gravel and access to the sun almost the entire time it is up. Typically you will find them in 1-3 feet of water. Some areas of the lake south of the Echo Marina they are deeper in 10+ foot waters (also those are typically bigger fish.)
The large mounths will be back in the coves and typically in greater than 8 feet of water next to some form of cover/grass/weeds/brush/etc. I have a harder time finding LMB beds. They are waaaaay more secretive and spooky when on the bed.
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Thanks for the info I will definitely give your guys advice a try.
I should be available on Friday, I won't know for sure until later in the week. If you want to shoot me your # or email I can give you a buzz later on and try to coordinate something. If you would rather fish your boat that is fine too.
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If you take a look at John's(Whizzle) water level sticky post here you'll see the lake level has fallen 1.27ft ( about 15") in last 5 days. Fish will react to that.
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Been watching that closely! +/- 3-4 weeks ago they started to just dump it. I was highly bummed to see that happen irt the timing with the spawn. The lake sat at 1108 for months then this...
Friday so far appears to be the best day between now and Sunday irt long range weather forcasts and winds. But between the lake water level being dumped, the winds forcasted for Tue/Wed and the colder weather the next few days it might put the fish off for another week or more. Dunno.
I'll shoot ya a PM.
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where are those areas you talk about? I see the Napoleon's tomb is heading toward Temple Bar, but where are the rest? Google map is useless...
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Just enlarge the map in terrain mode
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You can also use Navionics webapp
[url "http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp"]http://www.navionics.com/en/webapp[/url]
But Google Maps does have more names in it.
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