Bass Fishing Boats Used
Bass Fishing Boats Used
The Best Bass Fishing Lakes in the US
Where are the most popular lakes for bass fishing in the U.S., what types of bass can you catch in these waters and how can you plan your own great bass fishing lake getaway? There are many wonderful lakes all over the US to fish for great bass in. To our knowledge, the lists below of bass fishing lakes are open and operable for fishing. However, it is important to keep in mind that changes can take place from time to time so you should always contact the lake first to be sure it is still open for bass fishing or open at the particular time you intend to go.
When searching for bass fishing lakes, you need to know where in the country you are looking and the time of year that it is since in some areas, bass may not be in the waters during the particular time you are planning to fish there. You have a few different options when it comes to gathering this type of information such as the ones listed below.
How to Find Bass Fishing Lakes
Lakes are some of the best places around to find bass. There are also many different lakes all over the country so, how can you find bass fishing lakes near you? Well, you can always talk to neighbors and co-workers to find out where they go bass fishing to see where they would recommend. However, if you would like more than just a personal opinion or if you are looking for a fishing lake in a different state, then there are other ways. For example, you can contact the local parks and wildlife department for the state in which you plan on fishing for bass.
Here you can gather a lot of valuable information such as, which lakes have the best reputation for bass fishing. They will supply you with the rules and regulations for each lake so you will know exactly what you can and cannot do. They can tell you the bag and size limits, catch and release laws and they can give you information about the hatcheries and when the best time is for bass fishing. If you plan on fishing from a boat, they can give you all the laws for boating in that state and the safety regulations you need to follow.
Another way to search for information concerning bass fishing lakes in your area or somewhere you plan on visiting is by using the Internet. You can find sites that have special search engines available to help you with this task. All you need to do is put in your location and the species of fish you are searching for and it will pull up the best bass fishing lakes in that area. You can also visit the parks and wildlife website to gather all the information listed above and more.
Here are a few lakes for bass fishing in several states across the US. There are many more you can likely find in your area as well.
TEXAS
Lake Amistad
Canyon Lake
Falcon Lake
Lake Buchanon
FLORIDA
Farm 13 / Stick Marsh
Kenansville Lake
Lake Okeechobee
Lake Rousseau
Lakes Orange and Lochloosa
Lakes Poinsett and Winder
Lake George
Crescent Lake
The Kissimmee River
St. Johns River
Lake Istokpoga
Lake Tsala Apopka
Ocala Forest Lakes
ALABAMA
Lake Guntersville
Elk River
Wheeler Lake
Pickwick Lake
ARKANSAS
White River Delta
Beaver Lake
Dierks Lake
Bull Shoals Lake
DeQueen Lake
CALIFORNIA
Lake Folsum
Big Bear Lake
Collins Lake
Buena Vista Lake
NORTH CAROLINA
Kerr Lake
Apalachia Lake
Badin Lake
Hiwassee Lake
GEORGIA
Lake George
Carters Lake
Kackson Lake
Lake Russell
West Point Lake
MISSOURI
Table Rock Lake
Longview Lake
Norfork Lake
Stockton Lake
Table Rock Lake
Wappappello Lake
COLORADO
Barr Lake
Bear Creek
Georgetown Lake
Main Lake
Sloans Lake
Webster Lake
These are just some of many great bass fishing lakes located around the country and even around the world. If you’d like to find out more about great bass fishing lakes in your area, a good place to start is by joining local bass fishing clubs. This is a great way to stay up-to-date with all the latest news and information about bass fishing in your area. Plus it is a great way to meet new friends that share the same passion you have when it comes to bass fishing.
You will be able to share stories about the biggest bass caught or the largest number caught at one time. You may even be able to exchange a few secrets concerning bass fishing that can make a difference in the amount of success you have in the future.
You will be able to share stories about the biggest bass caught or the largest number caught at one time. You may even be able to exchange a few secrets concerning bass fishing that can make a difference in the amount of success you have in the future.
About the Author
Dan Eggertsen is a fishing researcher and enthusiast who is committed to providing the best bass fishing information possible. Get more information on US bass fishing here: http://www.askbassfishing.com/
What are some good baits to use for small mouth bass?
we go to this lake up in north east mississippi called pickwick same place JP coleman is at. we do alot of fishing there, but never seem to get any small mouth bass to the boat. Its alway either a large mouth or a cat fish. Could you tell me some good baits to use for landing a small mouth?
There are certain circumstances when small lures are the only kind that will catch smallmouth bass. But that’s also true of other species and their preferences in lures. For instance, walleye sometimes prefer an elongated plug, while at other times they prefer a short and stubby one. That would indicate the fish that select the long crankbait, a Bomber Long-A or a Rapala for instance, are feeding on long, thin baitfish such as smelt, perch or emerald shiners. The walleye that hit the stubbier lures, such as the Hot-N-Tot or Bagley DB2 and others, likely are eating shad, alewives, white perch or similarly shaped forage. To make a blanket statement about lures for smallmouth, or any other species for that matter, is not wise. That’s like saying you cannot go wrong if you go to Lake Erie armed only with chartreuse weight-forward spinners. They might work many days, but what are you going to do on the days they don’t? It’s wiser, then, to follow the advice of another old fishing saying: Match the hatch. While that was meant to apply to fly fishermen who seek trout feeding on hatching insects, it also applies to smallmouth bass anglers. That is, if the bass are eating two-inch crawfish, throw a small crankbait in crawfish pattern or a jig-’n-pig. If they are hitting schools of shad, toss chrome or shad-finish crankbaits, an in-line spinner or a white safety-pin style spinnerbait, or a topwater plug. To be sure, there are times when little lures are the correct choice for smallmouth bass. For instance, when the water is too clear for 10 pound test line and the bass are afraid of their own shadows because they are skittish in the visible depths, it’s time to downsize to miniature lures. And when you are absolutely certain the fish are feeding on tiny aquatic life, you should scale down your offerings. But the rest of the time, stained water like most tri-state anglers encounter means we can use lures the same size as we would for largemouth. A myriad of crankbaits awaits the angler who decides to stock his bass tackle box. The assortment can be truly overwhelming. The number of manufacturers is large enough on its own. Then add the various models each maker produces. When you further complicate things by having to decide between a range of sizes, your head can begin to swim. Then, of course, you must pick between the whole spectrum of colors painted onto the various patterns. The best crankbaits for smallmouth bass are not difficult picks, however. In fact, you can stock your tackle box with two basic color-pattern combinations: crawfish and shad. If you know for certain the smallmouth in your favorite lakes prey predominantly on yellow perch or other small forage fish, you can add selections of crankbaits in those colors and patterns. And you can throw in an assortment of sizes and models in the so-called hot colors, chartreuse and pink. Chartreuse is one of the all-around top choices for colors on smallmouth baits, so make sure your tackle box has some. A good number of your crankbait selection should be of the deep-diving variety. Smallmouth tend to hand around structure in many tri-state reservoirs that is on the deep side of points and around dropoffs or road beds near creek channels. The deep-divers get to the fish’s zone quickly and will stay there throughout the retrieve. Medium runners are good when you are parallel-casting along rip-rap or working the shallow sides of a road bed. Shallow runners are good when the fish are scooting aggressively across sand or gravel flats less than four feet deep, or when you are fishing for bass holed up in weeds that grow up to two feet of the surface. Despite its tendency to carom into the depths, the deep-diver is the most useful of the various styles of cranks. The big plastic beaks on the divers tend to let them bound along the bottom and kick up puffs of mud and debris, bounce off rocks and stumps and rip through stringy weeds on the deep sides of beds of vegetation. Crankbaits certainly have a reputation for hooking active small-mouth bass. But they also have a bad name among tournament anglers because fish become unhooked from crankbaits more than they do from other styles of lures. You can minimize the number of lost fish if you use one of the new crankbait rods that are about seven feet long and that feature whippy fiberglass tips rather than the stiff graphite and other space-age materials in other bass-style poles. The flex in the tip allows a surging fish to move about while the rod absorbs energy, and The first and most important is the venerable bass-style jig that, when rigged with an Uncle Josh No. 11 pork frog is known as the jig ‘n pig. As it hops slowly along the lake bottom, it looks like a crawfish, which is beyond a doubt one of the smallmouth bass’ favorite foods. Your tackle box should carry rubber-legged styles, along with bear hair or other animal fur jigs and combinations of hair and rubber. Use the all-rubber jigs when the water is at its optimum temperature, 60 degrees and up, for smallmouth activity. As the water chills in the fall, use jigs that have a little hair tied on with the rubber. And when the water temperature is below 50 degrees, stick with the all-hair bodied lures. Bass jigs used to come in two basic colors, brown and black, and they caught lots of fish. Then manufacturers began experimenting with other colors such as blue and chartreuse and orange. Now jigs come in just about as many colors as crankbaits, and some makers have added sparkle skirts to their lines. Many anglers have found brown and orange jigs with a black pork frog are a good choice during most of the smallmouth season. In mid-summer, a black jig with a blue or purple pork chunk is a good choice. And the sparkle-skirted jigs work well in shallow or clear water on sunny days. Another necessary smallmouth jig is the old round-head style. Plain jigs of 1/8 ounce with a smoke or avocado twister tail of about three inches are among the deadliest shallow or clear water smallmouth lures. Other anglers like the same style jig head with a white or black bucktail skirt tied on and with a two to three inch thin pork strip in matching colors. Such a set up is known in many regions as the fly and rind. And the other style jig that is gaining popularity for smallmouth is the Fat Gitzit or similar tube worm. They are essentially clear-water drop baits. The jig head is imbedded in the lure’s body with the hook point protruding about halfway back from the head. Fish such lures around weed lines, shale cliffs, rip-rap, pilings, timber and other vertical structure. Watch for strikes on the lure’s descent. When the bass are hanging tight to deeper cover and preying on shad or other flashy baitfish, the heavy metal jigging lures, such as Heddon Sonar, Silver Lucky, Silver Buddy, Hopkins Spoons and Jack’s Jigging Spoon are hard to beat. There are no other lures that can be fished in deep water as effectively. The Sonar-type baits can be fished either by casting, letting the lure drop to the bottom and then retrieving in a hopping motion, or it can be jigged vertically under the boat. The spoon-type lures are more often than not fished vertically, but they also can be cast and hopped with positive results. Another favorite are the sonar-type baits when fishing long sandy points, grass beds in deep water or the deep line where rip-rap meets sand or mud. You can also use them around bridge pilings and other vertical structure, along with the jigging spoons. Colors? You cannot go wrong with gold or chrome. Chartreuse sometimes is the answer and a few anglers prefer red and white. When the smallmouth are prowling the weedbeds, they often will respond to topwater lures. Some anglers swear by the long Rapala or Bang-O-Lure in such situations, while others prefer Tiny Torpedos, Pop-Rs and other plugs. But few will argue that the Zara Spook is one of the all-time best topwater tempters. Don’t overlook buzzbaits as good smallmouth lures, either. Spinners, of course, are a staple in any smallmouth bass fisherman’s bag of tricks. Many bass fishermen rely on the safety-pin spinnerbaits and have forgotten about the traditional in-line spinners we grew up with. I always keep a Mepps or Roostertail handy, Smallmouth do indeed attack the larger spinnerbaits that large-mouth bassers prefer. I have had plenty of exciting moments wrestling big bronzebacks to the boat after they belted large spinnerbaits. One of the preferred summer-time smallmouth spinnerbaits is a 3/8 ounce lure with a black skirt and a No. 5 hammered nickel or copper willow leaf blade. Other anglers do well with white spinnerbaits, too. It is also possible to catch nice smallmouth on spinners featuring the huge No. 7 gold blades and others who prefer the little No. 3 Colorado style blades. Spinnerbaits are especially effective when you are after bass that are hiding in weeds or under the roots of stumps. And they are a good tool to use to boat a couple of quick fish when you encounter a pack corralling baitfish along rip-rap or a road bed.
If you have the impression now that the same baits you use for largemouth are the ones you should throw for smallmouth, you’re correct. Match the lures to what the smallmouth are eating, and you should come up with the winning combination.
Oklahoma Bass Fishing