Kevin Van Dam Forums

I took the kayak out Saturday.  First thing I noticed was how low the water was.  The shoreline was pulled away from cattails and overhangs.  No laydowns or nothing.  The conditions forced me to fish off the shore and in the wind.  I started fishing 5-8 fow.  I caught them on a SK swimjig, SK buzzbait, SK 1.5, and a SK RES.  I wasn’t trying to fish all Strike King, but I’m glad I did.  I had to be in the wind to get bites.  Lots of dinks and a few keeps.  Which was tough cus I was paddling my butt off.  My arms were so sore I could barely lift the 24oz silos later on.

RiverRat - 30 July 2012 10:40 PM

I took the kayak out Saturday.  First thing I noticed was how low the water was.  The shoreline was pulled away from cattails and overhangs.  No laydowns or nothing.  The conditions forced me to fish off the shore and in the wind.  I started fishing 5-8 fow.  I caught them on a SK swimjig, SK buzzbait, SK 1.5, and a SK RES.  I wasn’t trying to fish all Strike King, but I’m glad I did.  I had to be in the wind to get bites.  Lots of dinks and a few keeps.  Which was tough cus I was paddling my butt off.  My arms were so sore I could barely lift the 24oz silos later on.

you just hit my problem on the head, River. same thing has happened to the ponds i fish. since i fish from the bank, it just makes it tough all around. places i was catching fish from last year, including the fish in my signature i am holding, are now dry. we are just like everyone else, we need rain. since it has finally cooled down a bit i am starting to fish again. i didn’t hardly fish at all for 6 weeks because of the heat and low water. i lost the feel of the ponds, might take me a while to get it back. going to a different pond today. all my ponds i fish are solid weeds from shoreline to as far as i can cast, so frogs are the ticket, maybe spoons, anything weeedless. GL!!

I have to believe that being a shore fisherman must be VERY tough in the heart of the deep summer.  In spring and fall, fish tend to be right where you are….near the shallower water. But in the summer, you guys have it tough getting to the deeper water where the big girls lurk. I’d be interested in how you overcome this dilemma. I have a friend who is so used to beating the banks, he fishes shallow year around. I tell him, “the fish are deep” but he does not care (and he does not catch either). It’s like losing your keys in the basement, but looking for them upstairs because the light is better there.  It makes no sense.
I’d guess maybe docks work for the shore guys…..but even that is tough when searching for species other than Mr Black Bass.

How do you do it ???

AAav8or - 31 July 2012 10:16 PM

I have to believe that being a shore fisherman must be VERY tough in the heart of the deep summer.  In spring and fall, fish tend to be right where you are….near the shallower water. But in the summer, you guys have it tough getting to the deeper water where the big girls lurk. I’d be interested in how you overcome this dilemma. I have a friend who is so used to beating the banks, he fishes shallow year around. I tell him, “the fish are deep” but he does not care (and he does not catch either). It’s like losing your keys in the basement, but looking for them upstairs because the light is better there.  It makes no sense.
I’d guess maybe docks work for the shore guys…..but even that is tough when searching for species other than Mr Black Bass.

How do you do it ???

There always seems to be some fish shallow, but I am really starting understand seasonal patterns more.  I think the the big number days in the summer are going to be in deeper water for me.  It is a lot of fun to fire a spinnerbait along a log and pull a bass out from it.  It’s the reward for making an accurate cast.  Fishing from a kayak is definately limiting.  My little tin boat has electronics, markers, and stuff.  For my cranks I was using 12# and 10# fluorocarbon.  I’m starting to really see fuoro’s benefits.  It can mean the difference between getting to the bottom or not.

Fishing from the banks is always tough especially right now. Last summer was extremely tough and I was skunked quite a few Times… I was able to take advantage of it though.

When the water gets extremely low, remember EVERYTHING. You can spot beds, dropoffs, brush piles, rip rap and even figure out wear baitfish like to hang out. Its much easier to get a feel for the bottom (and use technology) when you’re on a boat so remember all of this info, it is quite handy in the better months.

AAav8or - 31 July 2012 10:16 PM

I have to believe that being a shore fisherman must be VERY tough in the heart of the deep summer.  In spring and fall, fish tend to be right where you are….near the shallower water. But in the summer, you guys have it tough getting to the deeper water where the big girls lurk. I’d be interested in how you overcome this dilemma. I have a friend who is so used to beating the banks, he fishes shallow year around. I tell him, “the fish are deep” but he does not care (and he does not catch either). It’s like losing your keys in the basement, but looking for them upstairs because the light is better there.  It makes no sense.
I’d guess maybe docks work for the shore guys…..but even that is tough when searching for species other than Mr Black Bass.

How do you do it ???

What I do when it is summer and I am stuck fishing on the bank is I primarily focus on fishing smaller bodies of water where I have an increased chance of catching fish. It seems to me that the bigger the lake, the harder it gets to fish from the bank. When I am fishing these smaller bodies of water, I really try to focus on what cover is available and fish it till I am bored of fishing the same piece of cover….. which is usually 10 minutes or so. If there are weeds, I will fish a frog over it and try to punch through it with heavy plastics if I am able to flip a side that is on the edge of a drop. Also, a senko on the edges too. If there are trees or laydowns then I will throw a jig or senko in there. To sum it all up, I try to fish as slow as possible in whatever cover there is.

With stained water, current, or some types of cover, bass will usually stay shallow if there is a food source and good O2 levels. Grass, wood, and shade are what I look for when fishing really shallow.

last year with normal water in the ponds i had a blast from the bank catching fish primarily on frogs. this year most of the places i was catching fish from last year is dry, no frickin water. only good thing is i can see the structure the bass hold on when it is normal pool and marked all these places down on maps so when they are covered back up with water hopefully, i will have more places to target.

right now there are no fish shallow because there is no shallow water. the fish have pulled back to deeper holes and probably feed at night when i can’t fish.

i have been trying out new techiques and rods and reels so it’s not a total loss. every angler i talked to yeasterday, and there were not many fishing, was complaining about the low water. one back bay in the biggest pond i fish, is so shallow now that you can’t even get a boat back there. i was shocked when i saw it yesterday. it usually has several boats back there but it was vacant. mormally it is 4 to 12 feet deep and it had inches of water in it except the deeper holes i can’t get to from the bank.  if i was allowed i would of waded it.

when you are talking ponds of 15 acres or less, 5 feet low on water is huge and it is a good 5 feet low. i stand and cast now from places i was catching fish from last year. hardly anyone fishing because no one is catching any fish, even bank sitters using live bait are not catching anything.

Where i fish is just tough right now. i’m trying to keep my attitude good and work on techniques. fished for 5.5 hours yesterday and never had a bite and i threw just about everything i had in my backpack, frogs, spinnerbaits, spoons, buzzbaits, several different types of jigs, weightless stick baits and got nothing. i don’t even see any cruisers. and i fished in 3 different ponds yesterday.

like everyone else we need rain bad, 2 or 3 days of nice steady rain, no rain and high skies and hot muggy weather and no wind is not optimum conditions but i’m feeling good and getting a nice tan and still having fun just fishing and sweating.

I got errands to run today which is good, supposed to be 90 with bluebird skies and no wind today but tomorrow i am going out with just a frog and a worm and i am going to lighten my backack. it got a little heavy after about 5 hours. i keep it on at all times to give me more exercise as i am fishing and walking.

twitch - 01 August 2012 01:34 AM

With stained water, current, or some types of cover, bass will usually stay shallow if there is a food source and good O2 levels. Grass, wood, and shade are what I look for when fishing really shallow.

The shade part makes great sense and I use it often searching for fish from a boat as well.  The O2 levels are really never high in warm water unless there is a feeder stream that is picking up O2 someway (like bubbling over rocks as it enters the lake).  I admire the creativeness and “stick-to-it” nature of those guys stuck on shore.  They have to be very resourceful.
Fall is coming though guys. For me….it’s my fav time of year to fish. For us Musky and smallmouth fellers, there is no time like it.

For me I do as some other, and look for bodys of water that it makes sense to fish from the bank. The best summer bank fishing hands down is small ponds. The one where the I recently got outfished. Was small enough I fished all the way around it several times in just a few hours. Another thing I look for is how much bank can I fish? I want to be able to cover as much water as possible. I also beleive the other side of the coin is understanding and accepting the fact that while you can and will catch some good fish if you stick with it. The majority of the big girls are deep, and if you want your trips to be like those you see on tv its not going to happen. As long as Im catching fish consitantly Im content, but size is always nice.

since the bass are not shallow, i’m throwing baits that i can launch a long way. got some heavy stick baits and creature baits i’m launching tomorrow. frogs i can throw a long way. jigs get snagged up so bad in the heavy weeds it’s not worth throwing. i will be throwing some spoons though.  got to put the shallow cranks and spinnerbaits away, can’t throw them now and go with more plastics and weedless stuff to even have a fighting chance. even then it’s just tough right now. rain would fill the ponds up and put some oxygen in the water. some of the bass would go shallow. lot of windblown cover around the banks for the fish to hold on and ambush the gills and frogs.  some of the ponds are algae blooming or getting ready to bloom.

best time for us bankers to catch bigger fish is in the fall when the bass school up and are looking to feed and they come more shallow, at least where i can cast to some of them. i’m preparing baits for fall right now. the water is cooling down and is more oxygenated.

I’ll just keep chunking till i hit on something. it’s all fun!