Great Tactic for shallow basin lakes.

As I have mentioned in some previous posts fishing flood plain lakes in the Dakotas is very different than some of the more typical lakes we all grew up on. The lakes at times can be absolutely featureless making it hard to pinpoint fish. I have discussed the benefits of trolling as well as covering water to find active fish. I would like to just spend a few minutes on a new pattern that I am starting to see develop in the lakes that I like to fish. With flooding being a constant issue and farmers loosing more and more land to water they want to keep what land they have dry. What is starting to develop is small canals being cut from sloughs to bigger lakes to keep the slough from rising when the water can simply be diverted to the larger lake. This small canal though not pushing much water is feeding warmer water into a lake. This past week we fished cold front conditions on a large basin lake and went in front of this small man made channel and found temperatures to be up 2 degrees. BAM, fish on. Fish stacked in this warmer water feeding aggressively. These sloughs are only a few feet deep and all mud so the water in them warms much faster and is not as vulnerable to temperature change as the main basin. With recent rains the water really pushes out of these backwaters into the main lake also creating a slight current. We are using H20 precision jigs in 3/32 oz size and tiger pattern to target fish. These jigs have been paired with Bfishn tackle K grubs as well as moxies. The lighter the jig the better as a friend had on a 1/4 oz jig and was not getting hits. The light fall of the 3/32oz made the deal. Hope you all have a chance to get out and don’t be afraid to “think outside the box” next time you hit a new body of water or a familiar one.

Nice Job Quintin!! What colors in the K-grubs and Moxies do you like?

Dakota lakes tend to run a bit stained on the average so I personally like to start with Firecracker/chart tail, chart orange core, as well as Chart green Core. These colors stick out well in stained water and work well for me in the waters that I fish. As James experienced on Devils and I also have Great White is beginning to work well for me as well. With a few anglers in the boat it is nice to all start with a different color and find what is working best. Again I can’t stress enough jig size. To heavy and you sink like a rock and the action is totally un-natural. This is where it is really nice to use the precision jigs from Bfishn Tackle. The 3/32 oz works wonders paired with a plastic and a light chop on the water. Hope this gives some others ideas to work with in fishing this type of situation or these bodies of water. Safe fishing
-Quintin