Fishing Sea Walls And Riprap
Expert Article By: Ronald Moody
Tired of fishing with your GPS and finding nothing, tired of dragging that Carolina rig all over the bottom of the lake, tired of trying to come across that magic spot on the lake. Well you may be ready to try your hand at fishing rocky riprap or seawalls, those obvious shoreline, hugging features found on lakes, rivers and reservoirs across the county. These forms of cover can held bass throughout the year. These spots are simple to find and are easy to fish. Here are some tip for fishing riprap and seawalls.
SEAWALL PATTERN: When theres a large surface mat of water hyacinths has blown up against a long stretch of seawall. When you tie on a Gary Yamamoto custem bait 3 inches fat baby craw, with a big bullet weight and begin picking the floating vegation apart. Fishing floating mats against a seawall or near the seawall, there?s usually clean water underneath it all the way to the wall. This is a good spot do to combined horizontal cover with vertical and its open underneath. That crawl space will attract a lot of space.
Flip right through the top of the mat and start at the deep edge. But don?t forget to fish the seam between the mat and the seawall.
GIVE THE SEAWALL A HUG: One technique is paralleling the wall with hard plastic lures and buzz baits. Also hugging the wall with a lizard, tube, worm and creature is just as important. One of the most important things if your pitching against the wall is to get the bait to fall as close to the wall If you are using a baitcaster you have to feed line out to allow the bait to fall up against the wall. If you are using a spinning reel it?s the same just don?t close the bell until the bait hits the bottom. The other you can do is pitch the lure toward the wall and have it hit 1 to 3 inches before the wall, and then peel off line. It tends to fall more toward the wall.
FALL PATTERN: When fall comes the bass are migrating into and out of creeks, so the riprap provides an easy, dependable way to intercept bass. Fishing in the fall the bass are moving shallow or coming back out and they have to go through bridges to do that. So riprap along bridges would be a prime pattern Some good lures for this would be a shad colored crank bait like Rebel Wee R or 5A and 6A Bombers to crank the rocks, also the bomber long A jerk bait is another good choice. Cast parallel to the rock line and concentrate on deflecting the lure as often as possible. The biggest key in the fall is repetitive casting, you ask why, because the bass have seen lures all summer. So its important to cast repetition to a good looking area like a point of the riprap or a tree or brush laying down along the riprap.
PARALLEL PARKING FOR BASS: When it comes to bass fish there are not to many hard and fast rules but when you come across a seawall and lines of riprap, one rule rings come to mind. Take a casting angle that enables them to be paralleled with a lure. Another lure of choice for fishing seawalls and riprap or bulkheads are throwing a topwater and spinner baits in the morning, then a lipless crank bait or shallow diving crank bait later in the day. But regardless of the lure, always parallel them as much as possible and at least 45 degrees them, depending on the water depth and position the fish are in. Remember to put your lure as close to the wall as possible, or even bang it off the wall as you bring it back to the boat.
RIPRAP ROADMAP: Riprap can be intimidating to some fisherman or woman. Whether it is the foundation of a bridge, current break or erosion control for a stretch of shoreline, riprap can look over whelming in some situations. You may have riprap two miles long and it all looks the same, so where do you start bass fishing. You got to understand what lies beneath the surface is not exactly the same. Its important to locate irregular features in an otherwise uniform line of riprap. So you look for visible things like logs, treetop or flotsam that has drifted against the rocks or an unusually large rock is always worth fishing. But there are concealed irregular features that will hold a lot more bass. On lakes, a small ditch or creek may run into the riprap and come to a stop. Usually, a bridge crosses a channel and there will be a culvert nearby on one side of the riprap foundation. This can be an outstanding spot.0
