fishing standing timber

[turkeyfootnc]

Here in NC there are 2 lakes with standing timber(a lot of it has rotted) Jordan and Falls lakes. I have caught many fish in this stuff at night, but how do you guys fish standing timber in the daytime?

[Jason Piper]

When I fish Standing timber I drop a 1.5" YUM curl tail grub to the bottom and reel it up slowly. Sometimes the tree may be in 55' of water.
In Winter I will drop a 1/16 oz hair jig and do the same thing but I'll reel a few times than jig for a while and repeat that process until I locate fish.
I seem to do the best on standing timber in the summer months.
I hope this helps.

[CrappiePappy]

Here in NC there are 2 lakes with standing timber(a lot of it has rotted) Jordan and Falls lakes. I have caught many fish in this stuff at night, but how do you guys fish standing timber in the daytime?

or at least those with any timber left in them :D
On those lakes, I cast a 1/16oz weedless jighead/tube around those standing/fallen hulks. My usual "first" target, is any blowdown in the area ... especially those that are long enough to reach out into 12-20ft of water. I usually try and hit those, first thing, before the Sun rises high enough to hit the water above them. If there are any standing trees close by the blowdown ... I will cast my way past them, until I'm close enough to reach the blowdown. After having cast to the nearby standing trees, then all over/around the blowdown, I will then Vertical Cast that same timber. I will then move on to the next closest and most promising looking spot. I take into account which banks are going to be the first ones to get lit up by the rising Sun, and try and hit those early, working my way around the lake from one shaded bank to the next.
Usually the fish are suspended over the blowdown, around 6-8ft deep. And they seem to like that depth around the standing trees, too. But, as the sunlight creeps over the water's surface, in that spot, they seem to drop a little deeper. They may drop down as deep as 12ft or more, and get farther down into or closer to the submerged branches/trunk. Or they may (or seem to) leave the area, altogether.
I've also, in years past, just tied up to a standing tree or between two standing trees ... and tightlined minnows. Again, I usually start in the 6-8ft range (early) and go deeper (12-15ft) as the Sun gets higher.

......... cp

[Downwind]

Crappiepappy: Are you refering to Taylorsville Lake? There are so many standing trees it's hard to pick an area in the Spring. I usually start in an area with standing timber along side a point. How about you?
Stumped!

[CatFan]

I like to drop a 1/16 oz. jig with a 12ft pole. Sometimes you have to try it on both sides to get a strike. Mess around with depth until you figure out what they like.

[Darryl Morris]

Several years ago I fished a small state park lake that had two huge stump fields (old dead standing timber) and that's where all the crappie were. I fished it with 4 rods spider rig style. Four is all I could handle while drifting or slow trolling through the timber. Again, that was several years ago. If I were to do it today, I would use a single pole in hand with a hair jig and pitch and pull the jig in and around the timber working all angles as I move through it. There are several places on Lake DeGray we call pole patches that I'm looking forward to fishing this spring sometime.

[CrappiePappy]

Crappiepappy: Are you refering to Taylorsville Lake? There are so many standing trees it's hard to pick an area in the Spring. I usually start in an area with standing timber along side a point. How about you?
Stumped!

Spring spawn, I usually just fish Beech Creek & Little Beech Creek if I'm launching on that end of the lake. If I'm on the river end (Van Buren ramp), I'll start at Levy Creek and work my way down towards Timber Creek, fishing the pockets and those stretches of standing timber along the main bank.

If I can find a blowdown, I'll fish it "first", regardless of what time of year I'm there. I just have better luck, on shallow blowdowns, during the spawning period. After that, I pretty much look for those in deeper water (on steeper banks), whether they're in a creek or out on the main lake. There aren't that many, which is another reason why I like to get there early (0 dark thirty AM!!) ... cp

[dreeser]

When I fish Standing timber I drop a 1.5" YUM curl tail grub to the bottom and reel it up slowly. Sometimes the tree may be in 55' of water.
In Winter I will drop a 1/16 oz hair jig and do the same thing but I'll reel a few times than jig for a while and repeat that process until I locate fish.
I seem to do the best on standing timber in the summer months.
I hope this helps.

you are so right about fishing timber in the summer months.a great lake for this type is hugo lake in s.e oklahoma.the local's call them (boat ark's).ton's of them.they are out in the main part of the lake.standing 6 to 12ft out of water.they can hold big crappie.you need to move from one to the other.dipping jigs.