bass fishing lure selection

Question
hello
i fish a small body of water 540 acres in north carolinia called cane creek it is a trophy bass lake but this year ive have stumbled at catching bass there my question is how do you know what lure and color to use and what technique to use fishing that lure this lake doesnt have a hole lot of underwater structure but some nice blowdowns and some good points any help would be greatly appreciated

Answer
Michael,
Sorry it has taken so long to answer, but unfortunately there has been a problem with the web site, which made it impossible to send an answer.  So hopefully this one will go through.

It sounds like this lake has some very good possible spots to target.  Points, and wood
cover are both some of my favorites.

Fish us points like ladders.  The best ones lead from deeper water, especially those near an
old creek bed, and go up to some good shallow cover.  It makes them even better if there
is some sort of cover (rocks, stumps, trees, etc.) along the way.  I fish these with
crankbaits, and plastic worms and tubes.  If the wind is blowing across the point I fish it by
retrieving the lure with the wind, as the fish will set facing the wind, waiting for food to be
brought across the point by the wind current.  It is much like fishing a wing dam in the
Mississippi River.

As for the wood cover, which is my number one favorite, I would do a lot of
flipping/pitching with soft plastics and jigs.  Work these laydowns slowly.  Parallel the
trees, as well as bringing the lures over the wood, and allowing them to fall.  Spinnerbaits
also work in these same areas, fished in basically the same way - parallel and over the
wood.  Try different speeds, but many times slow rolling does the best job when fish are in
a negative mood.

Look for any shad activity.  This is a dead give away to areas in which fish are actively
feeding.  Lures like Rat-L-Traps are perfect for this situation.  Don't cast directly into the
school of active shad.  Cast past and run the lure on the outside edges first.  This will take
fish from that area, and not from the middle, which would spook the other fish.

Now for lures and colors.  Diving crankbaits would be shad, fire tiger and crawfish.  For
Rat-L-Traps try shad and chrome colors.  Spinnerbaits in 1/8 to 1/2 ounce, with tandem
Colorado and willow setups, in colors of white, white/chartreuse and chartreuse. Soft
plastics (my choice 6 to 8-inch ribbon tail worms, 4-inch Fat Tube, 4 1/2-inch  Mega Ring
Tube, Baby HooDaddy, and 4-inch straight tail finesse worm), Texas rigged in most cases
(Carolina rig for deep points), in black neon, pumpkinseed, and watermelon.  Jigs of
black/blue, pumpkinseed/orange and black/chartreuse, combined with matching trailers,
usually Salt Craws.

For lures and colors to start, if things are unknown on the day,  I use the fire tiger with a
medium diving crankbait; chrome/black back with a 1/2 ounce Rat-L-Trap,
white/chartreuse on a 1/4 ounce tandem, gold Colorado blade spinnerbait; a black neon
7-inch ribbon tail worm, Fat Tube and Baby HooDaddy; and black/blue jig with crawdad
worm.

You will notice I have selected black as my starting color on most of the slower moving
lures.  This is because most of the creatures crawling along the bottom are black, or have
a lot of black on them.

I hope this will help you be more successful, and if you have any further questions don't
hesitate to ask.

Best of fishing,
Dan