With riprap being the main structure in my local lake. I was wondering if you in the know would share a tip or tactic for a riprap novice. How do you break it down, what's your favorite bait through the summer?

Thanks in advance.

squarebill bounced off the rocks.

You know, I haven't necessarily found an awesome way to break down riprap except for to just cover as much water as possible. Over time you'll figure out which riprap produces over and over but until then you just gotta keep your head down and fish. During the Summer you can catch a bunch of fish a bunch of different ways. Yeah you can catch numbers on a squarebill or a little swimbait but I tend to catch my bigger fish on a jig, deep diving crankbait, or a Carolina rig. In the morning I like to fish the shallower riprap with a swim jig or a medium diving crankbait. Then I move deeper as the day goes on. After you've fished it all you can even go back through it again and catch fish on a drop shot, shaky head, anything finesse. Don't forget the topwater in the morning either!

Shakey head.

I like a spinnerbait right up against the rocks first thing in the morning. Or a squarebill ran out just a little from them banging along. Topwater baits of all kinds can be great all day. Look for any bigger rocks orlogs/brush/grass/debris that has washed up onto the rocks. Any points or areas that stick out further than others. On the rocks its easy to see the original lake level so if you see algae/moss/dark rocks its gone down if you can't see any of that its either up or at full pool. Try to find the "edge" where the initial rocks are leveled out(usually around 6-10' deep) as there is usually a flat area that is good to run a crankbait down or drag a c-rig. You will hang up a lot it sucks but get over top of it and normally it pops free. Just don't pull it tight before doing that!

I throw a medium diving bait, that way it gets contact further out into the lake and retrieve. Other ways of fishing it include: C-rig, jig, T-rig, drop shot, spinnerbait, shakey head, etc. etc. I would NOT use flouro line, however, as the rocks tend to fray the line and make it weaker. I would use McCoys Mean green or even Big Game. I set my reel up to pull line when a 3 lb bass is on it, let it pull a little drag and you can tighten it up, if a big fish gets on. My th biggest bass came off of rip rap, on Lake Lewisville, on a Stanford Cedar Shad bait. 9-3 helping a friend prefish for the Bass Champs. Hope this helps. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck. Thad Rains

HOW do you break it down, fish all of it and if you find Turnarounds (where the trucks backed up to turn around and head back out), focus on them, as they nearly ALWAYS hold fish. Hope this helps.

tr

Look for anything different like driftwood, bigger rocks, smaller rocks, patches of grass and watch the graph for any brush piles. spend a little extra time on the irregularities.

if its windy hit the corners where the water is swirling. Or any areas that are blocked from the wind where a fish can sit and ambush bait fish that are being blown up against the rocks.

Fish it parallel not perpendicular... much easier to do with only 1 person on the boat, put your boat right up against the rocks and cast forward. Still doable with 2 people, you just have to turn the boat to the side a little.

I run down the length of the riprap but I always pay special attention to the "differences." I lock onto areas where something changes; size/type of rock changes, changes in the slope of the banks, changes in availability of cover (pilings, stumps, grass, etc). On a long wall of seemingly identical riprap, the tiniest change can attract and hold fish.

What great advice everyone has offered you on fishing the Rip-Rap. A lake full of this structure like your lake is a blessing. The bottom line is Bass love rock. It give them ever thing they are looking for.

It is all about irregular features as close as possible to the rocks. If you have a Nav. Apps. with contours you are in business. If there is no map and you have the capabilities of doing your own map with your electronics then that is what you need to do.

Every Rip-Rap section of the lake is important and to shorten the learning cure contour lines are the most important aspect of finding those sections that will produce on a contestant day-in-day-out basis.

These structure is just like any other it must be close to deep water to be the best. Deep water with irregular features on the contour lines hold bigger fish and bring them to the area. Bass like to be able to move short distances to feed. The Rip-Rap provides the shoreline structure they are looking for to push bait into the shallows for their feeding each morning at daylight then returning to their comfort zone on the irregular feature.

This is a screen shot of the corner of a dam to get the point across of a large lake. If your lake is small then just small thing like a shore line protrusion sticking out form the rock will be enough to bring them in to that area.



This shot is an irregular feature next to a bridge:

Very nicely done Don

Thanks Don!

Don, can you tell me what the red line represents? Mainly in that first screen shot...i'm guessing you're highlighting the areas that would stick out to you the most?

It is the route your boat is on. You always keep the boat as deep as 20 ft. if possible as not to disturb the fish. Man in front of boat makes cast to the shallows and keeps the boat on contour which is the RED Spray Line. The man in the back is dragging the contour with a Crig in and out around the contour. This is the guy that will usually find where the big fish live in their Comfort Zone. Once a pattern has been established then get to that depth and both fishermen work the pattern established.

Most will look at this and say; well I have to learn to fish deeper. That is not the case, just because you are keeping the boat off the top of the fish. If you are keeping your boat in 5 to 10 ft of water and making short cast you are assured to be passing right over the top of the big fish that are staging at the top edge of the contour. That is not good; because one pass on top of them at that depth and they are gone.