Fishing trees

[Bcsampson76]

I am headed to a lake soon that recently filled which is resulting in a ton of willow trees now being submerged or partially submerged. These trees are sitting in 20-50’ of water with tops sticking out on most. There is a ton of vegetation on them and I expect the fish to be in the top 10-15’ of the trees. I have usually flipped weightless senkos into them in years past but I am wondering if there are other tactics I should be exploring. This is a super clear water reservoir too for what it’s worth.

[coreynov902]

I am assuming that when you say there is a ton of vegetation on them, you are meaning that you can't just throw an exposed hook bait in there? If that is the case and you need something weedless, two things I would certainly try would be a Yamamoto Fat Ika, rigged backwards on an EWG to get that back-gliding action to get further into/under the branches. And I'd also try a Core Tackle Ozark rig. It's similar to a Texas rig but the weight is distributed on the shank of the hook and gives the bait more of a gliding action as opposed to just dropping straight down like a normal Texas rig. You could rig a senko, craw, creature bait, or something like a Bellows Shad or Bellows Gill on it, so you'd have lots of options for soft plastics to try. And the Ozark rig is currently only available in 1/8 and 3/16 oz (with a 4/0 hook), so the bait would get down faster than an unweighted bait, but still fall fairly slow.

[Bcsampson76]

Sweet I appreciate it. Yea there’s no way an exposed hook makes it in and out these willow trees.

[VAsmallies]

Sounds like an interesting lake. You mind sharing the name of it?

[FryDog62]

A Bitsy Bug maneuvers awfully well in/around tree branches.

[Bcsampson76]

Sounds like an interesting lake. You mind sharing the name of it?

It’s lake Shasta and trinity lake. They totally change when they are full

[wmitch2]

I've fished Shasta many times and use a Tex-posed 6" Roboworm Morning Dawn on a #2.0 EWG with 12# Fluro leader. You just have to Finess it thru the trees, but need the 12# to drag them out !! Love that lake, especially the big rock pile in the middle of the Pit arm !!