Late fall fishing on shallow lakes I need some help

[sabby]

There is a lake near me where I struggle every fall. It is a shallow muddy lake, average depth 5ft, the deepest spots are 18ft. There are areas with sand and a couple rocky spots but the lake is mostly silted in and weeds everywhere. The lake is a man made reservoir, it was made by flooding farmland and marshland. There is very little in the way of structure on this body of water.

I do well earlier in the year and in the summer docks hold fish, but every fall the shallow weeds die off, the algae makes visibility poor (2ft), and the fish seem to disappear.

The whole lake is like a bowl, no quick transitions, all gradual contours. The lake holds good lmb and smb. There is a river draining the end of the lake, it is smaller, clean water, silted with a main channel that winds and is maybe 10ft deep. There are no shad, only perch, sunfish, rock bass and crappie. This is a northern lake, fishing takes a dump once water temps drop into the mid fifties and below.

What would you do to approach a lake like this? What baits would you try? I'm putting the time on this fall at the expense of some great fishing on other nearby lakes, I guess I'm stubborn and I really want to figure this lake out.

[11pounder]

A firetiger squarebill, spinnerbait or chatterbait, and throw them all day long.

[bgibson]

Red eye shad lipless crankbait, color tennesse 24k

[Joe4d]

those weeds dying are sucking O2, Id fish the down wind side on sunny days, wind will move the surface water that way then it tucks under,, creating a bit warmer water and a bit more O2 both boosting metabolism... Next thing I would do is trace out that channel and concentrate on the bends, drop shot, vertical blade baits, suspending jerk baits.

[DrewFlu33]

When we have algae blooms around here, the fish seem to get into whatever green weeds they can find, or if that's not an option they're onto whatever hard cover they can find. Combine that with weeds dying and I've got to believe the docks would play assuming there are some that haven't been pulled out for the winter, especially if you can find docks where the owners cleaned up the weeds around them (thereby avoiding the problems with decaying weeds sucking oxygen like Joe describes). You didn't necessarily say one way or the other, but aside from docks, is there any other hard cover like wood? I'd think you could find some if it's manmade.

Past that, if you can find green weeds, the fish are probably going to be buried in them. If you can find green weeds next to some rocks or something on the outside edge, this is the time of year to run into a mega school. Given the dirty water that may be tough, but don't just assume all the weeds are dead or dying due to the seasons. Around here, we fish green weeds under the ice all winter long as long as there's not a very heavy snowpack. Even then, a lot of the weeds will make it. It seems that coontail hangs on the best throughout the winter, especially the deepest stuff, so if you know where a good patch of coontail is during the summer you may be able to find the fish now.

Otherwise I agree that you need to cover water. Lots of dead areas this time of year, and even if you're on them a lot of times you have to just be there on the right day to get them to bite.

[AgAuthority]

I’ve been using my lowrance, turning the “fish id” on and cruising deeper weedlines just looking for bait. Seeing a bunch weeds with nothing, some with random blips, and areas that seem saturated. Parking off the saturated areas and just working thru them with a bunch off different baits. Havent found much for numbers, but some nice quality. At least feel that i am in a productive area, will work up and down, and in and out of an area to try to find a bite and will return multiple times a day

Ag

[Tequila Sunrise]

That sounds like a good place to fish a weightless T-rig ribbon tail worm. I would choose a dark color like Tequila Sunrise. https://zoombait.com/colors/tequila-sunrise/

[sabby]

The lakes been petty slow, my best action has been dead stocking a drop shot in 8ft. Fishing the thickest weeds I can find. The fish are slowly getting more active as the cold weather has stabilized.