Fishing Moses Summer/Fall

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Permalink Reply by Chad Simon on September 4, 2012 at 6:45pm

Try the outside weedline off main lake flats. Two weeks ago that's where the smallies were, and they would only bite plastics on the fall. Senkos, or a light drop shot setup will work. Watch your line!!! No clue on largies, especially with the water being so low.

Permalink Reply by Nate on September 5, 2012 at 12:33pm

That bloom happens every year and blows around the lake depending on current and wind. From my experiences, the algae bloom is KEY to where I will be fishing. I key in on areas that has the algae, but not too much. The areas of the lake that have high concentrations of the algae seem to really turn the fish off. The areas of the lake that don't have much of the algae make the mid-day bite very difficult due to clear water conditions. I like the areas you mentioned for the spring but not for this time of year. Truth is though, Moses Lake just flat out holds fish, it does not matter where you go on that lake you should be able to produce. Moses is a very warm water fishery so getting on the lake at the crack of dawn pays huge dividends. I will send you a message with some specifics of how I fish the lake if I have time. I am not an accomplished angler by any means but I lived across the street from the lake for three years with my boat and it is still my favorite lake to fish in this state. What we really need is for Jordan Doucet to tell us how he fished it during that WSBF tourney (:

Permalink Reply by Jordan Doucet on September 5, 2012 at 12:50pm

In my experience, the fishing on Moses drastically falls off in July and August. I've never fished it later than that so I can't speak too much for the fall. The algae and weed growth in the lake definitely causes the lake to fish very tough and unlike the spring when you can virtually pick a shoreline, flip a jig and have a good shot at catching a largemouth, it seems like the largemouth live in very select areas and are spotty at best and you can literally spend all day fishing alrgemouth for one if your lucky. I feel very fortunate to have stumbled across 4 largemouth in the WSBF qualifier and if I wouldn't have ran into those, you may be asking someone else how to catch them there. No secret on how I caught them though, flipped a jig and texas rig around and covered as much water as I could, specifically targeting areas with some shade - again, not rocket science.

I wish there was more of a golden bullet on what i did to catch them, but i think you can ask anyone that fishes that lake alot and you will hear the same story from everyone; it's just plain tough in late summer months. 

Permalink Reply by Ryan Higgins on September 6, 2012 at 7:35am

Thanks for the replies guys.  Gives me a few new ideas to try out there.  I think I'm going to try targeting offshore structure a bit more as well as shade creating cover.  Havent had much luck on cover up on the north side of the lake though.  We do get out there before sun up, Peninsula Park is the only improvised launch I know of that is open that early.  Again thanks for the tips and info guys, keep it coming.

Permalink Reply by Nate on September 6, 2012 at 10:43am

Cascade Park is always open early. Its steep and there is gap between the dock and the edge of the ramp so don't forget your parking break and don't get too close to the dock with your tires. Fishing however is very good in that area of the lake.

Permalink Reply by Mark Maderos on September 6, 2012 at 5:47pm

Like Jordan I too fished the WSBF qualifiers and my back seater and I did ok for the smallies.  We caught most of ours by the I-90 bridge and then up lake by the gravel quarry area.  The key for us was wind.  When a little wind picked up the smallies would turn on.  Once the wind died the bite would shut off until the next period of breeze.  We caught our smallies throwing senko's on a light split shot rig ( 1/8) and football heads.  I used the split shot rig, light of weight as possible to get the senko down to 7 to 15 feet of water but not so heavy as to kill the senko's action. It's just a real tough time of year for that lake.  It seems the smallies are really schoolled up at that time of year.  You can fish long stretches of water with nothing and then hit a 100 yard stretch and really tear into them and then nothing for hours.

 

Mark

Permalink Reply by Ryan Higgins on September 7, 2012 at 10:08am

Thanks for the tip Mark.  I'm planning on trying that Senko split shot rig tomorrow out there.  Seems the fish are more suspended then on the bottom right now.    I feel ya on the schooling.  We get a dink here and there all down the shore then it seems like its on fire.  4 weeks back we found a school of fish from .5lbs to 1.5lbs all schooled up and feeding hard.  We boated about 10 fish a piece in an 80yd stretch on cranks.

Permalink Reply by Ryan Higgins on September 10, 2012 at 4:21pm

Fished it again this weekend.  I used the splitshot wacky senko rig and cleaned up on dinks all day.  Easily boated 30 fish, size was nowhere to be found.  Concentrated on windy edges and around the I-90 bridge.  Did manage a few largemouth, all very small though.  Got a lot of fish in the shadows that were spitting up craws when I boated them.  Going to try it again this coming weekend targeting trees and weeds on the south end for largemouth with jigs and worms.

Permalink Reply by Nate on September 18, 2012 at 11:17am

Did you go again last weekend? if so How'd it go? I am heading there this weekend with high hopes to find the hog smallies up on the rocky flats getting fat off craws. I might try potholes one of the days but Moses is just too dam good in the fall to pass up. And the chance of getting a six or seven is in the cards. Id love to hear how it went if you were chasing LM's like you said.

Permalink Reply by Ryan Higgins on September 18, 2012 at 12:01pm

We did go, plan on going every weekend till hunting starts.  We tried fishing in the reeds, docks, and grass in the lagoon area and south of there along the spillways and sand dunes.  Lots of little hits but no fish.  Tried suing Senkos and Jigs for the largies.  There was a really nasty bloom that has all the non main lake water choked out.  I had fish hit on the edge of the bloom but not in it.  We ran those areas for about 2 hours with nothing to show.  Cruised up north to our usual rock shorelines and proceeded to clean up on dink smallies using senkos.  Biggest fish in the boat was a 1.5 sadly, but seems the fish are moving up shallow after those craws.  Multiple fish we brought in were spitting the craws up.  Tried the rock pile and weed bed down lake a bit with a few hits and no fish, this was about 11:30 though.

Hardly any other boaters out there, saw a handful of pleasure boaters and 3 other fisherman.  We've been getting out about 30 minutes before sunrise and seem to do good all day in the rocks.  I still wouldnt mind that PM with specifics if you have time, still trying to crack this lake.  Water temp is 69* on the main lake right now and still dropping, hoping some of the bigger girls are moving up.