Best Places To Flip In The Dunes At Potholes.

[jake campbell]

I went to potholes earlier this spring and people were prefishing for the potholes open and many of the anglers I talked to said they were catching fish in the upper 6 pound range on beavers, and jigs in the dunes, so I went all over back there and couldn't get any bites no matter what I flipped at.

Is there specific areas that you have to go to hook these lunkers?

[gpc]

The resevior is HUGE. 26,000 acres when its full. If you didnt figure it out your first time dont sweat it. The lakes water level is diffrent from year to year . One year you might have the hot spot, the next year at the same time that spot might be 100 yards from the water, all dried up. Most of the resevior is in the dunes area, so there are thousand and thousands of spots to fish. If you couldnt find a hot spot in the dunes, try to find an under water rock pile off goose island for smallies. But both these places are just loaded with fish. Give it another try and its a guarantee

[jake campbell]

Yeah, I have figured out how to catch the smallmouth on the deep rocky points, and underwater rockpiles, but I just can't find the good areas for largemouth, I go in the early months of the season like april so that might affect where the fish are too because the water level is still pretty high back in the dunes. So I guess I will just have to keep trying to get a pattern down to where the fish will be.

Here is a pic of one of my Potholes smallmouth.

[gpc]

Yeah it dosnt look like you have any problems with the smallies LOL. Nice fish. Id say your best bet would be july and august. By this time the water is way down. It eliminates a lot of hidding places for the bass, actually all fish. This is when the mar don dock becomes most active. All the good places for the fish to hide are gone, so the dock becomes one of the better places for the fish to take cover. Another good places around august is from the dock to the state park, a lot of willows along the bank for the largemouths. By august the bever huts will be more vissible as well

[CK14]

there was a club tourny on the potholes a couple weeks ago and the guy that won got a nice limit of largemouth dead sticking senkos in the willows. willows are largie hot spots on the holes.

if you can't find any in the dunes, always remember that frenchmens wasteway is a great flippin spot as well. it's easier to fish then the dunes because 1.) not as much area to fish and 2.) it's not as deep as the dunes. the entire shoreline is covered with brush and logs.

the mardon dock area can hold some good fish at times too. it can be dynamite from the shore in the summer....all you need is a buzzbait, senko, or dropshot when fishing the dock. one time i caught around 10 largies in a couple hours dropshotting the dock, with most being over 2lbs.

there's always fish back in the lind coulee as well, look for willows, beaver huts, or sometimes riprap.

[jbball50]

When the water gets lower it's probably a good idea to mark where the structure is up in the dunes if youre trying to bass fish up there when the water is higher. I know when the water is lower they catch alot of bass up in there during the summer. When my dad and I were up there in early may when i was coming back from college there was a flw tournament going on with 8 teams from different states. I guess alot of the teams were getting skunked, one guy said he hadnt gotten a bite for 3 or 4 days for the prefishing.

[jake campbell]

Thanks For the pointers it will help a lot when I go to potholes this summer, i am sure I will be able to catch some good fish when the water is lower throwing weightless senkos at the beaver huts. And I will for sure go down to the rocks near the mardon dock and try it out there. It will be nice to go there when I won't freeze my @$# off in april and may.

Thanks for the replies!

[jake campbell]

I have fished potholes in april for the past four years and I have only hooked two largemouth in the early season like that. I have only fished the summer bite there two times, and both times I didn't have a boat, but this summer I will hit it hard and fish the dunes with determinatiion to pull a hawg out of there. I just think that the dunes aren't very good fishing in April. But Levi from the mardon store showed me pictures on his camera of nice largemouth close to 7lbs and we were on the water the same day as him so It just gets frustrating.

I cant wait to throw some buzzbaits, and senkos for those lunkers.

[ChrisB]

If you want lunker Largemouth, in all honesty you should be fishing Moses lake. Alot bigger LM's there. If you catch a LM over 6 lbs in Potholes, consider yourself lucky. I haven't had much luck at the Holes early season, but I do love throwing buzzbaits morning and evening all summer !

[skeeter bassin]

Gonna be on Moses in a few weeks. Any help on what part of the lake to hit up for them LM?

[ChrisB]

That I can't help much with Skeeter bassin. I've done Ok at the bridge area where the freeway comes over the lake, but its a community hole. There was a 9 lber caught in tourny competition at Moses earlier this year, and I've heard of a few 8's this year, hense my statement about bigger bass in Moses. I'd like to know some hot areas myself. Good luck out there.

[gpc]

Potholes might not have too many 8 and 9 lbers caught but there is always a couple of 8lbers taken every year. There is just too much cover with all those dunes and willows. Moses lake is a lot smaller and lacks the cover of potholes, the main cover on mosses is private docks. Dont get me wrong mosses is a very productive lake ALL AROUND. But another thing you have to take into considerartion, is the potholes fish have access to yhe potholes canal witch then they have accses to soda lake and about a dozen or so other lakes that are connected to soda lake there is a lot of ground these fish can cover, so getting on the big one and actually bring it to land/boat is tough with all that brush. But potholes does kick out a lot more bass in the 4-5 lb range. It can be kind of overwelming to any angler especially to a new angler, I have been fishing the lake for a very long time, and every year I learn something new. My advice is explore the dunes, this is very tricky, its very easy to get lost or get stcuck on a sand dune, so I wouldnt do it w/o a GPS. Another great place to start is talk to the potholes general store, and better yet the mar don resort owners or just the workers, It would be worth checking out the mardon resort web page

[Bassmaster2008]

Is there anything specific you want to look for in the dunes? Points, Humps, Vegetation, Current flow, just odd looking things? What would be the most important factors?