Raystown Lake Report

[Bill]

I just returned from Raystown and promised to give a Report. I arrived on a friday and prefished for a PA Federation tournament on Saturday. I had seven total fish prefishing. I caught them out of grass close to channel bends on flats and carolina rig fishing on one point. The next day I fished the tournament and finished second using the same patterns. Fishing is very tough if you do not know the lake. A lot of dinks and few keepers. My second place was 6.71 pounds. My partner had four keepers for 5 pounds and some change for fifth. The state Classic was held the following weekend in the rain. Most of the fish came out of the clear water (7 points to the dam) on topwaters around wood. First day leader had over 16 pounds of smallmouth. I do not know what happened the second day however I heard the catch was off a little. On thing I learned about fishing very clear water is that the fish spook very easy. You have to back off and make very long casts.

[jm173]

There are a few guys that catch big smallies on that lake every tournament. They must find them stacked up on points or something. I've seen some huge late season tournament stringers of all smallmouth come out of that lake. Even when no one else seems to be catching them, there's a handful of guys that find them every time.

Congrats on the 2nd place!

Jason