Rollins Lake Advice

Drakestar · Post by **Drakestar** » Mon Jul 06, 2020 3:42 pm

I was able to rent a boat for Rollins this week and would appreciate any tips; I’ve never been there. We got a family pontoon boat with no electronics, I’ll be going by map and castable fish finder only.

I got all my smallie bait and finesse gear with me and see a couple of promising offshore spots on the map, but seeing how deep that place is... is there a limit to how deep the fish go? (What’s a good depth to be looking at? Does the lake stratify in the summer?) Are there any shallow bays worth exploring (since I got my kids)?

All help much appreciated!

ash · Post by **ash** » Tue Jul 07, 2020 9:07 am

Shade lines in the morning, look for signs of bait popping. The two points coming out of the marina can be really good, but they are really rocky. The river arm can be very good. Those fish are primarily spots and smallies and will be up dirt shallow in the AM and pull off to 50' within an hour.

Honestly i would fish as much of the shade lines that you can in the AM and then have fun splashing around until dusk.

Drakestar · Post by **Drakestar** » Tue Jul 07, 2020 1:56 pm

Thanks! We’re not going to get the boat until 9:30 so I’ve already resigned myself to a not-many-fish-in-the-midday-heat experience, but should still be fun. Knowing where to look for them is definitely helpful. Will see what happens

Drakestar · Post by **Drakestar** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:54 pm

Went down the river arm and found what I thought was a decent location. Broke off 3x on my first 4 casts, fish finder wasn’t working and the waves from water skiers were relentless, so I wasn’t in a good mood. (I hate water skiers - maybe irrationally since it’s a free country and an open lake - but to me water skiers are like people who take their Harley Davidsons to a Hawaiian resort and ride around them pool while everybody else is just trying to relax...)

Once we found a decent anchoring spot on a point in a no wake zone, things picked up. Stay in place and got a few spots on mini Dark Sleepers and dropshots, everywhere from 10-40 feet deep.