by Bruce Middleton, July 05, 2009

A fish finder and a few buoys can mean bass in the boat.

Bass are creatures of shallow cover but this doesn’t mean that they live in 4 or 5 feet of water all the time. In fact most bass spend the spring, summer and fall in water that ranges from 12 to 35 feet deep. Now some anglers don’t think this is shallow water but they are wrong. Now a couple of hundred feet of water surely is deep but compared to 20 feet, 20 feet is shallow. So for those of you who think 30 feet of water is deep, you will have to readjust your perception somewhat.

So many beginning and intermediate bass anglers don’t fish deep structure because they can’t see a target to cast to. This makes them nervous for several reasons. Without knowing what is down there they think they may hang up their lure or bait and loose it. They may just be wasting time and effort fishing a non-productive part of the lake, they may not be using the right lure or bait to get that deep or they may have trouble identifying deep structure in the first place. I have seen schools of bass suspending next to structure or at the same depth near it or on top part of it or a little bit above it. I have seen schools of bass in 30 feet of water that are suspended at 21 feet. The time of year, the water temperature or how old the bass is has a lot to do with how deep the bass are. They may be headed into shallow water to spawn or they may be going back into deeper water after the spawn, or at the cold water turn over in late fall. Big bass too will normally be found in water a little deeper that younger bass. And if these structures are long the bass will roam back and forth the length of it looking for a meal most of the spring, summer and fall. So keep the depth finder on and look at it all the time except when you have a lure you’re retrieving. But before each cast, glance at it so you know where you are in relationship to whatever structure and marker you’re fishing.

Without a map to show you where deep structure is found on any given lake, about the only thing you can do is look for it using your depth finder and this is a real hit and miss situation. You have to cover a lot of area to get the big picture so you know how long, large or how it pertains to the shore or deep water near it. This means the minds eye must take in all the information the depth finder is showing and then putting it all together for an overall view of the structure you want to fish. But once found all you need is a couple marker buoy’s to outline the structure then move off a short distance and decide what lures or baits you are going to need to fish it to the utmost.

Structure is defined as any change in the bottoms elevation that happens within a very short distance. These structures can be small or run half the length of a lake. This can come in the form of a channel, a hump or other rise or drop of the bottom. Cover is the presence of vegetation, rocks, trees, brush piles or whatever else have you, that gives the bass some thing to hide in or around. When you have both structure and cover in the same area you will more than likely have found a real gold mine of bass fishing. These places can be at any depth but the deeper they are the more likely they are to harbor more and bigger bass. And if the water is not gin clear it improves these sites even more. Some of the best depth ranges are between 12 and 25 feet. Thrown in dingy water you can’t see the bottom and therefore the bass can’t see you.

Vegetation like cow lily beds and lily pad fields can hold up to 80% of all the bass in a lake. But most of these bass will be found where structure is found around the vegetation. Vegetation comes in many different types of underwater growth. Milfoil, cabbage weed and a whole host of other aquatic plants are common all over the country both in warm and cold-water environments. Bass use these weeds to hide in and as ambush points from which they sprint out and gulp down prey fish and other eatable items on their list of foods.

But there are a lot of variables that can effect just where in these weeds the bass are found. It may be that the sun position in the morning on one lake moves the bass to the inside edge of the weed line so they are in shadows all the time. Or they may move out of the weed line and under a log pile during the high part of the day because the water in shallow and is too warm for them. There are just so many different reasons a bass may move in and out of the weeds it is all but impossible to name them all. But one thing is for sure, the bass do move and your job is to find and catch them.

We all know that a bass has a home territory that it lives in most of the year except for the cold of winter. They find the most advantageous areas that offer the best place to hide, the best place to hunt and search for food and that is near where they spawn. Generally speaking the most advantageous places for a bass to hide in are places where it can’t be seen from above. Studies have shown that this means deep water that ranges from 12 to 25 feet in depth. Now in most lakes up here where I live that means you can’t see the bottom and therefore are blind fishing. Casting into water where you can’t see what is down there. But if you approach it right this is a plus and not a minus. If you can’t see the bass then it is logical to assume that the bass can’t see you. This translates into bass that don’t suffer lockjaw and that they will strike baits and lures when presented to them. So in order to find these places a map of the lake and even better a GPS locator is all but essential. It shows you where you noted a drop or rise in the bottom. It shows the weed line edges and it shows you drop offs and the points at each end of them. A map is vital. Even a small map just showing the general contour lines of a lake is a great help. Also too is the use of your own eyes. You can generally see the edge of a weed line or logs running from shallow out to deep water even though you may not be able to see the far end of it. And then there is the depth finder you use to tell you the depth of the weed line so you know how deep to fish so you are away from the leading edge of the grass or what have you. Remember to mark that depth on your map but always consider the lake level, as this will affect the depth. For every foot of draw down or rise in the lake is an equal rise or fall in your depth marking on the map. Be observant. A GPS unit is such a useful instrument when fishing. It can pinpoint the exact areas you note and can get you back there any time you want and with in just a foot or two. This is a real boon to fishermen.

But it is not the end of the world if you don’t have a map. In that case all you need is a good depth finder and buoys. You troll over a given area of your favorite lake for a while looking for structure and cover marking it with the buoys. You do this to a few areas and then go back to the first one and begin to fish it. Again the depth is vital to know so you have a good idea of what to use as a bait or lure. Cover will also tell you what to use. And finally the sky conditions and water color will help you decide just how fast you need or don’t need to work the lures. You need to map a (mental map) of what is under the water that you have marked. Also look for bass showing up on the depth finder. If any show up, immediately toss a buoy overboard to mark them and then move off and swing around so you can begin to fish them. Keep your eyes on the depth finder all the time to reassure yourself that you are casting to the right area and continue to note any other structure and or cover changes that may draw bass to it. Fan casting from different angles is important as you want to present the lure you are using to come and go from deep to shallow, shallow to deep and along the structure line. This gives you the best chance to have your lure cross the path of a bass and entice it to strike.

Blind fishing is not all that different from throwing at a visible target. Most of the time you can’t see the lure after it sinks down anyway so it isn’t all that much different. You just have to use your minds eye to visualize what the bottom looks like and from what angle you are casting from. This angel is critical to know and use. It means the difference between pulling a lure up from deep water or over and edge and down into deep water or just a straight glide over the bottom at a depth of 2 or 3 feet above the bottom. The depth is critical to keep in mind because you want the lure or bait you use to be at eye level or just above the bass and not below the. The only time you go below a bass with a bait or lure is when you are fishing right on the bottom.

This is also one of the best ways to introduce you to pattern fishing. If you can catch a few bass off of deep structure and/or cover, then you should be able to catch more bass in a like area some other place or places around the lake using the same lure and same cadence. These patterns may involve starting out by junk fishing in order to find the best lure or bait but once found you should be able to fish it all over the lake with great success. Junk fishing is using several different lures and baits, usually pre rigged on matched rods and reels, in order to find that best lure in the least amount of time. The sooner you establish a pattern the more time you have to catch bass and big ones at that.

A lot of beginning and intermediate bass anglers are afraid of blind fishing thinking they stand a good chance of loosing some tackle. This isn’t true. If you are fishing right on the bottom with plastics or a jig, they should be rigged weedless so the hook isn’t exposed to hang up on anything. If you are using a crank bait, spinner bait, lipless crank bait or a swim bait and you get hung up, it is a simple matter to either move the boat around so you are pulling it 180 degrees from the way you were reeling it so to untangle it from whatever it caught. You could drop a lure retriever to get it back or you could wait and cut the line, attach a float to it and continue to fish. Only after you get done fishing the area do you go back and try and retrieve the first lure. And if the whole world falls apart on you and you do end up loosing a worm, plastic swim bait or other piece of tackle it won’t break the bank. An inconvenience yes, but not the end of the world. By the way a good long handled fishing net makes a great lure retriever. All you do is reach down and snag the hooks. I mostly use mine to get my lures out of trees and bushes that I managed to hit, as I am a real lure slinger. My net has saved more lures for me that it would probably fill a small tackle box.

Now when you finally do get the area marked and are going to fish deep, what are you going to use as a bait or lure. Well if the bottom is rocky, sandy or gravely a jig and pig or a soft plastic rigged weedless is a real go to bait. If you think the bottom is too soft for this then you have the option of fishing the area with a deep diving crank bait, a spinner bait, a swim bait or a lipless crank bait.

Deep diving crank baits come in three forms, floating, sinking and neutral buoyant. Of the three I prefer neutral buoyant hard stick bait as this lures gives me the most variety when it comes to retrieve styles. With spinner bait there are basically two types, short and long arm styles. The short arm type has a plastic skirt that is directly under the blade or blades. This spinner bait is great in cold water and is most often used with a rise and drop retrieve where the spinner bait is left to helicopter (flutter) down then is raised back up and then back down until it is back to the boat. A long arm style has the plastic bait back behind the blades and is very good at straight retrieves over weeds and for going through vegetation with out hanging up. Which one you opt for is determined by the structure and cover you’re fishing and personal choice.

A swim bait is basically a plastic rigged split shot style or with a weighted hook. The new Shadalicious by Strike king ™ and others like it have a boot shaped foot or tail that gives the plastic a realistic swimming action. These new baits are becoming the new magic lure for bass fishing. Last years B.A.A.S. fall classic set the record for heaviest single bag of bass ever and this is the one plastic did it all. The pros are using them in ever increasing numbers and the manufactures of fishing tackle are in a race to make new and improved models of this great new bait.

Now a lipless crank bait is one of my all time favorite lures to use when searching for bass. By noting how fast the one I am using sinks I can time the cast so the lure is at the correct depth when I begin to reel it back to the boat. A great new color called Sexy Shad ™ is a great color that just came out two years ago but is proving to be a top color in bass fishing. Most also have a huge sound chamber that must sound like an air raid siren under water to the bass it is that loud. Now the old stand by of silver white with a black back is still my number one choice but if this Sexy Shad catches any more bass for me I may have to reevaluate my opinion on which one to throw first. Lipless crank baits also come with loud rattles, which I really like. This noise draws bass from great distances and you just have to cast in the same area a few times to know or not if any bass are nearby.

Lastly is the use of top water lures. Most bass anglers don’t think to use these lures especially when they are fishing deep water. But the combination of noise and flash will pull bass up from deep water if they are hungry. A top water lure can land you some really great bass any time of day and at just about any depth. Now don’t scoff at this fact. It is proven that a bass will rise to the surface for a meal from water as deep as 45 feet. Top water lures can be worked any time of the day but low light levels are the best times. Even fishing the shadowy side of the lake in the early morning can increase the time you have to use these lures at a time when they are at their peak of performance.

Now I have to admit that a depth finder that displays in colors is far better that one that is black and white. The colors aren’t a true representation of the colors under water but the number of pixels is many times more and looks almost 3 dimensional. The contrast of say red for a fish and green for the bottom makes it much easier on the eyes to interpret what you are seeing. Also to they seem to give you a better look at where a grass or weed line ends and say a hard bottom begins. While an inexpensive fish finder is ok for general use while you are running at top speed, a more powerful unit is better. Like anything in this world you get what you pay for. And since we all buy the best lures, the best line and the best rods and reels we can afford, a depth finder is just the same. Buy the best one you can afford and you will never be disappointed.

Well, comes the end of another article from me to you. I truly hope the 60 or so stories I have written so far have helped you become a better bass fisherman. It is a great sport that is so dynamic and just plain fun? So as a good friend of mine always says, “tight lines to you”. Enjoy

Bruce Middleton
bpmiddleton@peoplepc.com