Where’s The Bass?
(By: “The Bass Coach” .. Roger
Lee Brown)
Where’s the what?...
Where’s the bass! How many of us
anglers (tournament and recreational) go to a body of water you’ve never fished
before, drop the boat in the water, then, ask this question to yourself? This is probably one of the biggest topics
in bass fishing that an angler should learn more about. I generally receive
about two hundred (give or take) emails and phone calls each week from anglers,
prospective bass fishing school students, and charter clients from all over the
Nation (even some from foreign countries) asking me many different questions
related to bass fishing. Out of all of
these questions, I would have to say that about sixty-five percent of them
would be on how to locate bass in their area, or on a body of water that they
have never fished before. I would
comfortably say that locating bass and understanding the water would be the
number one question among bass anglers today.
The next most asked question would be is which baits they should use to
catch “big” bass.
Now when you think about it, there is really
only two (2) main topics that go hand-in-hand when it comes to bass fishing,
and if you understood more about these two,
You would definitely
become a much better angler, and they are;
Learning how to
locate bass can be somewhat of a challenge to most anglers because there are so
many different factors that need to be determined such as;
and believe me, there
is more! Being a consistent bass angler
is so much more than just getting in your boat, hitting the water, and casting
your baits… That’s why bass tournaments
are so competitive and exciting, because the more you learn about locating bass
the quicker you can start catching them right?
And hey, isn’t that half the battle?
Let’s start by
looking at a lake map. There are two
general types of lake maps that most anglers will use which are referred to as
the; “Hot Spot” and “Topographical” maps.
The differences between the two is that a “Topo” map shows more detail,
and the “Hot Spots” map shows more fishing spots (well, at least they’re
supposed to :-) The secret (or key) in
learning how to use a lake map would be to sector the map. What I mean by this is that I will take the
map and study it for a moment (looking for areas where the fish would most
likely be.) Next, I will (using a
highlighter) divide the map in sections based on how much time I have to
pre-fish for a tournament or how many days I have to just fish the body of
water for fun. The size of the sections will vary depending on contours,
structure, and how many places I may want to check out during the course of the
day based on what the map shows me. I
am certainly not one to just cast a bait into the water and work it for five
minutes and leave; I will try an assortment of baits if I see signs of fish in
any given area to try to establish a working pattern.
Here are some key
elements I usually look for when it comes to locating bass on any given body of
water:
Let’s take the first
one, VEGETATION, this is by far my favorite because you will usually find more
congregated bass in vegetation than anywhere else on the whole body of
water. Remember, a bass needs three
things to survive and that is a. FOOD b. OXYGEN c. COVER (or structure) that’s
it, and vegetation offers it all! Now,
I know what some of you are asking yourselves, you are thinking; well, what if
there’s no vegetation right? Then
simply go to the other elements 2, 3, 4, and 5 that I mentioned above.
Now, correct me if
I’m wrong, but, how many of you anglers’ fish the weed lines and never go in
the midst of the weeds? I can’t tell
you how many times (while showing my students how to fish weeds) that we will
go to weedy areas just to see other anglers fish the outside weed lines for a
while, and then, watch them move on.
After they pull away from the outside weed area, I will pull the boat up
into the midst of the weeds (in the same areas where these other anglers were
fishing) and start catching bass (usually nice quality ones.) I have known many anglers over the past
several years that
have just hated to pull up weeds, or they don’t like when they get weeds on
their boat carpets or in their boats, or they just get tired of picking the
weeds off their hooks. Well guess
what? I’ll suffer through these
bothersome weeds any day of the week because that’s where you will usually find
the bass in numbers.
There are several
different baits and techniques that can be a bit tricky to use when fishing
weedy areas and I won’t go into them right now, but keep in mind that weeds
(especially when you find several different types of vegetation in one area)
are by far my number one choice to fish than all the other areas combined. One of the best places you’ll find bass
would be in vegetation areas, especially if you have different types of
structure in the weeds, and better yet!, if this weedy, structured, area is close
to where the shallow water meets the deep
water…..Boy-O-Boy!.....Hold-On!.....Try It, “You’ll Like It!”
Now, if you can’t
seem to find any vegetation areas on your body of water, then, look for the
structure. Structure can consist of
many different things like;
Rip-Rap (chunk rock
areas)…
Overhangs (where tree
branches hang over the water)…
Docks…
Stumps…
Irregular contours…
Rocky areas…
Road beds…
Ditches…
So really, just about
anything other than the flat, smooth, bottoms that offer nothing at all (which
are a waste of time to fish anyway) would be considered as structure areas.
I hope this article
has given you a better incite on what to look for when it comes to locating
bass. I know that what I have shared
with you certainly helps me, and I hope that it can help you to!
If you wish to learn
bass fishing, and might be interested in attending my 3-Day “On-Water” Bass
Fishing School located on the world’s famous Lake Champlain or Lake George
(located in upstate NY), or maybe you would just like to charter a day of bass
fishing? You can contact me by calling (518) 597-4240 or you can visit my web
site at www.capital.net/~rlbrown
or simply email me at rlbrown@capital.net
.
Until next time, take
Care & God Bless!
“The Bass Coach” –
Roger Lee Brown