Article 2, Jan 15, 2002

By the sound of the title you would think I mean Pre-Scouting for deer, but I mean what I say in the title when I say Pre-Scouting for Bass. I approach bass fishing the same way I do deer. My biggest advice for deer hunters is to get off the well beaten path and find the cover that holds the deer and the same holds true for finding bass. If you are one of those anglers that live near lakes that have a drastic drawdown every winter season this article is specifically for you, but those of you that do not live near lakes that get drawn down every year don't worry I'll mention some valuable tidbits of information that you can use as well and not to mention a bunch of pictures for show and tell that might actually look familiar to those of you that fish Allatoona Lake. Now lets go Pre-Scouting for Bass!!

Now what do I mean by Pre-Scouting for bass? With the water being drawn down 17ft on my home lake this winter I have spent A LOT of time scouring the lake looking for some primetime Spotted Bass hangouts. I must admit this winter I have done more walking around on the shore and boat riding than I have actually done fishing and I have learned more valuable information about the lake and its layout in the last few weeks than I have all year long. This past Spring, Summer and Fall I found several good areas that I was finding nice concentrations of fish with the water up. I wanted to revisit those areas and find out why I caught fish in those particular areas by viewing these areas with the water at low pool and the bottom exposed. I found that several of these areas had a few things in common. Most areas had large boulder rocks with brushpiles on them and along with that they were very close in proximity to deeper water which to me is no surprise. So knowing that little bit of information I now know what to look for in prime Spotted Bass hangouts and start my Pre-Scouting with a goal in mind and below is how I started off recording the information.

In just the first few hours of scouting the lake at low pool by boat I was beginning to see a few potential problems. There are literally hundreds of areas with boulder rocks near deeper water that are normally below the water line at full pool and remembering where they are located was quickly becoming a chore. So I needed a method to somehow be able to remember exactly where these areas are. So I gathered a lake map and finally made use of our video camera. So by taping the areas that met my requirements as Spotted Bass hangouts, marking them on my map and also by videoing landmarks, I will be able to find those areas again when the water rises back up. Finding those areas again when the water comes back up has always been the hardest part for me since finding a nice hangout is kinda useless if you can't remember exactly where it is. As the old saying goes "close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and darts". The picture below is just one example on how to use landmarks in helping you locate those fish hangouts that you want to fish when the water level returns to normal.

The easiest structure to find is shoreline structure as all you have to do is line up the structure with some type of shoreline object and get it on tape and replay it a few times to help you remember. But those underwater humps and brushpiles in open water have to be the hardest to find. Above I enclosed a picture example on how to find this particular underwater hump. If you see the hazard markers in the back ground I kinda lightened them up a little since the camera didn't pick them up very well. But the hazard marker in the middle of the 2 side markers is in the background and is probably 100 yds farther away than the two side ones in the foreground. I placed the middle hazard marker exactly between the other two markers and I approach the hump by boat until I start to see my graph show a decrease in depth. Once I see it getting shallower I can then shut the outboard off and lower the trolling motor to get me into casting range to the crown of this hump to fish it. There are easily a gazillion ways to find those open water hangouts. Some people line up trees or points with radio towers or use white paint on trees and/or rocks or put out flagging material to help them remember where to find those fish hangouts. But the key thing here is if you don't plan a way to find these places again whether they are offshore on onshore when the water comes up you probably won't find them period and you will forget about them.

Now what really surprised me and made the learning curve go upward like quick was how much I learned about the lake by leaving the Triton behind and by walking and taping productive habitat on the shorelines in creeks that are high and dry such as the backs of Little River, Stamp Creek, Allatoona Creek, etc just to name a few. My walking gear basically consists of my map, pen, video camera, and some knee high boots to get me through the shoreline mud. I am going to show only 6 excerpts from my video of interesting things I found just while walking the bank. A lot of these areas are places that most anglers will probably never see by boat and never know places like these existed.

I learned long ago that culverts like this picture on the left are bass magnets year round and of course it usually helps when there is water around them. There are very few guarantees in finding fish, but if you can find a culvert like this one with water gushing out of it after a rain or something pumping water out, that is as close to a guaranteed fish that I can think of and big ones too!! Culverts hold fish year round regardless of water temp, time of day or any other weather or water factor other than lack of water. It makes a ton of sense why they are so productive. All the fish have to do is stay off to the side of the culvert and when the water flows through the pipe the crawfish, minnows get washed out of the ditches and through the pipe and all Mr. Spot Bass has to do is open its mouth and eat it. Very little energy is used and they don't have to find the bait as the bait comes to them through the culvert. I caught my biggest stringer of Allatoona Spots at this particular culvert after a rain my best 5 that went 17lbs and change which is pretty good by Allatoona standards :)~. I made sure I went back to this place now that the water is low just to find out more about this area and its surroundings and now I know why the fish like it.

The second picture on the right is basically an off shore rock pile. It is kinda hard to see but if you look at the background of this picture you can imagine how much of a drop is behind this rockpile. It has got a nice and high altitude to it and deeper water behind it and is perfect for holding fish. I've never fished it and didn't even know it existed till I walked the bank and found it. Funny thing is I can't even count how many times I have passed this place up on the way to some of my other places.

Moving right along, this left hand picture above is a picture of a rock pile loaded with brush on a point located near a spawning flat which is a perfect perfect (I said that twice for a reason) staging area before the fish begin to spawn. At the end of this point it dumps into the channel located in deeper water. The picture really doesn't do this area justice, but if you can look at the brush mixed in with the rocks it will give you a better idea on the size of the rocks and how high the rocks are above the ground. Of course that hazard marker gives its location away :(.

The next picture on the right looks like maybe an old roadway bridge, which by the way, Allatoona is full of these types of structures and again you have to walk to it to be able to find them. It has a rockwall on both sides of the channel and it seems to be deeper in between these two rock walls than the surrounding channel and looks like an interesting place to fish come Spring.

The top left picture here is a picture of a nice creek channel loaded with logs and a few brushpiles. The channel is about 4 feet deeper than the surrounding area and is located in a nice little excluded pocket and a long way from navigable water at low pool.

If you're really familiar with the Allatoona Lake area, then surely you should know the location of the top right picture. This picture is a text book fishing hole where the creek channel nips the tip of a point and this place sticks out like a sore thumb on the map as well. It's also nice to have something to show you how the channel runs as you can see there are several stumps in and around the channel and it can become a pattern at times. With the use of this picture you will know exactly how the channel runs from the point in the background to Acworth Bridge in the foreground.

In conclusion, I found all sorts of neat things while walking around the shoreline that I wouldn't have normally found if I stayed in my boat. The pictures above are only a few of about 60 or so good looking fishing spots that I have on my map and on tape and I haven't even covered a 1/4th of the lake yet. Honestly I have literally found tons of some really awesome areas by just doing a little mucking around and I just can't wait till the water comes back up to fish them!! My opinion is that the more knowledge you have and the more time you spend scouting your lake whether it be by boat or by foot the easier it will be to find catchable fish. I hope this article helps prod you to get out and do your own Pre-Scouting for Bass and find those areas for yourself before the water comes back up.

Triton Mike
bucca1@aol.com