 How
many times do you have to fish in an area or new body
of water and wish you could see the bottom? I bet if you
could you wouldn't be as afraid of fishing new bodies
of water. The ability to read water is not a mystical
power or a special talent it is just being observant to
the lay of the land. When we are driving to our fishing
destination do we pay attention to the surrounding land
hills, bluffs, mountains, or swamps, we should. Whenever
I fish a new body of water I always try to learn as much
as possible about the surrounding area. In this article
I will try to give some insight into how to categorize
different types of water and there characteristics, we
will look at rivers, both tidal, and single current, lakes,
manmade, and natural, and hopefully give you the keys
to reading and really learning the water you fish.
Tidal Rivers are without a doubt the hardest water
to read, this is because they are altered by man and
nature twice daily. The Hudson and Connecticut rivers
are prime examples around our area. I will only touch
on this subject briefly, because there basic characteristics
are the same as single current rivers, each day the
tide comes in and goes out the bass know this and there
only a dumb fish so you have to know this .On an outgoing
tide or incoming tide the fish know to go to areas were
the current pulls food out of shallow flats, back bays,
coves, these areas are generally deeper than the surrounding
bottom contours. You may ask yourself why? Because every
day, and every night the water goes in and out through
that very same area taking with it a buffet table for
any Bass just sitting and waiting behind every rock
nook and cranny on the river. SO HERE IS THE KEY FIND
WHERE A FLAT DUMPS INTO A SECONDARY CHANNEL NEAR THE
MAIN RIVER CHANNEL WITH COVER AND LET THE TIDE WORK
FOR YOU!! The second thing unique about this type of
river is man building various structures on the river,
on the Hudson we have squared off points, lighthouses,
and barge cribs. All of these alter flow and the Bass
uses all of these at different times of the year. However
we must remember these areas have to have water on them
24 hours a day. So we should be conscious of the tide
all day long. Keys to river success is being able to
duplicate areas of success not only by type of structure
but also by time of success by either running up or
down stream to use the tide to our advantage, because
the tide is never ever the same everywhere on these
rivers.
Now for some basic trout fishing info, every good
trout fisherman knows how current positions trout in
a stream and every good Bass fisherman knows Bass are
much smarter than those pellet eating soft-rayed fish
raised to put extra meat on large Bass, but for some
reason Bass fishermen don't see the connection. How
simple do they have to make it every thing in a river
is current connected the shallower or the narrower the
faster the current this is a basic law of physics? Outside
bends are always deeper than inside bends any time something
interrupts flow you have a key break, any time a manmade
object interrupts flow fish behind it! The top half
of a river flows faster than the bottom half. These
are the keys to reading water on a river Pay attention
to the angle the bank enters the water it is a good
indication to the depth and current speed in that area.
Look for areas were roadways or railways run next to
the bank because man constantly fights erosion with
rocks or fill great fish holding areas. Try to remember
after a rain the river will get muddy but the color
will change from top to bottom as the plume moves down
stream so you can find clearer water by changing location.
One thing rivers have that other bodies of water don'
t the are the least effected by cold fronts. The fish
in rivers are least affected by weather and there location
is far more predictable than that of lake fish. The
key to remember is on a river current dictates not only
location but presentation, this is the most important
thing any Bass fisherman can learn " LOCATION DICTATES
PRESENTATION " anywhere any time any place this
is a universal truth! Next month in part two we will
discuss reading water in lakes and impoundments.
PART 2
In part 1 of this article we learned that location
always dictates presentation, in part 2 we will hopefully
learn a few more " secrets " of success. My
philosophies of fishing are based upon a few simple
laws of nature, one Bass need to protect themselves
from predators, and two Bass need to eat. Once we realize
this we can "uncomplicate" a subject everybody
and their brother has complicated. Think about this
for a few minutes, and then try to think of every thing
you have read about bass fishing and all the times you
have caught your limit or limited your catch. Think
about all the variables when all is said and done every
thing comes down to one thing you found where the fish
were and you caused them to strike. Reading water is
only one part of the picture but a very critical one.
Try to keep in mind that the best lure in the history
of mankind fished at the YMCA swimming pool will catch
zero and a poor lure choice in a good area will still
catch Bass. I hope in writing this it is food for thought
just as " BUCK PERRY 'S " books and articles
made a thinking fisherman out of me and a few other
fishermen. No article on modern day Bass fishing would
be complete without giving credit to the father of modern
day structure fishing. To this day people still use
and misuse his basic concepts of bass fishing. Perhaps
misuse is a bad word, I think complicate is abettor
word, but more on this in an upcoming article.
Now lets get to tackling new water, in this case a
manmade lake. We are in luck before even seeing our
new impoundment we have a good map of it. In order to
read water we must first ask our selves a few questions,
number one how deep is the deepest water in the lake?
Number two what is the average depth of the lake? Number
three what are the topographical features of the area
around the impoundment? Lots to think about isn't it,
but wait lets try to eliminate as much of the lake as
possible, lets say this lake's deepest water is 65 feet
and this covers about a third of the lake. This would
one, eliminate about a third of the lake, and two tell
me this is not where I am going to start looking for
fish. Isn't that great a 6000-acre impoundment and were
down to just 4000 acres to find fish in. Lets say the
average depth is 25 feet, this would tell us the lake
is not that shallow but the first major break line would
be at about 15 feet. So lets eliminate all the water
25 feet and deeper, another 1000 acre's gone. On to
question three this has got to be one hilly, bluffly
place. Before leaving for this lake I would ask local
people a couple of very important questions, one how
deep do the weeds grow and how clear is the water normally?
Also do the lake management people draw the lake down
in the winter? Try to discount silly answers like the
lake is very dirty but the weeds grow down to 35 feet,
why is this impossible because remember this "
no light no life " weeds can not live without light
(PLEASE NOTE NOT ONCE DID I ASK WHAT LURE THE BASS BITE).
Aside from reading water before we leave for this little
lake ask ourselves what the season is and how will that
effect location. Now lets take a ride to the lake as
were approaching our destination we notice very hilly
land mixed in are large boulders and rocks. Take a good
look around this is what is under the water, now read
the lake look around as you drive imagine your fishing,
better yet imagine your a Bass were would you be. As
we prepare to launch the boat we notice that the ramp
is in the back of a major cove the water seems to be
clear but shallow on the topo map it shows 5' out to
the middle than 10' to 20' heading to the old river
channel. We notice that at this location the bank enters
the lake at a 15-degree angle you can now bet this is
a shallow flat. At the end of the cove we see a 45-degree
riprap bank running next to a road. We ride over and
take a look it looks like a good steep bank but when
we look we realize the area is just as flat but man
tampered with the terrain, we motor out to the main
lake and go towards the dam the water here is deep,
the banks are steep and rocky their are not many flat
areas and almost all the points break into the main
river channel, the water is also clear. As we motor
away we notice more creeks entering the lake the points
become flatter and their are more weeds, and stained
water. This is the middle ground were most people like
to do their fishing. But we will continue to head away
from the dam, we now notice more weeds, dirtier water,
massive flats, and if there are any stumps this is were
you will find them. This is just an example of one manmade
lake there are exceptions to every rule. We decide to
try the middle grounds as we motor back we notice small
boulder islands when we motor around them we realize
there is 28' of water around them and there is just
a series of boulders dropped off years ago by a glacier,
would you like to bet there is a few more rocks around
this area. After checking out the area, we decide to
check out the bank we pick out one that is not that
steep and notice how fast the bottom drops down to 20',
as we motor down the bank our depth finder shows a sudden
depth change the bottom goes from 20' up to 10' and
stays that way for 35'. We make a "U" turn
and discover that this 10' flat (BAR) goes all the way
to the 35' zone, we have found us a honey hole this
is my favorite structure to fish, these areas are twice
as consistent as points and humps, find one that wanders
out to the old river channel and you have a gold mine.
People fishing points or the bank will be talking about
the crazy fool fishing over were their is no structure.
Sorry but I have to stop before Joe has no room left
for important stuff, in closing I hope this article
at least make you think about things and hopefully bring
you closer to knowing everything there is to know, when
you do let me know because those dumb fish still make
me look stupid.
GOOD FISHING !
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