Question about fish pathways on structure

[waterflogger_no_more]

I've been a little confused about what constitutes "shallow water" that bass will use if they have the proper structure available. I have always considered structure that goes "all the way" to the shallows to mean, generally, all the way to the shore. But maybe I have that wrong. Despite reading the gray book, the green book and the entire study course, I remain unsure.

In a large body of water, of course, if it meant all the way to the shore, the fish would all have to be located around the edges of the body of water, or migrate for miles to the shore on movements, which can't be right.

If bass will use humps that go very shallow, for example, or a small island, that would open up more structure for productive fishing. I know Buck said fish won't go down the other side of a hump, but maybe they'll consider the shallow water on top as their shallow water for movement?

Hoping for some guidance on this, thanks.

Harold

[Team9nine]

Harold - you're on the right track of thinking. Don't have access to anything specific I could post from Buck while on my cell, but shallow water is any water less than 8-10 feet in depth. As long as that area of shallow water is located on or adjacent to structure (via breaks and breaklines), and connected to deep water, the shoreline is irrelevant. I believe Buck once said it's only purpose is to help hold the water in the lake

Also remember, how far they move and how long they stay are dictated by weather and water conditions. Some days they never make it the shallows, but that doesn't mean they weren't active

[Steve Craig]

Harold,
Buck once wrote an article called..."our eyes can lead us to good structure".
In it he used several examples of how you and I could simply look at the shoreline and how those above water observations will show us places to start our fishing.

In the next breath, he was talking about shallows being 8-10 feet .
Sometimes he could write things to SEEMED to contradict himself.
But he never did.

Like Brian said. For the most part the shore is only there to hold water in the lake.
For OUR purposes, we must look at potential fish holding structure as being any water 8-10 feet deep OR LESS.
In other words, the structure MUST go ALL THE WAY from the deepest water in the area to water less than 10 feet deep.
This is OUR guideline for ALL our fishing.

The fish may, and most of the time never come this shallow, BUT THE POTENTIAL STRUCTURE MUST GO THIS SHALLOW!
Out here in AZ during most of the season, the fish rarely if ever come shallower than 25 feet. But my structure ALWAYS goes all the way to less than 10 feet, or you could say they ALSO go all the way to the shoreline.
It is then a matter of finding good breaks, breaklines, and breaks on the breakline in the 25 to 60 foot range. This is the depth we catch them at for the majority of the season.

Now take a lake like Cataract there in Indiana. There are several very nice structures that have a 14 to 17 foot breaklines that have some really nice fish on them. Under good weather and water conditions, you can clean up on them there. But the "key" is that in both these situations, the "path" the fish use is on a structure situation that goes all the way from the deepest water in the area, to the shallows ( less than 8-10 feet).

Humps can a do contradict this guideline. For instance:
In Eagle Lake in Canada, I know of at least 2 very good humps that top out at 25 and 28 feet. Neither are on any Navionics map. Yet I catch some of my biggest Smallmouth off them each year. Walleyes and Pike too. I have no idea why, I just know that they produce, and that is what is important to me.
You will never catch an adult Largemouth on a structure like this.

Maybe John or Jerry will have some thoughts on this?
Steve

[waterflogger_no_more]

Thanks for the clarifications, Brian and Steve --

On this same topic, here's a screenshot of Lake DeGray in Arkansas, which I'll be fishing tomorrow. There are two structures in this section of the headwaters that interest me: One is the island on the left, with the associated saddle to the south of it, and the other is the large bar across the channel to it on the right.

The island looks like a no-brainer, as it has deep water on two sides, it has the saddle, it goes all the way to the shallows. I think this is the place where Jim Shell and Casey caught all those wipers and posted a video about it.

The big bar looks good, too, although because of that big flat a third of the way up, I'm thinking fish might use a contact point on the right side instead of the tip -- they might not have the breaks to cross the flat. It's more than 200 feet across that flat at the widest point.

And on the right side of the bar, there are two distinct breaklines -- one at about 22 feet and one at about 32 feet. They look promising, although it's a good 200 feet across the lower one at its widest, so that constitutes a significant flat as well.

I think the bar and its breaklines are worth checking. I would troll the shallows down to the breaklines, then troll the breaklines, and just in case, troll the flat on the tip that is about 25 feet deep.

Any thoughts on how to approach these two spots?

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[Team9nine]

Harold -

For what it's worth, here's my initial interpretation of that area with creek/river in red, and more specific areas I'd be working in yellow. Keep in mind that the guidelines are for largemouth bass as the model. Other fish like white bass, walleye, stripers, pike, etc. tend to be more roamers and will still use/show up on structures that don't necessarily go "all the way." Even smallmouth and spotted bass tend to act more like the "roaming" species at times and aren't always as pegged to the bottom of the lake like the largemouth are (and hence will take free-running lures better at times). So some structures can be great for other fish species, but not good at all for largemouth. Just depends what you're trying to catch. Work them all properly and just see what gets "in the way."

Have fun and report back afterward

-Brian

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[waterflogger_no_more]

Brian, are you saying you would be casting those positions in yellow, or trolling?

What does the "S" stand for?

Harold

[Steve Craig]

"S" stands for Saddle!

Some very good spots for sure!

[Team9nine]

Steve got the 'S' right = saddle

The yellow areas are where I would do some mapping as these appear to be specific structures I might expect the fish to move to/on. Once you've mapped them you can go to work, both casting and trolling. The other areas would just get trolling passes by me until proven otherwise. Nothing overly distinct really stands out with them.

[John Bales]

Steve and Brian cover all the answers you were looking for. Map it first, then run the lures. Your final answers will only come by running the lures. The ones you picked might not be the best ones. Just pick some more spots and do the same. Weather and water conditions will dictate the fish movements during the time you are there. John

[waterflogger_no_more]

Brian, caught a couple of adult fish on the structure to the right, only stragglers on the structure to the left.

One I caught 20 feet down near the circle you drew, the other a little north of that, also 20 feet down.

Harold