Intrepretation

[Steve Craig]

Here is a structure. Anyone want to venture a guess where the contact point is?



Or how about this one!!!!

[Team9nine]

I'll hazard a guess based on the drawings, though I don't see any other type "breaks" marked (large boulders, stumps, rockpiles, etc.) which could be key.

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PineCoveBar_2.jpeg (24.36 KiB) Viewed 2311 times

[Steve Craig]

Pretty good Brian!!!
The Pine Cove Bar is right on! In fact, Larry Barr and I took a few nice fish off that exact spot last year. One of those Buck Perry deals where I put my finger in the water and told Larry that this was the contact point and then dropped a Spoon over the side and took a 4 pounder!
Ive caught so many 3-5 pound fish off this spot over the years. When they start to move towards the spawn, that finger on the inside of the cove will load up with fish and all the way down the inside of this point.

Your Mark on the hump is pretty close, but a little off in that the contact point is a bit further out from the end of your red mark. Right where the 45 mark is, there is a tiny finger and it is covered with chunk rock. Nice break on the breakline. This hump is on the outside bend of the old river channel. It breaks from that 45 foot mark right into 62 feet of water, depending on current water levels. then goes into 110 feet almost immediately. That long narrow bar is solid flat smooth rock.
The fish can be anywhere along this great breakline, but the shallowest i have ever caught them was at that 27 foot spot. All migrations usually stop right there. Water color right now is about 8-10 feet.

I fished all day on Thursday, and never caught a fish! One of those days. Naturally a dry front went through on Wednesday night. Mile high skies, and some wind, and temps in the low 50's.
I spent the day mapping down by the damn. Really deep water there. Over 200 feet in the main channel. Never fished this lake that far downstream.
Just had a ball mapping new water.

"Fishing usually is tough, and then gets worse"!!!! LOL!

[D-wayne]

This is interesting.
As a flipping fanatic I was looking to see where you marked the vegetation and what types of plants were at various depths. For me this tells me where the food market is for Miss Monster Bass. For breaks I have been looking into the make-up of the side walls to see if there are any nesting areas for crayfish and other aquatic creatures. Typically I tend to key in on the south east facing walls as they warm up in the morning and stay cooler in the afternoon.
What is the forage base of the lake?
Other things I would like to find out is the type of lake, does it have flow steady or fluctuate is the water gin clear green algae stained or iron tea stained? This would give me an idea of how the bass find their prey. Sight sound or scent?
To focus on the great puzzle you posted I would have to make some stabs here.

The first.

Finding Food

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I would check out the flats to see if it has a good food base.

The second.

Finding cruisers

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This flat may be a holding area for trapping minnows that are warming in the sun or eating algae off the rocks.

My two cents

This is an interesting puzzle for sure.
Thanks for posting

[Steve Craig]

D-Wayne,
Like I posted to Brian, He has the correct areas marked.
But i will take your points here:
There are zero weeds. This is a Canyon/Highland lake. Mostly solid rock walls, but with some areas of "dirt".
The food base is Shad and Crawfsih.
It is a Clear water lake for the most part. 8-10 clarity is the norm.
Apache is the 3rd. lake of 4 on the Salt River, east of Phoenix. From Lower to Upper, there is Saquaro, Canyon, Apache, and finally
Roosevelt, the largest of the 4.
Saquaro and Canyon are used for Hydro-Electric use, so water does get pulled from time to time. Apache, rarely drops more than 5 feet at most, and actually stay pretty steady there most of the year. This is caused by water being pumped from Saquaro, back into Canyon, over and over.
Apache does get an algae bloom in mid summer.

Your Pine Cove interpretation would be right on during Prespawn as the bass head for the back of the cove. During the rest of the year, they will be right where Brian marked. The Contact Point is at 32 feet where it breaks off directly into 60 feet.

Your Hump interpretation , is off in that due to the water clarity, migration rarely, if ever comes shallower than that 27 foot spot.
Most of the season, the school will be at the tiny finger that has the chunk rock on it at 45 feet. Even under bad weather, I can usually catch a fish or two at the 45 foot spot.
The deepest water in the area is right off the end of that 45 foot spot at 105 to 110 feet.

These little exercises are good for all of us. I didnt put in all the things as I didnt want to give it away, right away.

An interesting observation on my part now.....
You listed things like Vegetation, plants, food base, how the bass hunt,(sight-sound).
For me, none of these things are my guide to where I will find the fish. Buck talked extensively about this very subject.
We should use Structure, breaks and breaklines as our guide, and then Depth and Speed Control to find and catch the fish . Water color is important and should be looked at. But in Arizona, most all lakes are Clear and clearer!
This is the reason I had to get better in my deep water interpretation and my deep water fishing. If I didnt, then most all fishing is limited to the prespawn and spawn if I wanted to make good catches.

In the next issue of the National Spoonplugger, I cover fishing these types of lakes.Look for it when it comes out. Im not bragging here as that is definitely NOT me! I was asked to write, and I want to help out where I can. I posted these as food for thought and to help us out in our underwater interpretation. I have a few others to post as I believe they are fun to do. John posted a Question on another thread that makes one really think.
Thats what I wanted to do here.
FWIW

[John Bales]

I was afraid to guess. Both drawings didn't come in real clear so I didn't guess at all. After looking at Brian's guesses, I would have been with him on both drawings. Good stuff. Last chat we had about your reservoirs, I spent a few hours looking at maps of them all. If you weren't so far away, I think they would be a ball to fish and I am sure they can be real butt kickers at times too but would be a good experience to see them. From what I remember, I really liked Apache because it had a lot of features way out in the lake and not all steep and deep. John