This little red dot (anchoring position is money) in late fall

[John Bales]

red dot map.jpg (102.95 KiB) Viewed 10507 times

Can you see why this anchoring position is so good in the late fall? You can catch a fish in any direction you want to cast. This spot is a mega spot. John

[MuskyAddict]

I’ll take a stab at it, John. Assuming “up” is North:
1. The deepest water in the area is at 31’ to the northwest
2. The sharpest break to the deepest water is to the West where the 24’ countour is marked - which also leads to a deeper saddle
3. Another steep breakline is to the North coming out of the deep hole and leads to shallow water.
4. To the East you might be able to reach both the top and bottom of a steep breakline - which leads to shallow water.
5. Buck taught us that fish relate to steeper breaklines as the water cools in the fall.
6. I’m not sure how to interpret the cut from deep water toward the Southeast.

Ken

[John Bales]

Ken, You just killed it. The bass can also move up the cut as weather and water permits. My casts are directly out into the hole, the sharper breakline to the south and to the north, the slot and at the end of the day when the deeper stuff petered out, I moved a little shallower to reach the finger to the NE that points towards the slot and caught my last 20 from 9-12 fow on a trd on a light jig head. You can never tell a fish where he has to be or what it might take to catch him. Blades and jigs are two good speeds to check for this time of year. Good job on your interpretation. By the way, the slot is chucked full of thousands of bluegill to the south till you get shallower than 18 feet and then they are gone. The two holes to the south have no bluegills or bass in them. They look like the dead sea. Everything is at the intersection of the red dot and a little to the south and north and then nothing again. This money spot has been great for a lot of years. John

[Team9nine]

John - This one is interesting to me from the perspective of the map, as that dot wouldn't be my first, second, or likely even my third anchoring spot not knowing anything about the lake, and just seeing the map - lol - though the area looks great. If you look at the houses on the map, and then figure most houses are about 70 feet or so deep/long, then extrapolate that to your red dot, you'd be lucky to even hit the hole, let along the nice deep flats/saddles to either end of that hole. You also wouldn't be able to reach the nicer breaks/points above and below the dot position coming off the shallows. In reality, you might be able to reach everything, and that being why that is such a good anchoring position. Sometimes you just have to be on the water to have a good idea exactly how far everything is in regards to being able to know what you can hit properly from a single anchored position. This seems like one of those times - or maybe I'm just overanalyzing it

[John Bales]

I cannot reach the saddles on either side for sure. We have used the same shoreline sighting for this anchoring position for years. Yes I can reach the deepest water and both sharper breaks plus up into the slot enough to get the fish most of the time, especially with the blade bait. I didnt use the livescope on this spot, just fan cast to find the fish but when using it, I usually look out at 60 feet. It is an eye opener that most of the time when I cant find my lure, I have casted farther than 60 ft and not even on the screen. I would imagine my casts are more like 90 feet or more, I really dont know. I see what you are saying. By the way, for the first time out, the mass of the fish are where they are supposed to be and the livescope (used as an aid to look around the deeper secluded holes) really helped to see where the fish were or were not. Some structures were completely void of fish and others were simply loaded, this includes the bass and the bait(bluegill and crappie). Mangus told me that everything has been late in showing up for him also. As fishermen, we think the fish should change their locations to their winter spots as soon as the cold gets here or shortly after. Evidently it takes more time for them to adapt then I thought. My lake had a skim of ice on the West end a few days ago. It is one of the first to freeze and there are others that stay open maybe a couple more weeks or longer. Finally I got to look around in one of my favorite deep spots and the fun may be over before I want it to be. Going back to the same lake tomorrow. We canceled today because of the wet roads and ice on my porch. No snow tonight but low of 26. Mid 30's for the highs. Just have to deal with a little ice in the guides for half the day. I have seen it end around Thanksgiving or last till the new year. Just trying to not miss too many days right now before it is over. Much more to learn. John Missed one of your comments. I did move a little north and east so I could reach that flatter shallow finger pointing towards the slot before I left which put the boat at 16 ft and allowed me to reach about 9 feet where I caught the last 20 fish of the day including my biggest, a 4 pounder. Most of those fish were smaller except for a couple and came on the trd on a 1/8 oz jig, 6lb test. I didn't quit till they did.

[MuskyAddict]

Thanks for doing this John. These are great real life exercises to help with our interpretation and understanding. I also appreciate the reminder to be patient and let the fish tell us where and how (depth and speed) they want to eat.

[John Bales]

I went back today with brother in law. Started out at 26 and got to 34 with rain in the afternoon. We got 49 with two 3 pounders. We nickel and dimed them from 9 am till 4. Same spots as before but used the live scope a little more to show us where to cast. Could not really tell if there was much of an activity period today. Had a blast as always. John

[Team9nine]

Thanks for the follow-up reply, John. Hoping to get out once or twice this week now that the Holiday stuff is done. Water was 42-45 here on my last trip about 5 days ago, but a slight warm-up in the forecast for this week.