Understanding Lake Maps

With all the gadgets and contraptions that bass fisherman use today its easy to get ahead of ourselves and skip important steps when approaching a new lake. Even with GPS, mapping chips, and a network of friends I still spend a lot of time pouring over maps before venturing onto a new body of water. Many anglers have abandoned the paper map in favor of more “modern” options, never stopping to check which is more accurate.

Though I run GPS on my boat I’ve never forgotten the paper map. I still carry maps on the boat and reference them constantly. For this reason I was quite pleased to get an email from an angler asking for an explanation of lake maps and some of the associated terminology.

For this explanation I pulled out the first map my hand landed on, it happened to be Lake Fork, Texas. Though I have not spent a great deal of time on Fork I have been there enough to get a feel for the lake and an understanding of its features. Hopefully this video will shed some light not only on Fork but on every fishery you encounter.

I expect more on this topic in the future from Adam Hinkle, a regular contributor to the site. I’m sure Adam will have a different approach and it will be fun to see how the approaches vary. I look forward to your feedback.

Sight Fishing: Seeing Pressured Bass

To all of you that live in parts of the country where the water is too murky to sight fish in Spring, I’m sorry. Its a fun and exciting way to fish for a brief part of the year and should be experienced by everyone at least once. However, it can be humbling, will test your patience and make you more frustrated than you knew you could be while having “fun”. For those who do get to sight fish you know that as the spawn really begins the pressure from anglers becomes an ever-increasing problem. In many clear water impoundments the pressure is so bad you can’t even approach the fish before they are gone.

Jeff wrangled this bass out of deep cover on Day 1 of the FLW

Over the last couple weeks I spent a great deal of time on the California Delta, unfortunately so did many of the West’s greatest pros. The FLW tournament series had come to town and there were wrapped boats every which way you turned. Not wanting to be rude I did my best to stay out of the way while still having a shot at trophy bass. Even so, you could feel the bite shutting down more and more as the days ticked by. The timing was right but there was too much boat traffic.

Instead of getting frustrated we put our heads together, selected a couple patterns that consistently produced, and went to catching fish. The primary pattern was sight fishing with a secondary pattern throwing swimbaits in shallow water. The swimbait bite was self-explanatory (we covered a lot of likely water) but the sight fishing took some work. As I mentioned we were constantly surrounded by boats but I was amazed day after day to see that most of them weren’t sight fishing. There were beds all around but many anglers managed to overlook them.

What I believe set us apart was our ability and willingness to look deeper. As the FLW approached the bass started spawning deeper than usual. The week before there were beds in 1-2 feet of water. During the event most beds were in 4-6 feet and as deep as 9-11 feet. Remember, the delta is not a clear-water fishery so finding these beds in 10+ feet of water was a real challenge. What was happening was the pressure was pushing these fish down and away from the boat traffic and many anglers failed to make that switch, those that did cashed big pay checks from a variety of techniques.

I’m not usually one to push products through the website. I want anglers to have freedom of choice and I want this website to be a place to learn rather than a place to be fed a cheap line and a bunch of gimmick products. Understand that when I do mention products by name it is because they have made a major impact on my fishing and I believe they can do the same for you.

If you’re trying to fish without polarized glasses you’re on the losing end of the game. There is no way you can compete without them. You need to invest in quality polarized lenses but you don’t need to break the bank. The particular pair I choose to wear during the spawn is the Amber lense made by Eye Surrender Eyewear. Why am I telling you this? Because I finally found a pair of glasses that don’t cost a fortune. I’m not big into the hype and gimmicks about glasses, all I really know about these is that I can see deeper than the people around me, they were inexpensive ($39.99), have a lifetime warranty, and are widely available in shops and direct from the manufacturer.
I hope these insights help you prepare for the rest of this season or the beginning of the next. When the bass are feeling the presence of boat traffic don’t give up, back off, look deeper, and you may just catch a giant (or two

Sight Fishing: Boat Positioning

One of the keys to sight fishing is boat positioning. Understanding how a bass reacts to your presence and adjusting your position accordingly can cut the time it takes to catch a big fish significantly. To some this topic may seem obvious but to others it will make a huge difference. If you are one of the many anglers who now run power poles on your back deck, your life is easy. For the rest of us, there is nothing wrong with 2 anchors and a handful of rope. When bed fishing, especially in wind it is important to carefully position the boat away from the bass’ bed. Using two anchors instead of one will help reduce the swing of the boat as well.
Next, stay as far away as possible. If you feel you must see the fish to work the bed efficiently position the boat at the limit of where you can see. The farther away you are the more relaxed and approachable the fish will become. All too often anglers want to see what the fish is doing and cause the fish to shut down prematurely.

Here are some quick tips to help you put more fish in the boat regardless of species while sight fishing:

-Position on the shallow side of the fish if possible, don’t cut off their deep water access
-Position as far away as possible, seeing the fish is not always necessary
-Anchor front and back to eliminate swing
-Shut off all electronics and minimize sound (more to come on this topic)
-Don’t be afraid to leave the boat and approach a difficult fish from shore (unless rules don’t allow it)
-If there is current, position on the down-current side of the fish
-When possible, position so the fish is faced away from the boat

Follow these quick tips and you’ll begin to have more success and catch the fish much more quickly. Here is a quick example showing my boat double-anchored on an offshore smallmouth. By anchoring up the boat I was able to ignore the boat and focus solely on the fish. From the moment I saw her to the time she was in the net was less than two minutes do primarily to proper boat position.

This bass was caught on a Dirty Jigs Skirted Football on my namesake “Super Matt Brown” color. Support your local shop but if the baits aren’t available you can get them here: Dirty Jigs at Tackle Warehouse

Line Extremes: Part 2

If you fish on a regular basis there is no doubt you’ve come across situations where bass become extremely line shy. This can result from weather changes, abnormally clear water, increased fishing pressure, or any number of other variables. Understanding HOW to react to this change in bass behaviour is more important than completely understanding WHY it is happening.

As I stated in the previous post on Line Extremes, I prefer heavy line. Given the opportunity I will pick up a big bait on heavy line rather than a finesse rig. Unfortunately, that isn’t always an option. When the fish get finicky I too turn to light line, extremely light line. Through years of on the water experimentation I’ve found what I consider to be a bass’ ultimate weakness. Before I make this statement I must admit, I am not a biologist and this is only my personal experience talking.

Bass can see most line. In clear water circumstances they can see (and visibly shy away from) 8 lb, 6 lb, and occasionally 4 lb line. When you get into the 3 lb range most bass can no longer see the line but occasionally one will react negatively. However, when you make the jump to 2 lb line, I truly believe it is invisible to all bass regardless of water clarity.

Fishing with such light line has its down sides. You will break fish off, no question about it. Fishing for big bass is inherently difficult, adding light line to the equation makes it that much more difficult. So why use such light line? Simple, you get the opportunity to hook bigger fish that wouldn’t have bit heavier line. With time and practice you will learn to play them out and your hook up to land ratio will be much higher than when you started.

From a tournament standpoint I don’t recommend fishing with 2 lb. If money is involved 4 lb line will get you a few less bites but has much more room for error. I’m not going to tell you one line is better than another for this style of fishing but I will recommend flourocarbon.
Check your local shop but if they don’t offer light enough line these guys will fill the gap. Flourocarbon Lines at Tacklewarehouse