Finding Bass on Large Bodies of Water

by P L summerville
(Fairfield Al)

The first thing you need to do is buy a good current map of the lake, look at the legend and see when the lake was mapped.

The NOAA tend to be more reliable. As Bill Dance once said "lakes maps are as useful to modern fisherman as treasure maps were to the pirates of the 18th century."

The man made lake maps of reservoirs that were build by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are more accurate. These maps will indicate features that where there before the area was flooded.

Things like roadbeds, ponds, buildings, creeks, wooded areas, and ditches. All these features attract Bass, and you will not always find everything that is on the map, but it a good start.

All these areas are shown on maps with different symbols, learning to recognize symbols like roadbeds and how they relate to breaklines, will help you to find areas that will hold bass.

If you have a good understanding of the seasonal patterns of Bass, you will be looking on the map to find places to fish to fit the season and look for places to fish the lake that best fits your style of fishing.

That will eliminate most of the lake for you, and you can concentrate on looking for specific areas on the map that fit the season and should hold most of the fish.

As for me I love my crankbaits, flukes, and lizards, so I look for points, with ditches, flats that could have grass, or lily pads or be a good spawning ground
with quick access to deeper water.

Something I found on Logan Martin this week the fish are on post spawn and are in deeper water about 15' or more, coming up in the mornings to feed. So I looked on my map for more points with the same characteristics.

During practice I found the places I marked on my map. Now comes the checking of the water clarity, and the water's temperature also play a key part in the depths the fish are holding up in.


Bass want to be able to get below the level of light penetration, bass use darker water for their own protection.

You also want to ride your area and watch your electronics look for depth changes, visible cover, and structure.

Most anglers can spot the obvious structure, but your depth finder and your eyes will help you find the "sweet spots" that most fisherman overlook.

A sweet spot may be a knob sticking off the side of a point, a rock pile in a grass line, a hard bottom, or a stumps lining a creek ledge.

The key to the vertical element is nearly always water color, next component of finding bass using this
fishing pattern is the type of cover available.

There are several things that can effect the assumption of the depth, changing an area of the lake,light penetration may change, if you have a lot standing timber or other cover that provides shade, the fish may not go deep.


Another factor is the forage available, generally its shad, craw fish, and bluegill.A powerful key in locating the best places to catch fish is the presence of shad. If you find the plankton, you will find the shad and the bass.

At Logan Martin there was loads of shad off the rocky points, not much grass though most of the places I had fished three years ago that had lots of grass in them, had none last week when I went to practice.

I had to start from the beginning and come up with a new game plan using this pattern. I found the fish but because of the wind and the rocking of the boat, I could not always feel the bite.

My co-angler said that was the first time he had caught a limit of fish as a co-angler, he has been fishing the BFL for three years.