Bass Won't Cross Shallow

 Bass Will Not Go Shallow To Go Deep

This Buck Perry diagram (top) from 1973 is one of my favorites. It represents a "guideline" that a bass will not go shallow to go deep.' 

In other words, it won't swim over a shallow ridge just to go back down deeper on the other side and keep swimming toward the shallows. Why so fascinating?

(Not to mention that Mr. Bass has no clue that something might BE over there).

To build upon that, here is an excerpt from John Hope's highly regarded book, "Trackin' Trophies," originally published in 1994 and again in 2001. 

In case you aren't familiar with John, he placed radio transmitters in a bunch of giant bass and tracked their movements over the course of several years.

Excerpt from his book:

"On the Big Caney arm of Lake Fork, there is a submerged roadbed that crosses the north end of Big Caney cove. This roadbed is within five feet of the surface and will have moss growing all the way to the surface most of the year.

Radio tagged, mid-depth living bass were found to not swim over the top of this roadbed to the other side. When the mid-layer bass hits the side of the roadbed in eight feet of water or less it turns and feeds parallel to the roadbed."

Pretty amazing everything the early pioneers of the sport figured out well over 50 years ago, without any of the modern technology available today.

Wanna Catch More Fish?

 ... Fish The Bottom

(This is something I've adopted since I first spotted it in a very old magazine. It was then reaffirmed in the booklet that came with the early Flatfish lures. Yeah, it has been common knowledge for a long time. 

Then, I got into fly fishing, and I tended to forget it - since fly fishing is primarily a shallow water game. 

But it always stuck in my mind, and these days, Im going back that way again. Yet, to this day, many anglers simply ignore it. They flail a9way in the shallows and refuse to make it their main play)

One of the simplest, yet most powerful, statements of summary to come from the early Spoonplugging movement. If my memory serves, and paraphrasing just a bit, Ron Lindner once stated in response to the question of why the Lindy Rig was so successful, was that it forced anglers to fish their bait on or near the bottom where the fish were located. To this day, nearly every crankbait article since, some 60 years worth of print and advice, has at some point mentioned ”hitting the bottom,” or “deflecting off cover.”

💯 “Fish the bottom, not close but on the bottom. Disturb the bottom with your lure or bait. It's hard to get anglers to believe or do this. But this is where fish feed. How about weeds and snags? They won't bother you as much as you think. Get used to them. If you don't have this trouble, you won't be troubled by many fish either.”

Fishing News, 1967

Trolling: 3 Way Rigs

 

The other trolling method recommended by Bob Hollingsworth in the previous In’Fisherman excerpt is a slow trolled, or drifted, 3-way rig for trolling. 

Spoonpluggers, or those familiar with Don Dickson, will recognize this setup from his Minaki tapes and school. The only difference was Don used wire to get deep in the current. Don also called it, "a Wolf River Rig" at times, when used with mono lines.

👉 “[The other method used] is bouncing bottom with a red or blue No. 18 Rapala. The rig [3-way rig] is alternately lifted and dropped to advance it along the bottom. The lures are right behind or in the transducer cone.... Speed is very slow.”

👉 “This rig can also be used to run parallel to the drop-offs and weed lines. On sharp, broken structure, or shad-infested water, this rig really shines.”

👉 “Its only drawback is that it is of limited value in heavy current or high winds. The boat operator has one hell of a time managing the motor, depth sounder, his line, etc.”

👉 “We use five- to six-foot worm action-type rods and free-spool Penn reels for both of these methods. Bouncing bottom requires a short, stiff rod that won't wear your arm out lifting that sinker off the bottom.”

👉 “Trolling speed varies with the seasons and the fishes preference for the night. Twitching the rod as it is trolled will sometimes produce more strikes.”

🐟

Of course, the first thing you'll probably note is that the dipsy weights shown above are likely to be snag attractors. In that case you might want to try a banana type, "walking sinker," or one of the snagless slinky weights used by catisfishermen.
And, there's still another solution if you're snagging bottom...

In the post above, about Bob Hollingsworth’s 3-way rig, that rigs bottom weight could be a real "snag magnet" in certain conditions.
The simplest alteration to make to that rig, is to switch the dipsy-style weight to a bottom bouncer.
The bottom bouncer was created back in 1964 by N. Dakota angler, Bob Meter.
The bottom bouncer is slimmer and rides slightly higher above the bottom, compared to the dipsy/bass weight used in a 3-way rig - this makes it much less prone to snagging. You can still use the same lures or live bait as you would with a 3-way just as diagrammed in the post…and they are readily available in most good tackle shops, especially in the northern half of the Midwest.

Photo credits: various In'Fisherman, Fishing Facts

Trolling: Weight and Bait

 

Bob Hollingsworth of New York shared some specifics on local techniques used on Lake Erie as well as some Canadian lakes in a 1975 issue of In’Fisherman (their 3rd issue) that eventually ended up in a conversation about pressure, boat noise and conditioning (see last two highlights). Did this then eventually lead to a rise in the use of planer boards?

Here are some details on that method, which is probably adaptable to a variety of situations. Note the enhanced illustrations were from Edwin Lee Huff.

👉 “...walleye in Lake Erie are attracted to the surface...by the action of bait fish. As these baits feed on or near the surface, the walleye will cruise approximately five feet under the surface, using what light filters down to silhouette their prey....”

👉 “We troll for these fish using No. 11 Rapalas in silver or blue colors ...flat-lined behind the boat. We control the length of line...by counting the number of pumps, or pulls, let out.”

👉 “We find that the rubber core, twist-on sinkers are the easiest way to go. A ¼ oz. sinker, three feet ahead of the lure with 12 pulls of line out, will cause the No. 11 to run at five feet.”

👉 “Boat and motor noise seem to bother the fish... Because of this, we like to run the lures as far back of the boat as possible, sometimes going to 20 or 25 pulls.”

👉 “As word spread, this method has gained in popularity and the numbers of boats increased. As the activity of the fishermen increases, the fish are more reluctant to suspend. 

To counter this, we have used more weight to get closer to the bottom...A ⅜ oz. twist-on and 18 pulls will run the No. 11 Rapala at about nine feet.”

(Need more depth? Wanna get closer to tje bottom? There's your solution)

👉 “This year, possibly due to the conditioning factor, we have had good success using the jointed Rebels in the same sizes. Nearly all the fish caught come after sundown and before sunrise.”