Edited from an article series in the long-gone, regional newsmagazine, "Fishing News," 1967
This is the fourth in a six part series that outlines the fishing methods of Buck Perry. This methods is known broadly as, "structure fishing," or, as Perry called it, “spoonplugging." When first published , this was very barebones. I added modern updates and reinforcements for today's more sophisticated reader. All credit given the original authors
INTRO and REVIEW
If you have made it this far, you may have what it takes to be a structure fisherman! Just coming in? I encourage you to read parts 1-3, and open your mind.
Everything discussed so far is in a purposeful sequence, leading you to consistently CATCHING big game fish. Some have called these methods, 'dogmatic,' or inflexible, and they are to a degree. Like a golfer, or painter, we focus on knowledge and specific actions that deliver success for THIS method.
Once understood, get as creative as desired thereafter.
We concentrate on the largemouth bass, not because he is fashionable, but because he is universal and is the model species for this work. But this applies to most gamefish in both salt- and freshwater. In short, you can't catch them if you don't have a repeatable system for finding them where you expect.
On the flipside, I say very little about tackle, or gear brand names, or where to buy stuff. This is because we are not trying to sell you tricks, tips, or trendy, "flavor-of-the-week" tackle products.
Buck Perry avowed that certain gear and tackle TYPES are best suited to this work, but his main focus was that knowledge is the key to success, not gear.
Our ultimate goal, then, is to educate and increase your fishing success.
To do this...
You - Eliminate dead water
You - Locate the fish
You - Concentrate on productive areas
You - Know why
PS What do we mean when we say BIG Fish? That is explained at the end of pert 4 - so don't miss it!
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The Review - Boring But Essential
The would-be 'spoonplugger' is advised to accept the following Key Facts from parts 1 through 3, as they relate to catching big fish....
Part 1
1. The deepest water in an area is where big fish spend most of their lives.
2. These fish migrate from this deep water, once or twice per day, following the same, recognized routes along bottom structures.
Part 2
3. Big, adult fish rarely come very far into the shallows, and they may not come into them at all, depending on water and weather conditions.
4. Your fishing problem is an open water problem - how to find and catch big fish away from shore.
5. Using lake maps to guide you, you focus your efforts on structure that leads all the way to, or which is adjacent to, the deepest water in an area. In this way, you intercept fish in their migrations and movements, to and from deep water
Part 3
6. Use your maps to find the likeliest structure "trails" that the fish might use to migrate from deep water. They are habitual in this usage, and predictable.
7. Look for specific, step-wise, depth breaklines on structure that lead to deep water, and scour them with lures.
8. Seek the stopping points along the breaklines where fish congregate in their movements - these are called "breaks." Pinpoint them by trolling, drifting, and casting lures to them.
9. Learn to PRECISELY mark the locations of these breaks where you catch fish, so you can return to them time and again.
Part IV
How Weather Impacts Movements Of The Fish - LONG but important
Some Fish Facts
~ Fish are creatures of habit and predictable routine.
Like other wild animals, they move from place to place over routes familiar to them. This is safety; this is survival.
~ They normally live in the deepest water in an area - 25 to 35 feet is their preferred sanctuary depth.
The gloom and calm of these deep homes offer security, seclusion, and stability.
~ Adult game fish/bass are schooling fish.
They mostly school with fish of the same year and size range. Some smaller ones hang around, loosely segregated from the larger specimens.
~ The fish don't stay in deep water all the
time.
They may leave to feed, or out of habit, or for spawning. But their movements are not haphazard – they routinely migrate along specific
routes.
If it helps you form the right idea, think of a herd of
antelope moving from watering hole, to feeding areas, and back to
shelter areas. Same idea.
~ Generally, they prefer to feed in moderately
deep water, 8 to 18 feet.
Very little “head room” exists for these large fish in the shallows; they are exposed there, and are normally reluctant to go that far.
~ Once or twice a
day, the school of big fish may begin a migration from deep water.
It strings out along structure, like bars and breaklines, and the fish will pause at underwater stopping-points - called “breaks” - along the way.
~ When
the weather and water conditions are favorable, the school might go all the way to
the shallows.
If this does occur, the school disperses at about 8 feet and spreads out along the shore. If conditions are NOT to their liking, they may avoid the shallows completely. They also return to their home by the same route...it is not random.
~ If this movement is going to happen, it generally occurs early morning, evenings, and
sometimes during the night.
A good movement around midday is also common. However, this noon-ish movement usually stays offshore, so few people realize it happens.
Here is a general, "snapshot" view of this....
What
Affects Fishing - Weather
In the 7th fact, above, we let the cat out of the bag ... it is the CONDITIONS of weather and water that govern both the movements of the fish, and how far they go. Now lets explain the connection to weather that might motivate our big fish to leave the deep water that is their home and penetrate all the way into the shallows.
Fish Aint Weathermen
Weather is a huge subject and I am not a meteorologist. Luckily, we don't need a degree from Embry-Riddle (3) to establish our interests in the weather.
For OUR type of fishing - structure fishing - you may be surprised to learn that we don't really care about high barometers, or low barometers. We aren't keenly focused on humidity, on direction and speed of the wind (except for safety), and devotion to water temperature leaves us flat.*
We know that fish respond to these things, and we could go on about how fish react to every kind of weather. But we don't need all that, since we aren't fishing like everyone else. How weather impacts THOSE anglers is not our concern. What we care about is what does the weather make our fish DO - or NOT do.
Localized weather may affect your comfort or safety while fishing. Weather may also change hourly, or daily, so variations in these things are a normal part of the scene...but our big fish in deep water sanctuaries are mostly isolated from them. That's why they like it there.
* A word about water temperature
This factor, temperature, is most important to you and I, because it makes fishing pleasant, or unpleasant. Water temperature affects the fish, too, but odds are good you've been taught to view it the wrong way.
The temperature of the water affects fish because they are cold blooded; their body temperature is the same as their environment.
If the water is warm, the fish's metabolism increases, so his energy needs increase. He becomes more active, he feeds more, digests more, grows more, fights more. He is, in short, more catchable.
In cold water all these things are slowed and reduced. This is why fishing is generally better when its warm.
BUT - the fish's metabolism adjusts to the water temperature he finds himself in without any thought or effort on his part. He doesn't "decide" he wants something else and swims off to find it. As long as the temperature is safely between the high and low terminus points of life, he is "comfortable" - adaptable - at a wide range of water temperatures. This includes those temperatures in the deep water he prefers to call home.
The trouble for us is, the temperature in his deep water fortress makes him somewhat dormant and docile. HE does not mind being there; he likes it.
But it presents two problems for us:
1. It is harder to control our lures, the deeper they are.
2. Fish feed less and react slower in deep, cold water.
Therefore, we avoid trying to catch him there, because we know he and his school buddies will move shallower at some point and become more catchable.
Am I Nuts?
Right now, you're probably going..."Man, you're crazy! All that stuff matters!"
It is true, it does matter,.... when you’ve been taught to go after fish the “normal” way. But running from the rain, staying home because of the barometer, or hammering docks while Karen screams at you is NOT what this is about.
Some big fish may be found that way, under the right weather and water conditions.
But I want you to learn WHAT those conditions are, and WHY that happens.
So hang in there as I explain.
For our purposes, we are trying to think like the fish - it's a matter of perspective.
Mr. Bass, he lives in a huge weather buffering tank of water that surrounds him.
This water dampens weather effects, and the deeper you go, the more these weather effects are reduced. Go deep enough, and our fish may not even notice them. Try scuba diving or going down in a submarine and you'll know this to be true.
Well... it is no different in your local lake. YOU can be affected by these things, and small fish in shallow water feel their effects more and respond in kind.
But big, adult fish in deep water, far from the shallows? It is a different world for them.
The Right Weather
So if the usual weather elements are not our guides to the fish, is there a weather phenomenon that WILL predictably impact fishing in any locale?
Fortunately, the answer is "YES," and it is right in front of our face.
The weather that most interests us are the sweeping atmospheric pressure waves we call, COLD
FRONTS.
There is a lot of misundersatanding where the term, “cold front" is concerned.
We are not necessarily referring to big drops in temperature. The term just describes the border between two air masses - a warm air mass, and a cooler one.
The warm mass is usually moist, it is mostly stationary, and its pressure tends to be stable and builds relatively high in the atmosphere.
It's the nice guy of The Weather World.
On the other hand, the cooler air mass is normally dryer, it exhibits proportionally higher pressure, it is fast moving, and it stays near the ground because cold/cool air is more dense. It's basically the bully of The Weather World.
The dividing line between the warm and cold air masses is the actual, "front."
It is a low-pressure trough that "wedges" in under the warm air mass and forces it upwards. (4)
With wide temperature differences between the air masses, this can result in harsh weather. But that is mainly a Spring and Fall thing. In Summer, the front's passage may be hardly noticeable from the surface.
In the United States, these fronts normally move from west to east due to upper atmosphere wind streams. Elsewhere, it is bound to be different, but the principle holds the same.
But it is this front that kills fishing. Don't believe it? Lets look.
In most places, there is a recordable rhythm to the passage of these frontal waves. Where I live, it is about every 6-10 days. However, this wave period is important to the movement of the fish from deep water, so keep it in mind as we progress.
What we find is that the "good" fishing will tend to STOP for
anywhere from 12 to 48 hours after a cold front comes through; this is a universally recognized phenomenon. Smaller fish seem less affected by it, so the squealers may still be game, but the warmer the
water, the more pronounced are these “putting-down days” for the larger fish.
However, once the front
has moved on, stable conditions start building back in, and fishing will turn around and improve over subsequent days. Then, a few days before the next wave comes through, the fishing gets "hot.”
That's when you'll hear people talking about the bite being... "on fire 🔥."
Weather stability is the key, and the best movements of the fish will happen on the most stable, warmest, muggiest day of the year.
Remember that.
This cycle of frontal waves is important to the movement of the fishes, because drawn-out, stable periods trigger long, regular movements of the fish from the deep water into the shallows. The fishing seems to get better a day or two before the next front comes... because the build up of stable conditions in between the fronts is peaking and this regularity brings the fish up and into the waters where we usually fish for them.
So now the front is a few hours away, and we like to think the fish know it...because they seem to increase their feeding as it looms.
But what if that is not due to any purposeful, collective decision on their part?
I mean, they may sense it when it's overhead, but they can't see across country, after all. What if it is something else?
What if the front, with its clouds and overcast, is really the END of a long, stable period? And it is because of that stability that the movements of the fish are at their best?
So far so good, But behind the front comes the REAL change that hurts the fishing - the MOST important element connected to weather.... LIGHT.
Light Is The Constant
Hold on; did I just suggest we should think of weather in terms of light?
Yes, I did. Take a minute to process that.
Instead of defending common weather lore, suppose we accepted a new idea, which is, weather is not the main event for the fish.
Rather, what if we thought of weather in terms of the LIGHT that accompanies it.
I threw that at you from out of the blue, (pun intended), so lets repeat it another way:
- The lighter or brighter it is because of weather, the tougher is OUR fishing.
- The less intense the light because of weather, the better is OUR fishing.
Putting It Together - The Lightbulb Moment
Leading up the arrival of the front, the region normally enjoys a period of relative stability, as discussed above.
➣ Moisture backs in, and stable, warm air keeps building into the atmosphere.
➣ Cloud cover kicks in, eventually stacking in vertical layers.
➣ Low cumulus/stratus clouds are prevalent and you will probably see upper level cirrus clouds, as well.
➣ Aircraft contrails, clouds in their own right, they stay up there a long time because of the moisture in the air.
➣ A haze of moist air and dust develops.
➣ Overcast days, and rain during this period further add to the overall effect to create what has now become a reduced light situation.... (6).
You may not be keenly aware of these conditions, because you just think of this as, "good weather."
But what about Mr. Bass, down there in the deep sanctuaries?
Well, he notices, and he likes it this way.
🐟 These weather conditions are stable, even somewhat predictable, and he likes stability.
🐟 These combined conditions reduce the light levels in the water, so he's not punished if he moves shallow.
🐟 The prey fish and other food organisms he eats get more active during these periods,... and our finny friend, Mr. Bass, is willing to leave his deep water homes to come for them.
Under these conditions, he will happily keep doing this, and our job gets easier.
But all good things must come to an end. Eventually, a frontal wave comes along and changes everything.
😖 The idyllic stability is shattered, and the light levels increase dramatically after the front's passage.
😖 The dry, dense, high pressure air behind the front drives moisture and clouds from the sky; wind usually increases to blow off any dust or haze.
😖 The sky is bright blue, and the aircraft contrails which normally serve to indicate atmospheric moisture levels, they are tiny or non existent.
😖 The moisture and cloud cover that reduced the amount of light on the water before the fron tis gone.
These changes caused by the passing front wrecks the all-important stability, and the fish retreat deeper until things start returning to stable mode. They generally go off their feed, and tend to lay low in the deep areas for a day or two.
As structure fishermen, we don't relish these changes. We know they are going to happen, because we monitor the weather for these fronts. But, these are the days WE might stay home..., or maybe go bluegill fishing.
"Normal" anglers, on the other hand, they consider these post-front weather conditions as "good fishin' weather..." but we know the fish have a different idea.
They are still off their feed from the front messing up the stability. The cool, deep water slows their metabolism and reduces their need to feed right away.
This
does not mean they won't have movements, once they return to these activities after the front passes.
It is just that it may be several days before they try to move back up, maybe out of habit more than hunger. If they are hit with bright, unobstructed sunlight pounding down from that bluebird sky....well, they are likelier to go no further.
They will just go about their business deeper,
below the ray-penetrated level.
In summer, when the sun is at its highest, direct sun rays penetrate even deeper into the water and the big fish either vacate the shallows... or rarely come that far.
Again, they are reluctant to penetrate what we call "shallow water" because they don't have much "head room" there, and all this light puts them off.
It will take the building back of moisture laden air, cloud layers, some overcast and the reduced light layers between the front waves to turn that around.
So aside from very severe extremes beyond those discussed here, OUR kind of fishing weather is not about temperature, or barometers, or all the other things we are told to care about.
We look for the light conditions that foster a movement of big fish from their deep water homes. When those conditions exist, we have a procedure we follow, outlined in the previous 3 installments. In this way, we connect with them on our terms.
So for OUR kind of fishing, weather concerns come down to two questions:
Question 1. Has the weather affected, or changed, the amount of light that gets through the water. This regulates the movements of the fish, which is our focus.
Question 2. Is it safe to be on the water?
SAFETY
Whenever we talk about weather, we must keep safety in mind. The fact that we don't obsess over the weather in the ways most people do, does not mean we disregard its potential for disaster.
Fishing ahead of, and into, a front and/or storms may produce excellent results. However we do not advocate foolishness in the pursuit of fish.
When a thunderstorm or other severe weather threatens - - -
1. Get off the water.
2. Take cover, until the threat passes
3. If possible, seek refuge in a building or hard-topped automobile.
4. If you must remain outside, do not stand under tall trees or telephone poles; lightning has a tendency to strike these tall objects. Instead, seek lower areas in which to take cover.
5. Do not use landline phones except in the case of an emergency.
Lightning can strike several miles away from the heart of a thunderstorm, so you should take precautions even when the storm is not directly above you.
If storms or fronts are chaotic enough to spawn tornadoes in your locale - leave and get to safe shelter! No fish is worth you ending up dead. (7)
In summary, the effects of weather on our kind of fishing is about the amount of light that accompanies it. It has other influences, yes. But we mostly concern ourselves with the movements of the fish in response to how weather affects ambient light.
We have also said that these allinportant movements are not only affected by weather/induced light, but also by "water conditions."
In Part 5, we'll look at what we mean by that.
For now, let us end this discussion with the good stuff - Big Fish!
How Big IS Big?
Now I'm going to use another word to describe these big fish (bass): "Freaks."
Really? ... "freak?" Why that word? Because specimens like these are not the norm for the vast majority of fish in the water.
But his benchmark weight for adult bass is: 6 pounds.
Therefore, that will be our measure.
This size, and those that are larger, are essentially "freaks" when compared to all the others that exist in any body of water. Moreover, Perry also found that most big fish (bass) die before growing very much bigger than that 6 pound weight.
The current record bass is, 22 lb., 4 ounces, caught in 1932. Only one bass is known to be larger, by ONE ounce (22 lb., 5 oz. from Japan, in 2009) (1).
But, since the record must be beaten by TWO ounces, 22 - 4 has stood for 90 YEARS!
As far as anyone knows, no fish (bass) bigger than these have been seen in all that time.
But lets also be realistic; fish like these are exceptions, under very particular circumstances.
Or, the never-ending circus of bass tournaments would turn them up more often. But, they don't.
'Freaks,' in other words.
Many weekends are burned up by anglers in search of such freaks, and the entire $115 billion bass fishing industry hopes you will join them.
But what are your odds of catching ANY bass over 10 pounds?
Briefly, the odds look like this:
- Florida, Texas, and California give you about a 33% chance at a 10 pounder over a lifetime of average fishing... Louisiana falls in next at about 20%.
- Outside of these, three states offer odds of 13% in a lifetime,
- From there, well, your chances go down fast, depending on where you live (2).
In fact, I made a post on this very thing at Palmetto Fly N Fish...
Your Odds Of a Trophy Bass
But they're the exceptions, too. Your average angler may never do it.
Any I can catch that make this mark, well, I will gladly call them, "freaks!"
If you are interested in a no drama, Facebook fishing page, please come visit us at: Palmetto Fly n Fish
David
Palmetto Fly n Fish
All rights reserved, 2022
References
(2) https://www.amazon.com/Lunker-Lore-Quest-Fish-Lifetime/dp/1977635466/
(3) https://erau.edu/
(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_front
(5) https://www.baamboozle.com/game/17225
(6) https://scijinks.gov/clouds/
(7) https://www.weather.gov/shv/safety
(8) https://fishingbooker.com/blog/how-weather-affects-fishing/
