Use Your Eyes To Find Fish

 ...aka, "Potential Hot-Spots"

By Buck Perry

Oct. 1983

Excerpt:

One reader asks: "In your reports you say we must develop a productive structure situation from the standpoint it must extend from the deepest water in the area all the way to the shallows. 

I understand the structure, such as a bar, must 'go all the way.' If the ridge-like bar does not go all the way, it must have breaks or breaklines on or connected to it that DO go all the way. I'm very much aware of the fact that the channels in a reservoir are the deepest water in the area. 

Where I run into problems is when the channels have silted in and I can't see any signs of breaks and breaklines in the area. In my lake the channels are silted in so bad I can't see any bars, breaks or breaklines below 18-20 feet. What do I do in a situation such as this?"

Fig 10.

Let's look at Figure 10, above. 

Such is the condition he talks about. It is a side view where a nice ridge-like bar extends out to a depth of 18-20 feet where a well-defined breakline occurs. Beyond this breakline the bottom is rather flat with no recognizable breaks or breaklines. 

Due, of course, to the silt that has filled the channel and covered the breaks or breaklines in the immediate area. 

Note that the recognizable structure (the bar) extends toward the deepest water in the area. It does not extend to what we'd call (on an average day) the sanctuary depths (below 20 feet — if available).

His question was: "What do I do?"

This question comes as rather a surprise. Your guidelines as a structure fisherman (Spoonplugger) are to use structure (breaks and breaklines) as your guide to where the fish will be found - and caught. 

You have been taught not to spend time where these features are not present. This is the reason we say, "Do not go out into a channel and wander around like some lost duck — 'hoping' to run across a fish." 

If you have no guidelines as to where the fish may be found, then get out of there and concentrate your efforts where they WILL be found.

You and I are saved due to the fact the fish become active periodically and may move toward the shallows. Sometimes, they linger there.

We are saved again, because you and I can recognize the features of the bottom the fish will use in their migrations and movements.

 Since fish do not move constantly nor consistently, this means we have to exercise patience at times, and wait for the fish to come to us. 

The secret to success is to, "hit," and probe the right places, and be there waiting. Since how far the fish move toward the shallows is dependent upon the weather and water conditions at that time, and due to the fact the weather and water conditions are usually not in our favor, we should concentrate our efforts as deep as possible, BUT NO DEEPER THAN RECOGNIZABLE FEATURES THE FISH USE IN THEIR MOVEMENTS.

You asked what do you do? 

You should work the obvious feature (bar in this case) down to and including the 18-20 foot breakline. You do not go out beyond the "base" of the breakline, where it goes flat again. You check all structure situations to the last recognizable feature. Check and recheck all the best ones. 

If you have interpreted the weather and water conditions accurately, you should expect contact with the fish once or possibly twice during the day...somewhere aming the right places you are probing.