To Catch More Fish

 Facts To Get You Started

Just a couple of fishermen trusting to dumb luck, hoping to blunder upon a fish? No, not exactly.

✅ These men are fishing the edge of a floating bog in the huge, man-made Chippewa Flowage in northern Wisconsin. These floating bogs are loaded with worms and insect life, and represent real "cafeterias" for the fish.

✅ These bogs are bottom areas which floated to the surface years after the flowage was created. All kinds of plants will grow on them, including trees! Yes, those trees in the background are part of this old and very large floating bog.

So how does this seemingly unique situation relate you?

✅ On any lake, any day, you will see boatloads of men fishing in ten feet of water casting to the shoreline. Their eyes will be glued to their electronic screens all the while.... and now and then, these people will even catch a fish. Their notion is that its a numbers game, meaing, the more you cast - well, that is how you catch something. Sounds about right, yes?

Meanwhile..., under the right conditions of water and weather, schools of game fish may have moved in from their deeper water home in the area. Its even possible that they have scattered into the ten to fifteen foot depth area, around the shoreline. But they only rarely come shallower. Which means that they are mostly under and behind the fishermen's boats, where their lures are never presented to the fish.
Occasionally, one or two of these fish has come closer to the shore, and when caught, the angler applauds himself for having the hottest lure, the latest and greatest reel, the most expensive boat, and so on.

However, if these fishermen would only turn around, switch to lures that bump the bottom, and cast those lures into the deeper water - working it up onto the structure* - they stand a good chance of limiting out on the fish that are there to be caught!

✅ Ask yourself this: "Do I really believe that limits of big fish are lying in two or three feet of water under a log, waiting for me?"

If you were under a bombing attack, would you be upstairs watching from a window, or would you be in the basement trying to get all the protection you can? Think about it.

✅ On a lot of structure*, you will seldom be able to take fish.
You're watching your electronic screen and its pre-programmed contour map, and it shows a good break, and maybe you grasp what that indicates...BUT...this break does not fall off into deep water.
Do you still spend time there? Not if you're knowledgeable.
Instead you look for structure* that has immediate access to deep water, that leads right to deeper water in the area.

Don Woodruff, Fishing Facts, 1972

* Structure is not cover. 
When we say "structure," we mean features of the lake BOTTOM that extend from shallow water (10' or less) all the way to deep water. This will include some sort of unusual feature that distinguishes it from the surrounding bottom in an area.
This means things like a point or an old creek channel. Maybe its an old road bed, or a submerged hump in the middle of the lake. It can be anything of this sort. But - it will be adjacent to, and lead directly from, the deeper water in an area to the shallow water.
It is not the same as docks, rocks or weeds around the shore....things you can typically see and which invite your casts.
That's, "cover," and it where the fish might end up after leaving their deeper water home.