50 Places To Catch Fish...Reservoirs

WAYBACK MACHINE: It’s 1973, and Al Lindner is a busy man. His TV show is airing regionally in the Midwest this year;
He’s about to start fishing full-time on the BASSMaster tournament trail;
He’s been traveling and fishing the highland lakes of TN/KY and the Ozarks, researching what makes these lakes tick - and how the walleye and bass locate and move in impoundments This study that will ultimately lead to some of the early In-Fisherman Study Guide material, as well as their first complete I-F book on bass;
Plus, he’s still a Field Editor for Fishing Facts magazine.

In this article for the magazine, he teamed up with illustrator Wiley Miller to diagram and explain 50 places to catch fish on impoundments based on his research. 

It’s “All Al, All Day” as we highlight these key locations from this in-depth, eighteen page article…plus a little bonus revealed at the end from the creative minds of Fishing Facts.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Most of the locations shown in this series will relate to "structure," as opposed to "cover."
Structure fishing was a big deal in 1973 when this was written, but is nearly forgotten today, thanks to the BASS-driven industry.
That multi-billion dollar business wants you to make a thousand casts with the lures they're selling,... and if lucky, you might hook up with a fish.
But structure fishing has another mindset: it primarily aims to understand the places where adult fish live - and how they get to where you sometimes luck up on them.
So, to help clarify the difference between the two terms, and how they apply, I include this brief primer following the guidelines of Buck Perry, The Father of Structure Fishing:

Structure
Structure dictates the "undewater highways" and features of the bottom, itself, that adult fish use to travel to-and-from their deep-water sanctuaries, to their shallow water feeding zones. They tend to use these travel lanes consistently in their movements, so finding these structure "hot spots" should be a priority.

Definition: Structure is anything that is different from, or represents a detectable change in, the structure of the bottom and its contours. 
Key Characteristic: Structure creates defined "breaks" and "breaklines" (features where the depth changes), which fish recognize as "landmarks" and by which they orient themselves in their movements. 
Examples of structure: Drop-offs, river/creek channels, humps, sinks, underwater islands, old road beds, rip-rap, deep end of points, ledges, and distinct substrate transitions (e.g., going from mud to rock).
Why It Matters: Bottom, and deep-water, structure is a must for holding schools of mature fish, and our interest lies in where it connects shallow-water feeding zones directly to the safety of deep water. 
The adult fish live in the deep water and they follow the breaks and breaklines od structure to visit the shallow feeding areas...and occasionally you might catch them there if you "throw" lures enough times... but that is not where they live full time.

Cover
By contrast, "cover" is not structure. Nowadays, the terms have been muddled and many anglers use the word, "structure" when they really mean "cover." They simply don't know the difference.  

Definition: Physical objects or vegetation connected to or associated with the bottom.
Key Characteristic: While fish often hide in or around cover, we wish to emphasize that cover without a direct structure path to deep water won't hold the most productive, migrating schools of adult fish.

Examples of cover: Weed beds, submerged stumps, fallen trees, docks, rock piles, boat ramps, the "shorline"..., all the ususal areas you are told to cast lures to.
And while fish may be there under the right conditions, that is not a sure thing...which is why you cast thousands of times to any cover you can see hoping a fish might be there.
So, would you like to up your odds? If so, focus on cover with a strong connection to the deepest water in an area. THAT is the home of the fish, so adjacent shallow water cover is more likely to hold feeding fish.
For instance, a fertile weed bed or a stump field situated directly on or adjacent to a creek channel, or drop-off, creates an ideal ambush point. However, the structure breaks are the primary road to the cover from deeper water. The cover is where the fish may end up - an incidental bonus adjacent to the path.

In the drawings here and in the next two installments, I will identify, "structure" by (ST) and, "cover" by (c):

(1) WASHED OUT AREA UNDER THE DAM (ST)

(2) RIP RAP BANK (ST)

(3) UNDERWATER SPRINGS or OLD ACTIVE WELLS (ST)

(4) CLAY POINTS (ST)

(5) SMALL CUTS IMMEDIATELY OFF A MAIN RIVER CHANNEL (ST)

(6) POINT DIRECT TO MAIN RIVER CHANNEL (ST)

(7) CREEK WINDING THROUGH SUBMERGED TIMBER OR BOAT LANES (ST)

(8) "U" BEND (EITHER IN CREEK OR RIVER BED) (ST)

(9) HUMP BETWEEN TWO CONVERGING CREEKS (ST)

(10) STUMP ROW ADJACENT TO RIVER OR CREEK BED (ST) (c)

(11) POINT AT MOUTH OF COVE (ST)

(12) LILY PADS, WEEDS, OR MOSS BEDS (c)

(13) "S" BEND IN CREEK (ST)

(14) HIGHLINE AREAS where cable supports are in the water (c)

(15) JUNCTION OF WHERE THE CREEK MEETS THE OLD RIVER BED (ST)

(16) RIVER BED "HUGGING" HIGH BLUFF SHORELINES (ST)

(25) BRUSHY POINT ADJACENT TO RIVER CHANNEL (ST)(c)

(26) SUBMERGED RISES, KNOLLS or SUNKEN ISLANDS (ST)

(48) SMALL WASH OUT (c)

(49) STEEP, DEEP ROCKY POINTS (ST)