Fishing the structure off of the structure for bass.

[scipper77]

The freshwater fishing forum has been pretty slow this summer so I thought I would offer up a little tip that has been working well for me.

Say you see a nice group of lily pads. Normally this is a great place to throw top-water, or finesse fish. As the heat of the summer has rolled in I have found that the fish are just not responding as well to this sort of approach.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been targeting the structure that is off of the structure. What I mean by this is I will now find that same group of pads and throw my finesse bait 10-20 feet off of the pads. Whatever side has good submerged structure has worked well for me.

Another thing I have been doing is looking for areas where there is only one tiny bit of weeds or pads on the surface of the water. If I see an area the size of my head poking out of the water with nothing obvious around it I have found it to produce better than the larger more obvious structure.

So if you are getting skunked, or just bored of the same old thing give some new areas a try. There are plenty of areas where the submerged structure is fantastic. Most fisherman stick to what they can see, leaving the hidden areas alone.

Good luck and happy fishing!!

 

[j_martin]

Re: Fishing the structure off of the structure for bass.

Many is the time this time of year, when I've pitched a few at the obvious structure to be skunked, and backhanded one off the drop off and picked up the lunker.

 

[bouttime007]

Re: Fishing the structure off of the structure for bass.

As the water gets warmer, and lower, the bass like to move a bit deeper or have the option for a deeper water pathway.

Those secondary structures are a tad deeper most of the time, with minimal weeds making it to the surface. The bigger sections of pads/weeds are probably just too warm for their liking during the day. Once the sun starts going down, the bass will cruise around more and can be found shallower. Secondary structure just to the east of a larger patch of weeds gives them a shadow to hide in too as the sun heads west.

I like to hit these secondary structures with a shallow running square billed crank, like a Bomber or Bandit 100 series. Counting down a grub has been great for me as well.