fishn structure??????????

[gpfishingdude]

Re: fishn structure??????????

I was going to ask about where it tapers down between two islands and then gets deeper in between. But I figured out that is probably called a cut. What I have a hard time with is where somebody says that the fish are being caught on the inside bends or outside bends of the old creek channel in the lake. How can you figure that a bend is either an inside bend or an outside bend? Maybe the are talking about the area to the side of the the old creek channel. Like the inside of a bend would be like a point and the outside would be whatever is to the outside of the bend? By the way, How long does it take to boat a striper of that size. The biggest I have caught was about five pounds when I was ice fishing for walleyes. He hit an ice jig like a freight train.

 

[foodfisher]

Re: fishn structure??????????

Inside=shortest radius of the bend. Outside= longest radius of the bend.

 

[River_Lizard]

Re: fishn structure??????????

gpf,

Not very long when you have 80 lb braided line on your rigs. It wasn't much of a fight.

As foodfisher stated..as far as your question about creek bends. A good depth/fish finder is all you need to determine structure, if you need a unit over $500.00 then you probably need to find a different hobby/sport. Fishing isn't it. I've seen people spend 1200.00 for sonar, but I haven't seen the results to prove it's a must have, since once you figure out where fish hang out...it's just a matter of the presentation that will determine if you boat one or not. And of course being in the right spot at the right time..helps!

 

[jjacobs007]

Re: fishn structure??????????

ok let me see if i can explain this.. Look at the 13 ft marker in the center, that's 13 ft. Below the surface of the water. To the right of it the bottom tops down to 23 ft below the surface, that's a 10 ft. Drop. Keep going right towards the surface and you notice that it starts climbing to 17 ft, then up to 12 ft below the surface, then drops 5 ft. To 17 ft. Below the surface again. The 12 ft. Would be the "horn" of the saddle viewed from the side.

thats awesome,,,, now i see... I thought the saddle was like looking down on one not from the side. Thanks here on mead i will find these im shure. Thanks lizard jeff.

 

[jjacobs007]

Re: fishn structure??????????

still dont fully undertand the saddle,, isnt it the same just a inch or two to the left of it,i hear saddles are the holy grail of fishn structure,i though it was when the two sides go away from each other your demo there staying the same almost.

with this drawing, i figure the fish will lay low in the saddle and move up gradually for the spawn,maybe toward the right toward the shallow water wheres there weeds and such?

 

[River_Lizard]

Re: fishn structure??????????

IMO, during spawn find West side coves at least in TX Bass seemed to always be on West coves more so than the East side of lakes. And as far as fishing during Spawn......please.......please catch and release and if it's a male guarding the nest, don't pull him off of it or the fry are sure as dead. Sunfish or in the South Bream are just waiting for the opportunity to zoom into a nest and feast, that's what the male Bass is doing, he's protecting the fry from predators. If you pull him off, in minutes the nest will be empty. And as far as tournaments during spawning season, I really wish they'd ban them altogether, nothing worse than pulling a female off the bed and taking her miles from her bed and releasing her. Don't get me wrong, I love bed fishing but only to a point, it's bad enough stressing the female out by catching her and releasing her, but taking her to a weigh-in, IMO is going too far.

As far as fishing a saddle....keep in mind the fish will move during the season, 1 minute they maybe in the saddle, next week they maybe out on the edge of the hump towards the main lake, the following week they maybe next to the shore. But usually they stay within about a quarter of a mile zone year-round. So if you find fish one time in the saddle but you don't the next trip fishing, they're around that area, you just have to figure out where they moved to.
Fishing clear water is the biggest challenge, keeping your boat far enough away, using line that's almost invisible and having bait that looks real is probably the three main points to fishing clear water. It's tougher than coffee stained water, heck the bass club I was a member of in TX avoided clear lakes because they hated fishing them due to it's a completely different type of bass fishing.
I'd think a realistic crawdad jig would be one of my key baits when fishing clear rocky lakes. And slow....I mean really slow presentation because the bass are not attacking a bait because of noise, they'll be attacking because it looks natural. Keep that in mind while you're fishing. Very early morning (when the sun hasn't lite the sky) you might get away with some top water action or a floating jerk bait.
Good luck this year....I want to see some photos!!

 

[River_Lizard]

Re: fishn structure??????????

Freeze up double post.

 

[River_Lizard]

Re: fishn structure??????????

freeze up triple post.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: fishn structure??????????

gpf,

Not very long when you have 80 lb braided line on your rigs. It wasn't much of a fight.

As foodfisher stated..as far as your question about creek bends. A good depth/fish finder is all you need to determine structure, if you need a unit over $500.00 then you probably need to find a different hobby/sport. Fishing isn't it. I've seen people spend 1200.00 for sonar, but I haven't seen the results to prove it's a must have, since once you figure out where fish hang out...it's just a matter of the presentation that will determine if you boat one or not. And of course being in the right spot at the right time..helps!

I'm hoping I'll get one of those good fish finders for maybe a little under the $500 this spring. I figure if I get it at the right time I will be able to try it out to see if it works but won't be wasting too much of the warranty time by letting it sit until springtime. I bought a new fish finder one time and the guy I was fishing with said "are you going to fish or play with that thing all day." He did most of the fishing but we both had fun. Now that I'm older I'm hoping to do both. Find the fish and maybe catch some too.

 

[jjacobs007]

Re: fishn structure??????????

IMO, during spawn find West side coves at least in TX Bass seemed to always be on West coves more so than the East side of lakes. And as far as fishing during Spawn......please.......please catch and release and if it's a male guarding the nest, don't pull him off of it or the fry are sure as dead. Sunfish or in the South Beam are just waiting for the opportunity to zoom into a nest and feast, that's what the male Bass is doing, he's protecting the fry from predators. If you pull him off, in minutes the nest will be empty. And as far as tournaments during spawning season, I really wish they'd ban them altogether, nothing worse than pulling a female off the bed and taking her miles from her bed and releasing her. Don't get me wrong, I love bed fishing but only to a point, it's bad enough stressing the female out by catching her and releasing her, but taking her to a weigh-in, IMO is going too far.

As far as fishing a saddle....keep in mind the fish will move during the season, 1 minute they maybe in the saddle, next week they maybe out on the edge of the hump towards the main lake, the following week they maybe next to the shore. But usually they stay within about a quarter of a mile zone year-round. So if you find fish one time in the saddle but you don't the next trip fishing, they're around that area, you just have to figure out where they moved to.
Fishing clear water is the biggest challenge, keeping your boat far enough away, using line that's almost invisible and having bait that looks real is probably the three main points to fishing clear water. It's tougher than coffee stained water, heck the bass club I was a member of in TX avoided clear lakes because they hated fishing them due to it's a completely different type of bass fishing.
I'd think a realistic crawdad jig would be one of my key baits when fishing clear rocky lakes. And slow....I mean really slow presentation because the bass are not attacking a bait because of noise, they'll be attacking because it looks natural. Keep that in mind while you're fishing. Very early morning (when the sun hasn't lite the sky) you might get away with some top water action or a floating jerk bait.
Good luck this year....I want to see some photos!!

i LOVE FISH, I AM ONLY ASKING THESE ?? FOR THE BETTER LEARING OF HOW THEY MOVE AND WHY,HERE ON MEAD WHEN THEY MOVED THE MARINA DUE TO LOW WATER CONDITIONS I WAS THERE EVERYDAY CATCHING THEM MOVING THEM TO A SECLUDED COVE WHERE I THOUGHT THEY MIGHT BE SAFE AS TOURNY FISH GUYS YELLED AT ME THE WHOLE TIME.eVEN THE NDWL SET UP SNAKE LIKE NETS TO CATCH FISH HERE AND I SHOWED UP TO CUT AND RELEASE THEM,MANY WERE ENTANGLED FOR DAYS IF NOT MORE AND THERE WERE EVEN DEAD FISH IN IT,MOSTLY CATFISH THAT WERE SO SKINNY THEY LOOKED LIKE TILIPIA,I WAS SO SADDENED I WONT SAY NO MORE OF WHAT I DID.iF I FISH BEDDING FISH I ALWAYS LET THEM GO WITHIN MINUTES AFTER THE CATCH.WELLL DANG IM ALMOST AT THE POINT OF NOT EVEN TRYING TO CATCH THEM EXCEPT WITH LURES WITH NO HOOKS.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: fishn structure??????????

I'm hoping I'll get one of those good fish finders for maybe a little under the $500 this spring....

The difference between a $500 sonar and a $150-$200 sonar is usually that the $500 model is color and you have $300 less to spend on other stuff. For well under $500 you can get a GPS/Sonar combo Black-and-white.

As far as just sonar- a Lowrance Mark 5x is black-and-white and will show you fish just as well as a color unit- maybe better- and is only around $150. I have an older Eagle 480 which is essentially the same as the Lowrance 5x that sits side-by-side with an Elite 5 color combo unit (this is now around $500 but used to be $650). I use the color for GPS only with navionics chip but almost never for sonar- the grayscale/black-and-white unit is so much more effective to read sonar than the color unit is.

Having said that, Lowrance's $99 "4" series sonar-only unit when compared to old sonars (or worse, no sonar) is like the difference between binoculars and a blindfold.

If my sonar died I would buy a new Mark 5x immediately and not think twice. I wouldn't want a color unit. Color is not necessary and more expensive. Plus, if the backlight dies on a color unit the sonar is useless. If the backlight goes on a B&W unit it is still viewable in daylight or with a flashlight after dark.

IMNSHO

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: fishn structure??????????

Just curious, how do you know if a bass on a nest is a male or a female? I have only seen bass nesting one time years ago on Tablerock lake and it wasn't very common to fish for them on nests at that time.

 

[foodfisher]

Re: fishn structure??????????

She lays- he protects. He's on the nest.

 

[jjacobs007]

Re: fishn structure??????????

who makes the nest??? and how long does she stay on it to lay?? fisherman say if u catch the male the female will move up to protect. I have never tried this but was curious if true.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: fishn structure??????????

I think the orginal question was how to find the fish. I have always had pretty good luck finding bass near points. Sometimes I fish the cover near points too. They seem to follow the points up towards the shore line. I mean the kind of points that go out under the water and are sometimes off of the points of land but I have seen underwater points or rises that extended out into the lake that weren't associated with a point on shore too. I caught one nice bass out from a rocky bluff that was like a point before it went arounnd to a cove. The wind was blowing from across the lake and I figured the bass would be waiting there for the bait fish to wash by. I cast a willow leaf spinnerbait and retrieved it down wind. When he hit that spinnerbait I thought he was a monster at first but he only weighed about five pounds. Another thing you can try is if nothing is hitting a lure maybe it IS following it, so let some line out and work it back and forth along the shore or the boat. That has kept me from getting skunked a time or two. I think last year most of my bass were associated with a point the rest were from heavy cover or very near it.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: fishn structure??????????

All this talk about saddles dropped in to a discussion about fishing during the spawn. Well, that is a very short period of time (the spawn).

The saddle areas and any humps, sharp rises, or shoaling next to deeper water are ideal places to look during certain situations and/or times of day- not just during spawning, but all season long. Fish often suspend next to these areas between feeding and use saddles and ridges that are deeper than adjacent flats, humps, etc. as travel-ways- more protected than traveling a shallower route.

OP's question leans toward the "holy grail" idea of fishing, as stated. My suggestion is to learn more about the fish behavior and seasonal patterns and their typical patterns instead of worrying about structure so much. Then, when you are fishing for the pattern the structure component will just naturally be revealed in the course of fishing where fish are. Fish don't hang on structure because they like to- they hang on structure for protection to some extent but moreso to be nearby food- bait!

As far as fishing beds - when you pull a male off a bed there is a pretty good chance the bed will NOT be protected then by a female. In productive (eutrophic) waters pulling off a male, fighting, landing, photo, and releasing can be enough time for a school of little perch or whatever to clean out the nest... The reason the male picks up your jig is to get it out of the nest, not to eat it usually. Pounding beds on a smaller lake can have a big impact. Just saying.

 

[jjacobs007]

Re: fishn structure??????????

Good words mark! Was looking for a bigger pict of your 64 boat,looks nice.