I was out fishing this Sunday at my favorite stretch of river near my house. It was on and off cloudy that day with a 5-10 mph south east wind. It had rained HARD Thursday and Friday so I already came in expecting a muddy water day, which it was. So I go to my favorite muddy water spot, a nice outside bent with some flooded bushes and lay downs in three to five feet right next to the main channel drop off. Last weekend I had a 10lb bag just off that spot. Nothing massive but it shows the spots potential nonetheless. On a day like today this spot is textbook. One would expect the bass to be shallow and on cover on a muddy day like today... but noooo. I only catch one dink off the spot, and then continue for the next two hours to fish every good shallow spot I could think of, and only one fish. I saw a TON of blue hereon around plus shad jumping and took the hint thinking the fish would be feeding on shad, but zero bites shallow, both flipping and power fishing.
About an hour later, i'm a little discouraged and my girlfriend has taken to sunbathing. I see another nice looking stump about 60 yards away and I start to troll over to fish it, but in between me and it is a semi steep clay/rock bank on the outside bend. I think what the heck and get out a rattle trap, I mean I might as well i'm passing it anyways. 5 casts and five fish later my whole outlook on dirty water fishing has changed. I catch five in a row on this bank on a trap. These fish must have just been roaming feeding on shad. I catch one more that day on a white tube flipped to a stump.
The lesson I want everyone to take from this is one that Ike says all the time, no preconceived notions. I went in with the mindset that the fish would be tight to cover and shallow because the water is dark. They did end up being shallow, but scattered and roaming on a seemingly featureless bank. Once again the fish seem to throw a curve ball from the so called "rules" of bass fishing. Next time any of you are being stumped on a seemingly textbook day, try something completely opposite of whats supposed to work, you just might be surprised.
