Let's Talk Structure...

[Todd2]

I see a lot of lure/ line threads on here, along with what's your favorite color when fishing in the rain on a Tuesday afternoon, but I don't see a lot of structure talk.. other than to fish it. I'd like to hear a structure spot described on your lake that YOU have had the most success. You don't have to mention the lake. I think this will help us bank beaters. My #1 structure spot is a long point with timber that drops into a creek channel. I used to just pitch in the forest lol, but now I've learned to circle bank around the outside and fish the drop (tree line) on the feeder creek side with a jig or C-rig and can usually pick some off it. Who's next?

[Yakin4bass]

It depends on the lake and the time of year. The one lake back home was a patch of Lilly pads and and rubber frog. Another private pond was any tree laying in the water with a rubber worm that had 3 hooks running down it, the only place I found that that bait worked. Down here where I live now I'm still on the hunt.

[simplejoe]

From the bank, it's hard to get at the good structure. But your on it already, I fish all the lay downs I can from the bank, also try and look for rocks, creek channel's or natural springs that come into the Lake or pond. I use Google Earth my Lake or pond and you can see things you might not see standing there looking around.

[Bankbeater]

Nothing I like better than dropping an anchor while floating over a creek bed. I like to work the bait right along the bottom and either follow the creek bed or pull the bait down into it from the side.

[Montanaro]

a point dropping into creek bed with timber

[Todd2]

Nothing I like better than dropping an anchor while floating over a creek bed. I like to work the bait right along the bottom and either follow the creek bed or pull the bait down into it from the side.

Thanks, so the anchor is just to slow you down?

[Catt]

Misconception #1: lily pads, downed trees ect aint structure its cover.

Misconception #2: it's hard to fish structure when bank fishing. The bank (waters edge) is the first breakline, breaklines are structure. Structure starts at the bank & continues outwards!

[CayMar]

Class is now in session.

[CJ]

The best structure all depends on the conditions like the season, the weather, and most importantly the current. Everything I fish offshore will almost always feature a point, turn, or horseshoe somewhere nearby but the sweatspot is usually the nearest cover. One thing that always holds true on my home lake is that it needs to have a hard or rocky bottom and bait must be present.

[Fishing Rhino]

Shoals and shelfs, especially if they have vegetation (cover) 

 

To me, a shoal is a shallow area surrounded by deeper water.  A shelf is usually a shoreline feature.  It is found where the water gets deeper from the shore, and then the bottom levels off then drops again as you continue away from the shore.

 

Shallow is a relative term.  It may be twenty feet deep surrounded by water that is deeper.  That depth can vary.  It may be twenty-five feet deep or a hundred feet deep. 

 

The same is true of a shelf regarding the depth.  I refer to the outer edge of a shelf where it drops off into deeper water as a shoulder.  I've had good luck fishing the shoulders.  Electronics will show you where to fish.  The fish may be gathered at the shoulder, or at the inner edge of the shoal.

 

Think "transitions".  It includes structure and cover.  The edge of a weed/grass/lily pad bed are transitions from barren bottom to bottom with vegetation.  It can also include changes in bottom composition, from sandy to muddy, to rocky.  Changes in depth are also transitions.

[bonzai22]

One of my best spots is a flat that runs all the way out to the main creek channel. It has a small point on the drop off along with a stump field.

[WRB]

Agree with Catt and disagree that "we" don't talk structure on this site.

Structure is the entire lake bottom; including soiland soil changes, rocks, shape changes or contours, man made dams, bridges, culverts, pilings, anything not growing or floating that makes up the hard elements of the lake bottom.

Points are one of the most common and visual structure elements, however it's the isolated structure elements that attract the most bass. Large boulders or a rock pile, saddles, benches, slides, fingers, revines, ditches, foundations, that can make up isolated structural features on the point or near like humps, channels that are adjacent or connected to that point separates a good point from other points.

Being a bank angler limits where and how you bass fish. Being aware of the lakes or rivers topography is important to every bass angler.

Catt has posted several detailed posts on "humps" try the search tools.

Tom

[Nitrofreak]

Structure , every body of water has it , what defines good structure is how the fish in that body of water relate to it .

More vertical structure in the cold water periods , more flat structure post spawn , are a couple of keys to my home lake .

Where they go after the spawn , as the waters change and develop different characteristics , the importance of knowing what structure is useful and what can be eliminated .

Without a doubt , THE most important part of fishing , structure holds the key , it's how they use it and how we use it to find them , finding them determines how we fish for them .

[Catt]

Misconception #3: structure is the entire lake bottom; including soul and soil changes

Soil & soil changes are breaklines, see the thread I kickup Demystifying Structure for the accepted defination of a breakline.

The two most important aspects of catching bass as follows.

Understanding what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, & the fish it effectively.

Understanding what the predominate prey spcies in your lake & how that species relates to structure morning, noon, & night...with each passing season.

This "IS" what the Pros understand that you do not!

[Todd2]

Agree with Catt and disagree that "we" don't talk structure on this site.

Structure is the entire lake bottom; including soiland soil changes, rocks, shape changes or contours, man made dams, bridges, culverts, pilings, anything

Tom

Didn't try to make it sound like its never talked about. But hey, its going to 0 degrees, with several inches of snow this weekend. I gotta do something fishing related.

As far as depth changes, will they alone hold fish, or do you need some cover?

[Catt]

All bass relate to structure in some form but not all structure holds bass.

[Crestliner2008]

Get yourself the book, "Spoonplugging" by Elwood "Buck" Perry. Study it. He first coined the phrase structure fishing and goes into it in great detail. We all owe a great deal to Mr. Perry and his teachings. It is why fishing is where it is today.

[Nitrofreak]

Didn't try to make it sound like its never talked about. But hey, its going to 0 degrees, with several inches of snow this weekend. I gotta do something fishing related.As far as depth changes, will they alone hold fish, or do you need some cover?

No , it does not need cover , but it should have some sort of change in the structure itself that the fish find useful or attractive , there is a wash across an old road bed , when my home lake was being constructed a hurricane came through , the torrential rain washed out an old road that is now submerged and took out about a 12 foot section of road , it drops only 6 inches on one side and about a foot and a half on the other , no cover , just a subtle change , but the bass love it there .

[Todd2]

the torrential rain washed out an old road that is now submerged and took out about a 12 foot section of road , it drops only 6 inches on one side and about a foot and a half on the other , no cover , just a subtle change , but the bass love it there .

Nitro, thanks. What depth is that section of road in?

[WRB]

Misconception #3, disagree; breaks can be structure elements like soil changes and there can be thermal breaks depending on where and how you fish.

Tom

[Nitrofreak]

Nitro, thanks. What depth is that section of road in?[/quote

Nitro, thanks. What depth is that section of road in?

16 feet

[Catt]

Misconception #3, disagree; breaks can be structure elements like soil changes and can be thermal breaks depending on where and how you fish.

Tom

Breaks like "breaklines" ?

Oh yea I forgot California is special!

[Nitrofreak]

The old road bed winds and twists a little to about 39 feet , there is an old bridge that crossed the original river that used to be there , the bridge is also flooded , it was never destroyed or dismantled , at the left or west foot of the bridge the fish still use this drop off into the original river bed , the old bridge is now cover the fish will use for attacking gizzard shad , if the shad are in the area , it's also a good spot , but mostly the old bank before the bridge will produce .

[Team9nine]

One need only go to the "Green Book" to get the correct context from Buck Perry himself:

 

Structure is a section of the bottom with some unusual features that distinguish it from the surrounding bottom area.

We must note the word BOTTOM. It is not used just one time in this sentence; it is used twice. At no time did it say structure was a weed patch, bush, rock, stump, etc. The bottom of a lake, reservoir, stream, or pond with unusual features was what it said, and that is what it meant.

 

 

As a follow-up, Buck's good friend, noted Chicago Tribune author Tom McNally, interviewed Buck on the specific topic of how the term "structure" has been so "distorted" over the years. From that interview, the following excerpt:

 

“About a half-century ago when I started using the term ‘structure’ in fishing everyone knew what I was talking about,” says fishing legend Buck Perry, age 84, of Hickory, North Carolina, the man credited with discovering structure fishing. “This was because I explained fully to them by words and by showing them on the water what I meant by the word ‘structure.’ However, as the word spread and others began to use the term, it became apparent that almost anything seen by these fishermen in a body of water became structure.

 

“It’s pathetic how the word structure has been so distorted since first introduced. Everything is structure to almost everyone! Rocks, stumps, roots, fence posts — everything is now incorrectly called structure.” For point of discussion, says Buck (a retired college physics professor), it’s imperative that anglers understand the basics of what a structure is, and the properties of a structure that may hold fish.”

 

Structure is a section of the bottom (of the lake) with some unusual features that distinguish it from the surrounding bottom area, like bars, humps, creek-channels, riprap, and submerged points of land, according to Buck. A structure fishing situation consists of a structure, breaks, breaklines and deep water. “Breaks” are things on the structure’s bottom — like stumps, rocks, weeds, logs, and bushes. A “breakline” is a line or lines along the structure’s bottom where there is a defined increase or decrease in depth, either sudden or gradual — like the edge of a channel, hole or gully. There are other breaklines, too, like a weedline wall, a brush line, where two bodies of water meet which differ in temperature, color or water current. Deep water to the serious structure fisherman is water with depths greater than 8 or 10 feet.

 

 

To discuss the concept of 'structure'  with the/an understanding other than what has been stated above is to do so out of context and as defined by someone's elses own interpretation of the term/concept, IMHO.

 

-T9

[Loop_Dad]

I see a lot of lure/ line threads on here, along with what's your favorite color when fishing in the rain on a Tuesday afternoon, but I don't see a lot of structure talk.. other than to fish it. I'd like to hear a structure spot described on your lake that YOU have had the most success. You don't have to mention the lake. I think this will help us bank beaters. My #1 structure spot is a long point with timber that drops into a creek channel. I used to just pitch in the forest lol, but now I've learned to circle bank around the outside and fish the drop (tree line) on the feeder creek side with a jig or C-rig and can usually pick some off it. Who's next?

 

I've had the most success in my local lakes at the edges of rocky section, especially where it meets flat bottom.