Bass Location

[HoosierHawgs]

I fish a small local reservoir (10 acres),on foot when I'm not using the yak. It's small so I usually fish tue whole thing, but find that patterns seem to stack up on one side of the reservoir at different times. Could someone key me in on why this might be, so I can apply it on other small lakes?

[Senko lover]

Well, in my mind it could be several things.

-It might be wind

-It might be shallower on one side

-One of the sides may have some really good cover.

-One of the sides might be where bass school, and the other where the bass lay in wait.

 

You never know.

[fishballer06]

Could be a ton of things. Most of which you can probably observe with your eye's and determine why. 

 

Depth

Water clarity

Water temperature (is there incoming/flowing water? More/less shade?)

Structure? Weeds? Bottom make up?

Baitfish

[HoosierHawgs]

My guess is its Bait or the position of the sun, as it is ever changing.

[Ozark_Basser]

I've been fishing a small lake here in central Arkansas since the end of summer.  The same thing occurs here as well.  On the north and south ends of the lake, there are grass beds that create points.  The northern end is where I've caught all of my quality fish and on the south end I've never even had a bite.  All I've been able to boil it down to is wind.  Where I live the wind generally comes from the south, and in the fall the wind tends to blow a lot harder and it always seems to be blowing.  It's hard to say what lies beyond each point though. 

[WRB]

What side do they spawn at?

[HoosierHawgs]

What side do they spawn at?

That is a good question. I'm pretty sure that they mostly spawn on small coves and off points

on the west side of the lake. They then continue to migrate back and forth as conditions change.

[WRB]

Bass tend to spawn in the northwest area if it's wind protected and offers bed protection, rarely do LMB spawn on points. Spawning areas usually do not hold bass year around, too shallow. Ponds are very different than larger bodies of water that offer bass a lot of choices, so difficult to product why your bass prefer one side over the other. Pond bass also tend to patrol the entire shoreline of a pond and feed whenever the opportunity is available.

Tom

[Ozark_Basser]

What side do they spawn at?

Where they spawn in my situation is in the coves branching out on both sides from the big grassy point where I caught all of my good fish.    If they have everything they need outside of a spawning area, why would they go anywhere else? Great point Tom.

[Paul Roberts]

The "least common denominator" would be: habitat quality. Just how that sorts out will depend on the particular pond. Most basically there will be three location types: winter, spawning, and feeding. In such a small water, some of these may overlap. Winter is often oriented to survival, mediated by environmental parameters like oxygen, temperature, lack of current, cover and, lastly, food. Spawning keys are temperature, substrate, and depth. The rest is all about food and here you are looking at prey species and places and times that provide vulnerable prey. These are the pieces to the puzzle in a nutshell. Am I missing anything guys?

 

The other possibility, and not an entirely unlikely one, is that the one side is favorable to the way you fish.

[CDMeyer]

I to fish a small reserve and have noticed that fish will pattern on one side or the other, I have not really pin pointed why, but I believe it is from the wind and the sun

[CDMeyer]

Next time you go pug keep in mine the habit and the structure on each side..... And then take into consideration the sun and the wind

[papajoe222]

I would suspect the sun, or should I say shade first unless this occurs throughout the year. Then, I would venture it's a combination of structure and cover that attracts and holds them and the baitfish there. If there is a steady flow of water, current or lack of it in that area could also influence their location.

[Paul Roberts]

Yes, wind and shade can surely influence things.

 

Shade can draw cruising/exploring fish over time. Shoreline trees and high banks can draw fish like other types of structure and cover. On a shorter time scale, flotsam piled up can collect fish. On the flip-side, heat from direct sun can draw fish at times.

 

Wind has all kinds of effects that can influence both location and activity of fish.

 

Current can be a big draw. It rules rivers, and pretty much regulates activity on many reservoirs, as well as in canals and channels that move water, sometimes under the influence of wind. Inflows, papajoe mentions, can be particularly good, drawing fish to the location and influencing their positions.

 

In some cases these are just local effects the fish can take advantage of, or have to deal with, although in some cases they are more permanent. In small waters especially such areas are eventually discovered by hunting bass.

[senile1]

All of these things come into play and here is an example to help tie them together. 

 

I used to fish a pond where the fish seemed to congregate on one side more than the others, though on occasion I would find them in a different spot.  The south side of this pond had a section of water that stretched for almost the length of the pond and it was approximately 15 feet deep.  Near the west end of the pond there was a slight grade and the water slowly decreased to 10 feet a cast length from the western shore.  It was this western shore where the bass usually congregated.  Why?  The water near the shore was 3 - 5 feet deep with a ton of coontail moss but then dropped off quickly to the 10 feet section that led to the deepest water in the pond.  To the left of this western shore was a very shallow cove full of laydowns and coontail and the forage for the bass, bluegill, were thick in that cove because it provided a hiding place from the bass.  To the right of it was another cove where the bass spawned.  I determined that the bass moved to this congregation area after spawning and they could easily move to the cove where the bluegill were located to feed from the same area.  They also had very good access to the deepest water in the pond from this location.  They could access the deep water from the eastern shore too but it did not have a great spawning area and I rarely found any bluegill on that end. 

[Paul Roberts]

All of these things come into play and here is an example to help tie them together. 

 

I used to fish a pond where the fish seemed to congregate on one side more than the others, though on occasion I would find them in a different spot.  The south side of this pond had a section of water that stretched for almost the length of the pond and it was approximately 15 feet deep.  Near the west end of the pond there was a slight grade and the water slowly decreased to 10 feet a cast length from the western shore.  It was this western shore where the bass usually congregated.  Why?  The water near the shore was 3 - 5 feet deep with a ton of coontail moss but then dropped off quickly to the 10 feet section that led to the deepest water in the pond.  To the left of this western shore was a very shallow cove full of laydowns and coontail and the forage for the bass, bluegill, were thick in that cove because it provided a hiding place from the bass.  To the right of it was another cove where the bass spawned.  I determined that the bass moved to this congregation area after spawning and they could easily move to the cove where the bluegill were located to feed from the same area.  They also had very good access to the deepest water in the pond from this location.  They could access the deep water from the eastern shore too but it did not have a great spawning area and I rarely found any bluegill on that end. 

 

Good description. Habitat elements in place (and recognized and understood). From there it's all about season, conditions (trends and immediate), and circumstances.