Structure?

[Captain America]

Hey guys, I was wondering if you guys could help me with structure. I have always heard fisherman talk about ledges and shelves. What are those? I have an idea, but what exactly are they and how are they different. Thanks! 

[roadwarrior]

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/deep_water_structure.html

[Wayne P.]

Ledge on both sides of a creek:

 

 

 

[sprint61]

Don't wanna still this thread, but Wayne p do the fish usually stack on the edge of the ledges ? I have no expierence with ledges.

[chrisdm4]

Wayne p those are great views!  That is a perfect description of structure.  Structure is the changes in the lake bottom or river.  This could be creek channels or bridges.  Depending on the time of year and weather fish will stack up on ledges.  I don't fish lakes to much so to know a great deal about it.  

[Paul Roberts]

A ledge is something you wouldn't want to step off of if -sans water- you were walking. We called them "drop offs".

[phototex]

A dropoff is not a ledge. A ledge is a flatter surface ON a dropoff...like something on a cliff face that you could walk on if there wasn't any water.

[Paul Roberts]

A dropoff is not a ledge. A ledge is a flatter surface ON a dropoff...like something on a cliff face that you could walk on if there wasn't any water.

I call that a shelf!

 

Folks, its there an "offishal" definition?

[RoLo]

Nothing official, but for better or worse I generally use the terminology below

when assigning names to my waypoints, each having its own connotation:

 

FLAT

Any broad area with inappreciable depth change. A flat can exist in 'any' water depth.

 

SHOAL

A shallow flat, generally one that threatens my propeller during low pool levels.

 

LEDGE

A flat bottom area that adjoins a drop-off

 

SHELF

A flat bottom area providing a bedding flat and nursery (a food shelf).

 

========================================================================

 

DROP-OFF

Using a staircase as an analogy, each step is analogous to a 'ledge' or 'shelf',

while the vertical wall separating each step is a ‘drop-off’.

In lake jargon however, a drop-off is any abrupt depth change, but rarely vertical.

 

SLOPE

When the declivity is gradual I’ll call it a ‘slope’

 

TAPER

Synonymous to 'slope': there are fast tapers & slow tapers

 

BLUFF

A sheer, nearly vertical drop-off (a cliff).

 

Roger

[A-Jay]

   Something we may have already known but was blatantly apparent if you watched any of this years Classic coverage, the names anglers use for various types of structure & cover appears to be almost totally dependent on where they usually fish and seems to have very little to do with an actual "definition".

 

 I've been doing this for a while now and I'm still not exactly sure what a drain, or a ditch or even a draw actually is, or if I've ever caught a fish off one . . . .

 

A-Jay

[Dwight Hottle]

A  drain is having to pay to fill my 52 gallon gas tank.  

A ditch is trying to get out of having to do it.

A draw is an attempt to split the costs.

[paul.]

A  drain is having to pay to fill my 52 gallon gas tank.  

A ditch is trying to get out of having to do it.

A draw is an attempt to split the costs.

a bluff is threatening your buddy when he won't split the costs.

and a drop off is when you have finally had enough of his cheapskate ways and kick him out of your truck and make him walk.

 

j/k some pretty good definitions given here and i agree people call all of our favorite fish hideouts by different names.

[WRB]

Hey guys, I was wondering if you guys could help me with structure. I have always heard fisherman talk about ledges and shelves. What are those? I have an idea, but what exactly are they and how are they different. Thanks!

Most of terms bass anglers use are regional to the lakes they fish. Man made impoundments the underwater terrain is the same as the above water terrain, usually a river valley flooded by a dam.

In-Fisherman classified reserviors by the terrain they are located in; low land, flat land, hill land, high land, and canyon. Ledges and shelves are usually rock cliff faces exposed from wind or water errosion. The ledge being the cliff face, the shelf being a flat step feature of the cliff face. Rivers meander like a snake across a valley floor eroding a channel and this is where ledges and shelves are located. When a ledge extends above the water it maybe called a wall, again depending on the region.

Natural lakes are usually, but not always, void of well defined ledges and shelves do to their age. Silt has filled in most of those features that glacier movement may have carved out to create a depression that became a lake.

Tom

[Paul Roberts]

Looks like, in this particular case, Merriam-Webster has it covered:

 

ledge

: a narrow, flat surface that sticks out from a wall

: a flat rock surface that sticks out from a cliff

 

phototex had it right:

A dropoff is not a ledge. A ledge is a flatter surface ON a dropoff...like something on a cliff face that you could walk on if there wasn't any water.

[Catt]

The United States Geological Survey identified and defined these topographical terms long before In-Fisherman or any other entity. Their terms and definitions are what I refer to when addressing lake structures.