Why "hard bottom"?

[Bass Turd]

So I'm fairly new to bass fishing but love to research everything I can and try and apply it my next trip out. I keep reading the term "hard bottom". I believe I know what it is... rocks, sand rock shelf... anything but mud or weeds... right? Why do we want to look for hard bottom? Do we want to look for hard bottom? Is it truly a fish attracting feature of a lake? Why? Any and all information is welcome. Sorry if it is too basic a question. Or I could be totally wrong. Just let me know..

Probably should clarify I fish for Large mouth only in central Texas. Very few Small mouth around.

[heavyduty]

Hard bottom for me on rivers includes ledges and rocky bottoms. Ledges allow the smallies to get out of the current. Rocky bottoms allow crawdads and other food to hide so smallies feed there. Grass and weed lines are also good as they are ambush points. Straight sandy bottoms with no cover or structure is generally a wasteland in my experience.

[WRB]

Changes in soil composition creates edges or break lines. For example dirt above the water becomes soft mud underwater and nearly every type of aquatic plants can grow in the mud.

Clay is another soil type, however clay is finely ground sand and like sand aquatic plants don't grow well because very low nutrient level for root type plants. Where clay comes in contact with mud the plant types change quickly creating a break or edge similar to a wall. The same thing happens with sand, gravel and rocks where fewer or no plants can take root and it's this type of lake bottom anglers call hard. 

Fish like bass tend to locate in or near edges because it gives them cover they can see out of better to ambush prey using the same edges.

Tom

[Paul Roberts]

Ditto Tom's reply, and to add:

Those transition areas can offer something for bass to orient to, and provide a diversity of substrate that has the best chance of adding diversity to the food web by increasing surface area -nooks and crannies- for life to grow on and in. Hard bottom areas break up vegetation increasing structural, water flow, and lighting diversity. Hard bottoms also can promote food production in that they can be more oxygenated compared to muck and organic build up that harbors lots of oxygen-burning bacteria.

Further, largemouth's most often live over soft bottoms, often with vegetation -at least that's where the lineage developed.  "Hard areas" also offer corridors and openings for bass to hunt along and in. Prey fishes, bluegills in particular, are safest when they have dense vegetation to hide in. Cracks in cover help bass hunt.

Lots going on down there in those "transition areas".

[Catt]

Some soil compositions can be "hard" & not be rock, sand, or clay.

Since you are in central Texas here's a tip for ya!

Hard bottoms with a high sandy content will form an inside grass line. This is a "bald" area a few feet in width between bank shallow & where the grass starts growing. Bream like hanging out on the edge, bass like eating bream.

If one looks close enough they can find "bald" spots away from the bank.

Firm bottoms in shallows are where you'll find nest during the spawn.

[Bass Turd]

Thanks for all the replies!

So it's not the actual hard bottom we are looking for but the edge of it that creates that transition. Unless of course the hard bottom has rocks, boulders etc that bait can hide in or that bass can ambush from. That makes sense now.  

Here's a photo of the lake I fish when it was almost bone dry. There's anywhere from 12 to 20 feet of water here now. (I haven't been out on the water since I found the photo to mark waypoints and depth.) I was planning on hopping a jig or carolina rig across the breaks and transition changes especially the point at the bottom of the photo and the rocks next to it. Any other ideas?

[WRB]

Both points look good. The point with a flat where your icon is has a gully on the tip, trees at the base...good area. The sharper point with what looks like a road bed with trees and has large rocks on the outside should hold bass. Can't tell the depth, looks like the lake closer to 50' down during this photo.

The only soft bottom is where you see green stuff growing, the steep banks are hard pan, any soft soil has been washed away.

Tom

[Catt]

How long has it been since the water level has came back up?

[Bass Turd]

It's been eight months. It's still down 19 feet but  plenty of water again. Went out and fished a chunk rock shoreline and we caught ten in the hour we were at that spot. Most were small but a few keepers. Going again tomorrow (Sunday). I did a lot of research with Google Earth and printed out many promising areas that are now underwater of course. 

[Catt]

Help us out here, is there a boat dock?

I also see a lot of old trees as well as trees and brush with leaves.

Are these under water?

[Bass Turd]

I have not found this spot yet on the lake but I believe  the water is now 20-30 feet high in this cove now. The boat docks migrated down as the lake went into severe drought over the last 10 years. They're all floating docks. You can see the dead trees from the original river bank. The river channel swings right by this cove. The new green stuff are some kind of bush probably 4 to 8 feet tall. I'm really excited about trying this spot tomorrow. It seems to have sooo much to offer. I'm going to drop shot the deeper stuff with a skinny weight and texas rig a craw. I'll probably mojo rig another craw and crawl it down the banks especially on those mini channels that flow downward with brush in it and the two points.

[Catt]

Good luck that's one good looking spot!