If you had the ability to visit your favorite lake without water, what kinds of things would you look for?

[Bclark215]

I've been going out and trying to work on identifying structure, and how to fish it. I've been looking at satellite images to get hints, and then finding road beds, humps, ledges etc with my graph, but it got me thinking. If you were able to visit a lake that for the purposes of this discussion was void of all water and walk around with a GPS, what kind of stuff would you mark? Then once our hypothetical reservoir was refilled, how would you fish these areas?

[Smokinal]

Snagged baits!

For real though, I'd look for those smaller, hard to find areas. We can all find the ledge, drop off, old road etc...  What is hard to find and even "see" on a graph are those "spots on spots"; the small rock pile on the ledge, the area where boulders turn to rip rap, where rip rap turns to gravel, that small bush, that small rock pile in the middle of nowhere.

 

[scaleface]

I'm talking about a 200 acre elec motor only lake . I already know where the points are at . I would look for the creek channels , and channel intersections . Also an old timer told me where a spring was before the lake filled . I havent found it in 45 years now . 

 

 I would fish the areas with various bottom bouncing lures and deep diving cranks .

[TnRiver46]

I would look for...... water! 

[ike8120]

Snagged baits and structure

[Captain America]

I'd look for bottom composition. Rocky bottom, sand, muck, transition areas etc. 

[Bclark215]

I asked this question partially because a smaller reservoir I have been fishing was impounded within the past 15 years, so google earth has satellite images of the reservoir before it was filled. I've found some old roads and smaller creeks but wanted to see what you guys would look for. This lake also apparently covered a spring, and I believe I have a general idea of where it's at based on the images, but haven't been able to confirm it. Unfortunately Google earth doesn't have quite enough definition to see all of those "Spots on spots" but I can still see some interesting things to check out.

I've also just always thought being able to walk around the area you are fishing would be extremely cool, and wanted to see what you guys thought. As a visual and hands on learner, I think seeing structure and productive areas first hand would be extremely cool and help a lot with learning about structure and using my graph. 

[WRB]

We have the ability to see our lakes at very low water levels do to the drought and normal draw downs over 75' verticle feet. What I look for is what structure elements were preferred by the bass I caught. What attracted them and why so I can apply that knowledge to other structure areas. After 60 years of studing lakes at low elevation levels there is a common denominator; multiple structure elements within a confined area where wind can blow into that area with deep water access.

Tom

[Bankbeater]

I’d be looking for sharp inclines or drop offs. 

[DanielG]

The 2 month old, $500 pair of prescription glasses that popped off my head last year.....

 

And the high school class ring that fell off my wife's finger when I was dating her here at my house in 1973.

[Columbia Craw]

All the dead grass carp.

[rtwvumtneer6]

Just had this happen... Going to be a while before the lake recovers but I got my hands on the Google satellite image.  Found a bunch of stumps that I had no idea existed.  Pretty excited about that. 

 

 

[Guitarfish]

I wanted to mark all the stumps and channels in our lake when the water was way down.  GPS wouldn't work for whatever reason.

 

So I spent the afternoon pulling lures out of tree tops that used to be submerged.

[WRB]

Back in the late 50's to late 70's I fished a small local lake Sherwood. Sherwood was always full during that time period. All I had was my portable flasher and 14' aluminum boat at Sherwood so didn't know the lake bottom other then fishing and feeling with bottom contact lures.

I had discovered a large oak tree stump out in the middle of the lake in 20' of water that held some big bass. Finding the stump without a map with a flasher required triangulation from shore homes and I got fairly good at it. My secret stump! 

In the early 80's lake Sherwood was sold to Murdock who condemned the dam and drained the lake to buy out the local residents and develop the property and it worked.

For the 1st time I could see the lake bottom and to my surprise that secret big oak stump was part of a grove of stumps. All those years I had no idea there was more then 1 stump, no wonder I could find it. How many bass did I miss over the years because of not knowing what was really attracting those bass. It's almost never a single isolated structure/cover that attracts big bass. Lesson learned the hard way!

Lake Sherwood today is a highend private lake closed to the public and Murdock had the bottom dredged to remove those stumps.

Tom

[Ogandrews]

The Christmas trees tied together and tied bricks I dragged out on the ice one night with my buddy’s sled. Thought I would remember where I put them in the 100 acre reservoir I fish all the time but still haven’t with my graph. Seriously though I’d look for springs because those would hold pike In the summer. I’d look for anything that isn’t a silt bottom, this res I’m talking about was farm land until the late 90’s. SE mn is a huge farming area so we have really bad silting in our rivers and reservoirs, makes the reservoirs have a pretty short lifespan if they aren’t dredged out. Any transition between silt and anything else would hold fish I would assume.

[Big Hands]

First thing I'd look for is the custom worked 26" Laser II prop that snapped off my propeller shaft in water that was 300 feet deep. Then, I would go to where I have lost a few swimbaits to see if I could recover those puppies. 

 

Tom (WRB) and I fish the same water and like him, I too have seen the lake drawn down quite a ways. If you're one of the first out there after it's gone down a ways, you'll find all kinds of stuff. I have seen Castaic have as many as seven islands, and then many of those just turn into long points when the water goes down even further. On some of those, you would think the point would be coming from one spot, but it's actually coming from another.

 

I belonged to a local volunteer organization that planted over 500 willow trees when the lake was down many years ago, so I know where most of those are too. There were only a couple of coves that they left original trees in when they cleared the land for the reservoir 50 years ago. The rest is mostly barren of vegetation, but there's lots of rocky structure and a couple of springs if you know where to look.

 

The lake was down 30' or 40' recently and I saw some willows on a sandy beach and for a moment was wondering why there seemed to growing in rows. Then it triggered the memory of planting all those willows 30 or so years back. 

 

They are supposed to draw it down 125' this year to do some earthquake retrofitting to the dam. I don't know if I have ever seen it that far down.

[redux]

Very interesting video on how to use Google Earth to study old photos and add way points you can transfer to your units.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze2YJ2WOQSE

[WRB]

Castaic has silted in more then you realize but most of the good structure elements are still there. The fishing arm there is big mud point where the creek channel make a sweeping bend around it. Years ago stage coach road cut into the east bank created some excellent holding areas, most have eroded. There was a stone bridge for example along the north side of mud point in about 150' at full pool that stage coach road crossed over with 4 oak trees 1 on at each corner not shown on a map that is now silted over.

Old sh$t house cove has a island at the mouth that tops out about 75' full pool as I recall with a grove of big oak trees on the base of the north side....still there. Castiac is a good lake for structure and so is Casitas that is still only about 40% full from bad management.

Send me a PM Big Hands like to visit when this Virus issue has passed.

Tom

[Sam]

Would you believe this actually happened in Virginia about 15 years ago.

 

We had a serious drought and Lake Chesdin outside of Richmond dried up so much that you could walk across the lake in some parts.

 

My friend, C.J. Dodson, and his three sons, walked and mapped the lake showing all of the structure, etc. they could see. They also found many baits. And they located a stump field that no one knew existed and we have been running our boats over them for years.

 

Another friend, Jim Kerr and his son, went to the lake and took pictures. Jim guarded those photos as long as he lived and then his son inherited them after he passed away.

 

Sorry to say that both C.J. and Jim passed away. They were outstanding bass fishermen that forgot more about bass fishing then most of us know.

[Big Hands]

1 hour ago, redux said:

Very interesting video on how to use Google Earth to study old photos and add way points you can transfer to your units.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze2YJ2WOQSE

Brilliant!

 

Thanks for sharing that!

[Choporoz]

On 4/7/2020 at 5:35 PM, Bclark215 said:

I asked this question partially because a smaller reservoir I have been fishing was impounded within the past 15 years, so google earth has satellite images of the reservoir before it was filled. I've found some old roads and smaller creeks but wanted to see what you guys would look for. This lake also apparently covered a spring, and I believe I have a general idea of where it's at based on the images, but haven't been able to confirm it. Unfortunately Google earth doesn't have quite enough definition to see all of those "Spots on spots" but I can still see some interesting things to check out.

I've also just always thought being able to walk around the area you are fishing would be extremely cool, and wanted to see what you guys thought. As a visual and hands on learner, I think seeing structure and productive areas first hand would be extremely cool and help a lot with learning about structure and using my graph. 

Roads, paved and unpaved; fences; building foundations

[Beeno]

Treasure chest ?

[Catt]

If you had the ability to visit your favorite lake without water, what kinds of things would you look for?

 

Camera on my phone ?

[volzfan59]

Other than the obvious, unknown rock piles, creeks, depressions etc, I would look for a town! There's an area on Norris Lake in East TN called the Loyston Sea. It's a pretty vast, and deep, area in the lake. You may wonder why it's called the Loyston Sea? The town of Loyston, TN is under the sea. The streets are still there, some street signs, walls and foundations. Years ago, TVA dropped the lake level for repairs at Norris Dam I think. A local TV station did a story as some of the stuff was visible then.

[TnRiver46]

58 minutes ago, volzfan59 said:

Other than the obvious, unknown rock piles, creeks, depressions etc, I would look for a town! There's an area on Norris Lake in East TN called the Loyston Sea. It's a pretty vast, and deep, area in the lake. You may wonder why it's called the Loyston Sea? The town of Loyston, TN is under the sea. The streets are still there, some street signs, walls and foundations. Years ago, TVA dropped the lake level for repairs at Norris Dam I think. A local TV station did a story as some of the stuff was visible then.

The town of butler is under watauga too, old crow medicine show has a song about it. “My home town....... is a half mile down....... there’s a half mile of water all around, all around!”