Eatin' a little humble pie--difference between pond and reservoir fishing

[plawren53202]

Til this past weekend, I have been a small water bass angler. I don't own a boat, so all of my fishing is either bank fishing or, when at my in-laws' property with a  7 acre pond, in a johnboat. My dad just got a new Bass Tracker and a camper at Kentucky Lake. Just got back from my first weekend down there.

 

My dad is mostly interested in crappie fishing, so we did that most of the weekend. I bent his arm into bass fishing one evening. Have been watching lots of YouTube videos, how to study maps and read your electronics, postspawn patterns for early summer, yada yada yada. Thought I had at least a little clue....until I got out on the water. ?? Came home with the skunk that evening.

 

It dawned on me the fundamental difference between the fishing I am used to and this. For most of the ponds I fish, they are places without a lot of obvious cover or structure. I've developed some ability to look at a (small) body of water that doesn't have any real apparent place for fish to relate to, and find a little indention in the bank here, a slight dip in the bank that I think might indicate a "channel" or ditch out in the water there, a small weed clump, a guess as to where there might be a foot or two dropoff out from the bank, those kinds of things. I realized that in the fishing I'm usually doing, it is all about finding a likely target zone where there don't appear to be any.

 

In contrast, I realized that on a major impoundment like Kentucky Lake, everything looks like a likely target zone. Kentucky Lake in particular has mile after mile of banks with flooded buck brush, weeds and pads, and tons of offshore structure. Obviously there's not fish in all those places. So whereas my normal fishing is determining good spots where there don't seem to be any, the trick with fishing a major impoundment is going to be finding good spots where there seem to be good spots everywhere.

 

I know lots of you on here are old pros when it comes to fishing major impoundments. I feel fairly confident at this point in my small water fishing ability, but I'm looking forward to the new challenge of working to develop skill in finding fish on big water as well. But as for this weekend, I'm enjoying a cold glass of lemonade with my slice of humble pie that Kentucky Lake served up.

[dodgeguy]

I don't know that lake but it's the same principle. You have to look for those spots that have something different. Any ripwrap you could crankbait on ? Any small bridges that the water goes under ? Corner edges on bridges are good ambush points. Any main lake points that have something different ? Where I fish we have giant weedbeds that all look the same.We have to find spots that are different. Try deeper structure also.

[Bluebasser86]

The process of elimination takes a lot longer on big reservoirs. The adage that 10% of the water holds 90% of the fish is true and that leaves a whole lot of empty water to eliminate. Ideally, you can cross it off without having to fish it, but it doesn't always work that way.

[WRB]

First things first. The first thing is determine what the seasonal period is at the lake you are fishing. Second is determine what depth the bass and prey fish are active feeding in.

You can do both these in the marina before you head out, if you head out!

Third thing is study the lake map before you leave to do the first thing. Determine the lake classification and primary prey fish. Kentucy lake is a highland power generation lake with palegic Shad  with LMB for example 

Knowing the seasonal period eliminates lots of water. Knowing the depth to start fishing in eliminates more water. Studing the map tells you where to start fishing based on 1 & 2. Now selecting lures that are effective at the depth and location you are fishing eliminates most of you lure choices.

The most difficult season period is summer, bass can be anywhere.

I like to start at the longest main lake point close to the marina.Major points are obvious and give you all the depth ranges to check out and usually has a population bass.

Tom

[Fishes in trees]

This is why I don't pond fish anymore.  If you're trying to get into lake/reservoir fishing, pond fishing builds bad habits.

Ponds, the vast majority of the time, you're throwing deep & retrieving shallow.  On lakes & reservoirs, you're often throwing shallow & retrieving into deeper water.  And being a bank beater on a lake/reservoir is the easy part.  Learning to fish deeper water is a whole different story.

 

Good luck learning to fish Kentucky Lake.   I don't have a lot of advice, do your research & try to put into practice what you find out.  Leave all your pond fishing experience in the truck, if you bring it along with you in th e boat it will mess you up.   25 years or so ago, I just gave up pond fishing, more trouble than it is worth for me to go back & forth.  Pond fishing & lake/reservoir fishing are two different animals.

[plawren53202]

Thanks everyone--really useful things for me to give some thought to. 

 

27 minutes ago, Fishes in trees said:

 25 years or so ago, I just gave up pond fishing, more trouble than it is worth for me to go back & forth.  Pond fishing & lake/reservoir fishing are two different animals.

This makes a lot of sense and I wish I could do this, however unfortunately I think my lake trips are only going to be about once a month. During quarantine I've gotten used to fishing 4 or 5 days a week most weeks and it's like an addiction, no way I could go cold turkey ?

 

All joking aside, I think fishing that much especially this year has been really helpful in a lot of ways. Lots of skills like strike detection, working on different presentations that I think will transfer anywhere. I think I just need to add to the toolbox now, things like reading a map, reading electronics and learning to think in terms of finding fish offshore.

 

[Jermination]

37 minutes ago, plawren53202 said:

Thanks everyone--really useful things for me to give some thought to. 

 

This makes a lot of sense and I wish I could do this, however unfortunately I think my lake trips are only going to be about once a month. During quarantine I've gotten used to fishing 4 or 5 days a week most weeks and it's like an addiction, no way I could go cold turkey ?

 

All joking aside, I think fishing that much especially this year has been really helpful in a lot of ways. Lots of skills like strike detection, working on different presentations that I think will transfer anywhere. I think I just need to add to the toolbox now, things like reading a map, reading electronics and learning to think in terms of finding fish offshore.

 

fish your first arrival ledges right now then in about a month move on out to your main river ledges. Carolina rig an ol' monster with about a 2 foot leader. all of the ledges on that lake have a prime casting angle, if you don't line up and drag it the right way you may never get bit. also not sure about water levels out there but here on the eastern half of the tennessee river we are still catching a lot of shallow fish due to high water levels. shaky head around docks should always produce a few

[Bankbeater]

Fishing ponds I fish around cover. Fishing a reservoir I start out looking for, and fishing around structure. I don’t always use electronics on a pond or small lake, but on a large reservoir I look at maps first the look at the fish finder. 

[plawren53202]

32 minutes ago, Bankbeater said:

Fishing ponds I fish around cover. Fishing a reservoir I start out looking for, and fishing around structure. I don’t always use electronics on a pond or small lake, but on a large reservoir I look at maps first the look at the fish finder. 

I think this is a really concise way to summarize the difference. I did study maps before I went this past time, but once on the water the pond instincts took over. Next time I'm going to force myself to stick with what looks good on the maps and electronics, not to my eyes.

[frogflogger]

It can be intimidating - years ago when I first could afford a boat I had difficulty and was intimidated until a very good fisherman told me to not try the whole lake but take an area of the lake and fish it thoroughly - this worked for me on Kentucky lake on my first trip. There are always some fish shallow and some deep - some schooling and some loners. You may not set the world on fire but you can usually get some feed back that will help you expand and dial in what structure and/or cover - for me it is usually a combination of both.

[slonezp]

19 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

The process of elimination takes a lot longer on big reservoirs. The adage that 10% of the water holds 90% of the fish is true and that leaves a whole lot of empty water to eliminate. Ideally, you can cross it off without having to fish it, but it doesn't always work that way.

Yes but...

In the grand scheme of things, all we are looking for onshore and offshore structure/cover that may hold fish. Ideally we should be able to break down large bodies of water into small sections, and then just use the process of elimination to find the most productive water.

 

The biggest thing that perplexes me right now is why do fish abandon areas? Areas that may have been hot for a few years are ghost towns. For example, I run across abandon bluegill beds. Haven't been bedded in years. What happened? Today I found bass cruising the abandon bluegill beds. It was obvious they haven't been bedded in a few years. Were the bass "fishing history" like so many of us do? 

Another area that was hot for a few years, then not for a few years is hot again. What gives?

[lo n slo]

41 minutes ago, slonezp said:

The biggest thing that perplexes me right now is why do fish abandon areas? Areas that may have been hot for a few years are ghost towns.

i’m with you on this one

[Linewinder]

Local fishing reports will tell you some hints, if not downright "go here".  E.g. Drop-shot working according to the reports?  Probably not going to be hanging out on shoreline cover -- look for stumps, rocks, submerged stuff near points and channels.  That's what we did first and only time we fished Table Rock.  We caught smallmouth, largemouth and spotted basses, from shore and from boat (one-day rental).

[RoLo]

1 hour ago    1 hour ago, slonezp said: said said:: said:

Why do fish abandon areas? Areas that may have been hot for a few years are ghost towns.

 

The short answer: "I don't know" (also the safest answer)   ?

More boldly, it explains what I've believed for decades, that there are POPSICLE holding sites

& YEAR-ROUND holding sites. This seems to be true in saltwater, freshwater, big water, little water,

north & south.

 

I well remember a year along the Jersey coast when silver hake & red hake (Whiting & Ling)

inundated our inshore waters. Pleasure craft and charter boats alike, filled their boxes with deepwater species

that typically inhabit 17 fathoms. We had another year when blowfish were being scooped up out of the surf

by beach jockeys (influx of coldwater). These of course, were examples of popsicle sites that were not sustainable. In the real world, unsustainable holding sites far outnumber

the few and treasured year-round sites. 

 

The best year-round holding site would be relatively immune to water level fluctuation, oxygen deprivation

and to the introduction of exotic transplants. For instance, many year-round holding sites benefited

from round gobies, zebra & quagga mussels, whereas their appearance undermined the popsicle sites.

 

Roger

[TnRiver46]

Well........ Kentucky lake goes from “pert’near alabama clear across-t to darn near illi-noise!!” so it might not be the best one to transition to from ponds... 

 

I grew up fishing everything and ponds were always easier, reservoirs were always harder. It makes sense, there’s no escape for fish in a pond. You know your lure will be in front of a fish because most of them can’t leave the pond. This increases confidence, and in turn success. The TN river contains lots of smart bass, KY lake being one of the most popular. And it’s monstrous. A good way to get started on larger reservoirs is fish below the dams, while wearing PFD and being cautious. Everything is more predictable and there are far less options to choose from

[Bluebasser86]

5 hours ago, slonezp said:

The biggest thing that perplexes me right now is why do fish abandon areas? Areas that may have been hot for a few years are ghost towns. For example, I run across abandon bluegill beds. Haven't been bedded in years. What happened? Today I found bass cruising the abandon bluegill beds. It was obvious they haven't been bedded in a few years. Were the bass "fishing history" like so many of us do? 

Another area that was hot for a few years, then not for a few years is hot again. What gives?

I've never really experienced fish abandoning regularly productive areas like that. I have my fair share of "I caught them good here once or twice so I check it out occasionally", spots, but good spots are good for me year after year. I think think the main think has been to change up baits also. I can't keep going back to the same spots with the same baits every year and keep having the same production. It's often as simple as switching to a different color of my normally productive bait.

 

Only spot kind of like that I can think of is a point at the power plant lake I fish in the winter. Some winters it's hot, some it's not, but it's never really been a consistent spot in the first place so hard to put it in that category.

 

[Steveo-1969]

23 hours ago, Jermination said:

fish your first arrival ledges right now then in about a month move on out to your main river ledges. Carolina rig an ol' monster with about a 2 foot leader. all of the ledges on that lake have a prime casting angle, if you don't line up and drag it the right way you may never get bit. also not sure about water levels out there but here on the eastern half of the tennessee river we are still catching a lot of shallow fish due to high water levels. shaky head around docks should always produce a few

I am no expert on Kentucky Lake but we used to spend a week there every summer. There will be some bass near shore all summer long but the majority will be out on the ledges so that's where you need to fish. I don't own a boat and would rent one from the resort. The only electronics we had were very basic depth finders that showed temp and the depth under the boat (no electronic maps, no waypoints, no side scanning, no 360 scanning, no live views, etc.). And in the small rental boat we couldn't go very far so we fished a very small portion of the 160,000 acres. We would drive straight out until we found a ledge and drift along however the current or wind would push us, always fishing within a cast length of the ledge. Then we'd reposition the boat when we drifted too far from the ledge. When we caught a fish we would throw out a buoy to mark where we caught it then we could drift that section of ledge again. We had a paper map instead of an electronic map and that helped a bunch.

 

This is a far cry from what most of the anglers on the lake were doing with their hi-tech electronics. We were fishing the ledges. They were fishing the fish!! But by fishing on/near the ledges we always lucked into some fish and through the years caught some really nice bass too.

[plawren53202]

34 minutes ago, Steveo-1969 said:

The only electronics we had were very basic depth finders that showed temp and the depth under the boat (no electronic maps, no waypoints, no side scanning, no 360 scanning, no live views, etc.). And in the small rental boat we couldn't go very far so we fished a very small portion of the 160,000 acres. We would drive straight out until we found a ledge and drift along however the current or wind would push us, always fishing within a cast length of the ledge. Then we'd reposition the boat when we drifted too far from the ledge. When we caught a fish we would throw out a buoy to mark where we caught it then we could drift that section of ledge again. We had a paper map instead of an electronic map and that helped a bunch.

Thanks for the information, that's actually really helpful to hear those parts of the process without relying on fancy electronics. I'm fortunate because my dad just got a new Bass Tracker and upgraded the front electronics unit to a Garmin 73sv. It's not one of the huge screen models, but it has all the tools like navigation/maps, traditional sonar, down and side imaging, ability to split screens with any of those, etc. Learning to use it will be the next step. But I like hearing about how people fished these ledges prior to electronics. I was watching YouTube and listening to someone who used an approach similar to yours using just a basic depthfinder, they would find the dropoff in one spot and mark it with a buoy, then motor about 200 yards away and do the same thing, and then fish the line between the two.

[Jermination]

44 minutes ago, plawren53202 said:

Thanks for the information, that's actually really helpful to hear those parts of the process without relying on fancy electronics. I'm fortunate because my dad just got a new Bass Tracker and upgraded the front electronics unit to a Garmin 73sv. It's not one of the huge screen models, but it has all the tools like navigation/maps, traditional sonar, down and side imaging, ability to split screens with any of those, etc. Learning to use it will be the next step. But I like hearing about how people fished these ledges prior to electronics. I was watching YouTube and listening to someone who used an approach similar to yours using just a basic depthfinder, they would find the dropoff in one spot and mark it with a buoy, then motor about 200 yards away and do the same thing, and then fish the line between the two.

download the navionics app on your phone, its really good and very easy to use. I used it prior to buying navionics chips for my finders

[Fin S]

Seeing where other anglers are fishing on your lake can be helpful, not just specific spots but general locations (points, backs of coves, etc.). They may be just as lost as you, but they may also have more experience on that body of water. And if a guy pulls right in on top of you to fish a spot, that can also be a good indicator that you're in the right place. I had a guy pull in closer than etiquette would normally allow a few weeks ago and pulled a bass out on the first few casts. Rather than get mad, I just hit the "Mark" button on my Garmin. I'll be visiting that spot in the future.

[plawren53202]

6 minutes ago, Fin S said:

And if a guy pulls right in on top of you to fish a spot, that can also be a good indicator that you're in the right place. 

Funny you say this...most of the weekend we spent crappie fishing because that's my dad's primary interest. So I'm going through basically the same learning curve for crappie, just had a little more time to work on it this past weekend. Although we didn't tear up the crappie, we did manage to catch enough for a big family meal. The crappie seemed to be on a similar pattern as the ledges for bass, they seemed to be wanting transition spots (between spawning areas and summer main lake areas), drop-offs along smaller creeks coming out of pockets, with brush on them. So the key was to find spots that had a break from 8 or 9 feet to 14 or 15 feet with brush or stake beds. Couple of times where we seemed to hit it right, I did have boats come in and get a little closer than etiquette would have seemed to permit. Those spots definitely got a waypoint marker on the Garmin.?

[Michigander]

Dragging a floating worm on a football head works out on the ledges. Hard to do unless you have Spot Lock. There's also some rock faces on the shore in parts that have Rocky sandy points coming off of them. You can pop a tube down along them and pick up smallmouth. As far as the bushes go, it seems like you can run those but have to accept you'll be a lot of distance in between bites. That's just a numbers game. At least this was my experience down there.

[Hook2Jaw]

I've been fishing my closest lake for nearly a year with one limit to show.  I think I've eaten my entire humble pie twice.  I'm still lost, but I'm preparing myself to try some new things!

 

Best of luck!

[lo n slo]

2 hours ago, Steveo-1969 said:

The only electronics we had were very basic depth finders that showed temp and the depth under the boat (no electronic maps, no waypoints, no side scanning, no 360 scanning, no live views, etc.). And in the small rental boat we couldn't go very far so we fished a very small portion of the 160,000 acres. We would drive straight out until we found a ledge and drift along however the current or wind would push us, always fishing within a cast length of the ledge. Then we'd reposition the boat when we drifted too far from the ledge. When we caught a fish we would throw out a buoy to mark where we caught it then we could drift that section of ledge again. We had a paper map instead of an electronic map and that helped a bunch.

speaking to my heart brother ?

[scaleface]

Its always been difficult for me to figure out a large reservoir in a short amount of time . I'll try the obvious structure that gets pounded then try different types of banks .  I most always catch something . Then some days ,I'll  luck out  and  get something going .