"Dead zone" bass?

[PressuredFishing]

Was just curious what people's success rates are for dead zones of a lake for bass, areas with no structure or visible bait fish, pretty much just huge mud flats, sandy flat lifeless bottoms, etc. 

 

Anyone fish areas like this that are close to structure, or the bank? 

 

 

[Ski]

No structure + no cover = No fishing.

Except schoolers chasing bait I will find other spots on the lake.

 

[Jar11591]

I find schools of smallmouth herding schools of perch over 30-40’ of flat bottom somewhat often. 

[LrgmouthShad]

Don’t know because I just don’t tend to fish in places like that. I’ll be curious to hear people’s thoughts on this own.

 

That said, Ill always remember a fish I lost on Shearon Harris years ago fishing a shallow jerkbait over a nothing bank, but it was a sand flat. I still believe it is close to my PB. I was so inexperienced at the time that I just tended to cast over the whole bank. Every so often, something strange like that would happen.

[scaleface]

The dead zones end somewhere , thats where I'll fish . Plus , there is usually something there , keep an eye out , one log will hold fish . Look for herons too. They will likely be on a piece of cover . 

[Reel]

I fish places like this regularly for big smallmouth.  It's like bone fishing in saltwater.  A white marl bottom almost featureless that extends for a mile or more.  The fish move in packs and are always on the move.  The will stop if they find a rock or a bit of weed.  One year I found 5 or 6 of them on a block of cement.  Put the electric down to steer and start the big motor on the slowest speed to cover ground.  

[Deleted account]

Statistically speaking, there will normally be more fish around some kind of structure or cover, but depending on the type, size, depth and location of a body of water, as well as the time of year, fish can certainly be found where there is nothing obvious to the angler to cause them to be there, both deep and shallow anywhere on the water column.

[TnRiver46]

Breaking news: the fish know where they want to be better than we do 

[The Bassman]

Ned Kehde built his reputation fishing featureless areas.

[flyfisher]

there is a video posted on here that basically showed a study that 40% of fish are in places that many call featureless or places people wouldn't fish.  

 

Fish have a brain the size of a peanut, they go where they want when they want because they want and nobody knows why they just know they do.  

[Bankc]

Are you sure those are black bass?  I'll often see a lot of fish schooled up in areas like that, but they're usually crappie or white bass.  

 

When they are black bass, they're usually suspended off the bottom, pretty much asleep.  It's usually not worth your time.  You might catch one or two if you spend all day with them, but typically, they're not worth the effort...

 

Except if you have livescope.  I've seen guys with livescope or something like it that can pull an A-rig, jerkbait, or something through there and tease a bass into biting.  You almost have to dangle it right in front of them long enough to tick them off into biting, against their will.  That's hard to do if you can't see what's going on in real time.  In my opinion, this is the one thing livescope will do that you can't do any other way.  Annoy inactive bass, not relating to anything, into biting.  I haven't done it myself, but I've seen others do it, and on days where the bass just won't bite anything, it can win you a tournament.  

[Mobasser]

Guido Hibdon talked about fishing the " nothing" looking banks. There would be no obvious cover, but a deeper water area close by. He often fished a light tube in these areas.

[Zcoker]

I once caught an 8 pound large mouth in a narrow boat ski lane on a busy public lake. The area was basically lifeless except for the boat traffic. It was the last place in the world that I would fish if I had been the least bit "serious" lol. I was only testing out a white spinnerbait that day....like, wow, I was in total shock when I reeled that big girl in! Goes to show that nice fish can be ANYWHERE ANYTIME in the least expected places. Never underestimate that cast! 

[casts_by_fly]

2 hours ago, Deleted account said:

Statistically speaking, there will normally be more fish around some kind of structure or cover, but depending on the type, size, depth and location of a body of water, as well as the time of year, fish can certainly be found where there is nothing obvious to the angler to cause them to be there, both deep and shallow anywhere on the water column.

this is the answer. Fish are where you find them.  The more I fish with other people on other lakes or on my local lakes the more I see fish caught in places or in ways that I wouldn’t have done myself. It’s forced me to just put my head down and fish at times and I’ve had plenty of surprises. Areas that I thought were too shallow or too featureless gave up fish. Here’s a 4 that came from a mud bank in 2’ of water with not much else around. I was moving between ‘good’ spots (which didn’t produce anything that day) and just casting down the bank. 
 

 

[Deleted account]

9 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

this is the answer. Fish are where you find them.  The more I fish with other people on other lakes or on my local lakes the more I see fish caught in places or in ways that I wouldn’t have done myself. It’s forced me to just put my head down and fish at times and I’ve had plenty of surprises. Areas that I thought were too shallow or too featureless gave up fish. Here’s a 4 that came from a mud bank in 2’ of water with not much else around. I was moving between ‘good’ spots (which didn’t produce anything that day) and just casting down the bank. 
 

 

Shallow "featureless" mud banks is a thing in a couple of places I fish, I'm not sure the reasons, but I can consistently catch them there under the right conditions.

[casts_by_fly]

8 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

Shallow "featureless" mud banks is a thing in a couple of places I fish, I'm not sure the reasons, but I can consistently catch them there under the right conditions.

 

I wonder if its crawfish.  That's about the only thing I could think of that would regularly be on them since they'll burrow in them.  And of course they are sitting ducks if caught in the open.

[PressuredFishing]

21 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

wonder if its crawfish. 

That's what I was thinking as well

[a1712]

There's about a 100 yard section of bank on a little local lake we call "The dead bank". There's no cover, rock, anything at all on this featureless mud bank. But, every once in a while it coughs up a Pig. Brian. 

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, a1712 said:

There's about a 100 yard section of bank on a little local lake we call "The dead bank". There's no cover, rock, anything at all on this featureless mud bank. But, every once in a while it coughs up a Pig. Brian. 

Momma cass couldn’t cough up the pig! Oh my I’m the worst 

[Catt]

FYI: A flat is a form of structure 

A muddy or sandy flat also means bottom composition changes.

 

Y'all don't target "bald" spots in grass flats?

 

Food source doesn't necessarily mean baitfish. 

 

A lifeless dead zone to us can be teaming with life.

[A-Jay]

27 minutes ago, Catt said:

FYI: A flat is a form of structure

 

Y'all don't target "bald" spots in grass flats?

 

And that's my ENTIRE Game from Aug thru mid Sept.

The bigger & shallower the 'flat', the better.

Seems wrong to everyone,

except the schools 5 & 6 lb brown bass. 

A-Jay

[a1712]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

FYI: A flat is a form of structure 

A muddy or sandy flat also means bottom composition changes.

 

Y'all don't target "bald" spots in grass flats?

 

Food source doesn't necessarily mean baitfish. 

 

A lifeless dead zone to us can be teaming with life.

How do you think I know it coughs up a Pig? 

[The Bassman]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Momma cass couldn’t cough up the pig! Oh my I’m the worst 

My wife knows when I'm putting a sandwich together I'm gonna say that Momma Cass choked on a ham "sammich".

[WRB]

SoCal highland deep rocky structure lakes big flats don’t exist outside of silted in river beds from soiled rain runoff.

Never metered or caught bass in silted bottom areas that were not feeding on shad schools.

FFS and LiveScope technology will play a factor locating bass where they are on big flats with isolated cover, a stump or boulder.

Tom

[Reel]

3 hours ago, A-Jay said:

And that's my ENTIRE Game from Aug thru mid Sept.

The bigger & shallower the 'flat', the better.

Seems wrong to everyone,

except the schools 5 & 6 lb brown bass. 

A-Jay

Doesn't seem wrong to me !!