Buck Perry

[GoneFishingLTN]

Reading over Buck Perry is it any deep water or the deepest water needs to connect to a migration route 

[Team9nine]

The home of fish is deep water, the deepest water in the area. Please note when I talk about the sanctuary being in the deep or deepest water available I said, "in the area being fished". I did not say, "the deepest water in the lake".

 

The importance of the old river or feeder stream channels cannot be stressed too much. They represent the deepest water in the reservoir.

 

-Buck Perry

[Catt]

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

The importance of the old river or feeder stream channels cannot be stressed too much. They represent the deepest water in the reservoir.

 

-Buck Perry

 

Most anglers start their map study at the shoreline & work deeper.

 

Y'all should be starting at the river/creek bottom & work shallower.

[slonezp]

Don't get tunnel vision. Buck Perry's structure fishing is not only limited to bass.

 

 

[GoneFishingLTN]

to continue this discussion can someone help me understand what exactly is a delta ridge is?

[Captain Phil]

When I was just starting out as a young angler, I read everything I could about bass fishing.   People like Jason Lucas and Buck Perry were my early heroes.  I owned a stack of Fishing Facts magazines which introduced me to Al Linder and offshore structure.  I built my own flasher and spent many a day out in the lake looking for break lines, humps and creek channels.  Unfortunately, I never had much success.  What I learned was bass fishing is very dependent on local conditions.   What worked for Buck Perry, will not necessarily work for you.   Bass don't read books, magazines or watch videos.  An outdoor writer once asked Kevin VanDam (the greatest bass fisherman in the world in my opinion) if he caught his fish shallow?   He said "There are always fish shallow".  He did not mean "all fish are shallow", but he did give us something to think about.   I do not wish to discourage you from fishing offshore, just know not all the fish are living out there.

[GoneFishingLTN]

1 minute ago, Captain Phil said:

When I was just starting out as a young angler, I read everything I could about bass fishing.   People like Jason Lucas and Buck Perry were my early heroes.  I owned a stack of Fishing Facts magazines which introduced me to Al Linder and offshore structure.  I built my own flasher and spent many a day out in the lake looking for break lines, humps and creek channels.  Unfortunately, I never had much success.  What I learned was bass fishing is very dependent on local conditions.   What worked for Buck Perry, will not necessarily work for you.   Not all bass read books, magazines or watch videos.  An outdoor writer once asked Kevin VanDam (the greatest bass fisherman in the world in my opinion) if he caught his fish shallow?   He said "There are always fish shallow".  He did not mean "all fish are shallow", but he did give us something to think about.   I do not wish to discourage you from fishing offshore, just know not all fish are living out there.

I appreciate that I truly agree with you my issue though and what I’m trying to work on is in my 7 years of bass fishing seriously I’ve mainly gone shallow and have had good luck but I think If I understand this better I will become a more versatile angler. 

[Captain Phil]

3 hours ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

I appreciate that I truly agree with you my issue though and what I’m trying to work on is in my 7 years of bass fishing seriously I’ve mainly gone shallow and have had good luck but I think If I understand this better I will become a more versatile angler. 

 

You should learn all you can.  My point is don't get the idea that everything you read about bass fishing applies to your local situation.  That was my mistake.  Each lake is different.  Each bass is different too.  I have won numerous tournaments fishing in places that others would never think of fishing.  These places never get fished because no one ever writes about them.

[Team9nine]

3 hours ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

to continue this discussion can someone help me understand what exactly is a delta ridge is?

[GoneFishingLTN]

23 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

I must be slow, sorry and thank you for being patient so it’s like a ridge next to the creek channel?

[Team9nine]

1 minute ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

so it’s like a ridge next to the creek channel?

Yep, built up over time from flooding/high water and growth along the bank before impoundment.

[Catt]

For every bass you catch on the bank there's 5 behind you waiting to be caught!

 

Buck Perry taught us about "structure" fishing, not shallow or deep, shoreline or offshore. 

 

Not all structure holds bass but all bass are related to structure.

[WRB]

The late Dee Thomas always said shallow bass are biting bass and proved it with his flipping technique. 

The old saying 10% of the anglers catch 90% of the fish rings as true today as it ever did.

During the less informative decades structure away from a casting distance from shore was nearly virgin water as the vast majority of angler fished the bank.

I wasn’t a fan of Buck Perry and considered him a salesman pushing his Spoon Plugs back in the 60’s. If I had read his books that would have been different. My only conversation with Mr. Perry was at a local Sportsman's show where he presented his lures and discussed his theories. Intrigued I tried to ask about sonars units to help find structure and he said they were worthless. End of conversation and never gave Buck Perry another thought. 

Tom

[GoneFishingLTN]

16 minutes ago, WRB said:

The late Dee Thomas always said shallow bass are biting bass and proved it with his flipping technique. 

The old saying 10% of the anglers catch 90% of the fish rings as true today as it ever did.

During the less informative decades structure away from a casting distance from shore was nearly virgin water as the vast majority of angler fished the bank.

I wasn’t a fan of Buck Perry and considered him a salesman pushing his Spoon Plugs back in the 60’s. If I had read his books that would have been different. My only conversation with Mr. Perry was at a local Sportsman's show where he presented his lures and discussed his theories. Intrigued I tried to ask about sonars units to help find structure and he said they were worthless. End of conversation and never gave Buck Perry another thought. 

Tom

So wild you have this history, it’s very cool and thank you for sharing. My goal is to fish more in the the 10-15 range since that’s our thermocline. I’m trying to understand all structures and how fish move so I’m not guessing. I do very well now at least I think so out of 8 tournaments I’ve gotten 4th 3 times and 5th once. I just want to be better so always searching to better understand. 

[Catt]

1976: I attended a week long seminar in Houston Texas that totally changed my outlook on bass fishing. The man putting on that seminar was Elwood L. " Buck" Perry. We talked about a lot of things but Spoonplugs wasn't one.

[Captain Phil]

17 hours ago, Catt said:

Not all structure holds bass but all bass are related to structure.

 

Structure is not defined by water depth.  Bass don't need deep water, they need food, oxygen and water deep enough to survive.  Schooling bass prefer chasing bait in open water.  If you find active bass in deep water, there is a food source they are attracted to.  Some bass prefer to lay in shallow water cover where they can ambush their prey.  Other bass may live their lives in the back  of a residential canal far away from any break line.  Where ever they prefer, close proximity to food is the major attractant. Find the food and you will find the bass. 

[king fisher]

6 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

Find the food and you will find the bass. 

I agree and would add, find a place the bass can easily catch their food.  Current break, ledge, good ambush spot, shade, color, line, etc.  A place with an abundance of prey, as well as a location, giving the advantage to the predator, is great combination.

[Catt]

1 hour ago, king fisher said:

Current break, ledge, good ambush spot, shade, color, line, etc

 

All structure ?

 

[Woody B]

I don't read books or watch videos.  (I'm not saying I shouldn't, I just don't)  For me at least where I fish there's 3 groups of Bass.   

1. The dock bass.   Self explanatory.  Mostly small spotted bass where I fish.  If you want numbers docks are a good place to fish.  IMHO docks are "cover".  Docks near other structure mentioned will hold more/bigger fish.   I think the dock bass move around less than my other 2 types.  By this time every year their mouths are all full of hook holes.  I mostly stay away from docks, at least during warm weather.   They're visible.  Pretty much everyone fishes them.  

 

2. The ledge bass.   Mostly Largemouth where I fish.   They'll hang around ledges and channels.   They move up onto flats, and points to feed.   Channel swings, both near the bank and offshore as well as the flats nearby can be productive with the right cover.   I believe these bass move around more than the "dock bass" but less than the "deep bass".   

 

3. The deep bass.   Mostly decent size spotted bass where I fish.   I don't think they go shallow much at all.   Where I fish I consider 15 feet or more "deep".   They hold near many types of structure previously mentioned (by many people).  Brush piles, rock piles ect are a plus.   I think they probably eat crawdads a bunch, but also ambush baitfish when they swim by.  I've had some success just watching and following baitfish on sonar near these areas, not casting until something attacks the bait fish.  Channel intersections, where creek channels intersect the main river channel are usually hot spots.   

 

I supposed there's some overlap between my "deep bass" and "ledge bass" but I don't think the "deep bass" come up on flats or points to feel shallow.   

 

 

FWIW, I'm not an expert.  I didn't even stay at whatever kind of hotel makes you smart last night.  I am a "Pro"......but I'm a professional automotive technician, not a professional fisherman.   

 

[TnRiver46]

“Find the food” strategy doesn’t help on the TN river, the whole thing is made of shad. I mean, the fish are in the water so I guess that’s a start but doesn’t exactly narrow it down 

[Catt]

19 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

“Find the food” strategy doesn’t help

 

The food source pretty abundant down here.

[LrgmouthShad]

I would just like to add that the best way to find bass is to fish for them. What do I mean by this? 

 

I do spend a good bit of time map studying navionics and making waypoints and looking for hard spots and cover and all that. That's all great stuff. But nothing tells you better that there is a bass somewhere than to have one bite your lure. I have so many spots that I've found on lakes around here whether through map study or scanning or otherwise thinking they would be the juice... only for a lot of them to be complete duds for me. You gotta put a bait in the water

[Team9nine]

11 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

“Find the food” strategy doesn’t help on the TN river, the whole thing is made of shad. I mean, the fish are in the water so I guess that’s a start but doesn’t exactly narrow it down 

Was waiting to see if anyone else chimed in with that thought. Other than some low productivity waters, mostly up north, but a few south central, “find the food, find the bass” seems like the most cliched, useless piece of fishing knowledge commonly shared, IMO…and that’s not a knock on Phil, as you can find that advice scattered everywhere on this site and others. In our eutrophic/hypereutrophic waters around here, which applies to most of the eastern U.S., I believe, there is food everywhere. Bass are generalist eaters, and you can simply find appropriate food everywhere you look for it. “Nature abhors a vacuum;” the bass and various food sources live together, not separately where the bass has to constantly be in search of some food source to eat - kind of like lions on the plain - lol. Just my $0.02

[Captain Phil]

9 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

But nothing tells you better that there is a bass somewhere than to have one bite your lure.

 

Over the years, I have learned bass can be anywhere there is enough water to swim in.  I have caught them in lakes, rock pits, rivers, canals, even shallow roadside ditches. I've caught them in three feet of 90 degree water in summer and a foot deep in the dead of winter.  I've caught them on a rock pile out in the middle of the lake and open water trolling with nothing under the surface.  Modern electronics can tell you where to start looking, it can't tell you if they will bite your lure.  The best way to find fish is by fishing for them.  I once decided to fish all the water in Little Lake Harris. At 2,700 acres, this was quite a task.  This was in August when everyone else was fishing offshore.   I found one of the best spots I ever found on a featureless bank in 4 feet of water loaded with giant bass.  Why they were there, I don't have a clue and I don't care.

[Tennessee Boy]

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

“Find the food” strategy doesn’t help on the TN river, the whole thing is made of shad. I mean, the fish are in the water so I guess that’s a start but doesn’t exactly narrow it down 

I usually let the Shad tell me where to fish and by that I mean what depth.  There are times especially in the fall where it seems like the Shad are everywhere from the middle of the river channel to the very back of every creek.  They are never at every depth.  FFS makes it very easy to know exactly what depth the Shad are at which is usually wide range like 3 to 12 feet.