Why you should fish those nothing banks

[Chris]

As bass fishermen we know that bass need cover or structure so we as fishermen tend to draw our efforts to places that are obvious to hold bass. We tend to pass up places that seem to be void of cover. So as we boat around the lake we fish the spots that worked before or places that should look like a bass condo. As more and more fishermen become educated on the how to catch fish something strange happens to the bass they move or change where they hang out. Bass shift from heavily pressured areas to these nothing banks. I am not going to say that all nothing banks work out but sometimes you stumble onto a group of fish that receive less pressure. Sometimes fish use nothing banks and when you catch it right you can cash in. Wind is one of the things that change nothing banks into fish factories. Most nothing banks don't offer much cover or structure so the bass are predictable. With less options to the bass they hang on isolated stuff right on the nothing bank. Sometimes these banks have more to offer the bass than meets they eye. In older lakes you might have tons of old tree's and stumps just a few feet off the bank. Maybe there is a rock pile or small point that jets out or a ledge. Your odds of catching the big fish of the nothing bank is good because he has less places to hide. Give it a shot

[Shad_Master]

Good point Chris, I think (?) this is more the case on large lakes than on smaller ones, but I do know that I have found bass on "nothing" banks especially in the Spring.

[Chris]

Lakes large and small I fished a lake yesterday that my biggest fish came off of a nothing bank 4 pounds. The lake was wide enough that you could cast from one side almost to the other. My boat was sitting in 20 ft of water like 10 ft off of the shore and there was a shelf that that fish was sitting on. From above water it looked like a bare bank but under was the shelf and a bush that the fish came off of. Ponds you fish everything which might be what your talking about.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

below is a topo of one of our haunts. The bank circled in red is known as barren bank because it has an immediate drop to about 15 ft then a very gradual drop to 18 in the middle. This section of this bank has no rocks, stand ups, anything. There is a wedline 3/4 of the way down the bank. weeds grow up about 2ft off bottom butare dead now.

This bank has always been odd because this lake is chock full of structure but it's totally barren for about 4-500 yards. Even directly across the lake it's the same depth scenario but chock full of vw sized boulders and pockets of stand ups.

This is one spot we will be targeting with brushpiles once the ice freezes and we can get them in position.

But how about for now,...should we give a try over there?

[kbj3579]

I know what I would be throwing along that bank!!!!! Suspending jerk bait worked parallel with the bank.  Looks from the map to me like an awsome bank to fish late fall, winter.  Is it a rock bank?  Does it get a lot of sun?  I love vertical banks with a jerk bait.  Give that X Rap a shot there.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

mud/sediment, not a stone to be found, maybe even some clay down there.

[Chris]

Thats a bank that bass will suspend on.

Other spots topo 101:

North end where you have depth numbers. east side where the contour lines are close to each other.

North west area left side of the mouth of the small cove west bank

south west of the 30ft marker

Midway down the lake east bank where the island is. west front of the island

straight south of the island to what looks like a patch of weeds? south east of that where the solid line starts and shows where the first main break is close to the shore

Straight acrossed west of that spot on the other bank side in the pocket of that point that sticks out.

[Ben]

Just because what you see on a bank is bare, don't mean what the fish see's is bare also.  

For many years, If you didn't fish bare banks or know how to locate fish in locations other than the banks, you would have a hard time finding places to fish on Clark's Hill.  When the drought dropped the lake level as much as 14' and is stayed down for three or four years, small pines and weeds grew in a lot of areas that provide good cover for now, but that is vanishing quickly with the lake back up to pool level.

[Will]

How about this one? I fish a little lake that has what we call a "beach". It used to be for swimming so there isn't any cover or structure, and the swimming area is a good 50 yards long. The lake is bowl shaped and on a good cast I can reach 12-15' of water, which is a gentle slope out to. The bottom seems to be sand and leaves, and occasionaly a small chunk rock or something like that. So far this season the shad population has been very low with only a few small schools of 25-50 shad in each school. Small bluegill and perch also swim around the edge. The water clarity is in the area of 2 feet deep. It is also protected by the wind unless its coming from the south, then it might get some wave action. I am not sure of water temperature but highs have been in the 60's and lows get down close to freezing. Any suggestions on what to fish? I have caught some little bass under 12" on shallow running cranks before there.

[hookset]

You're dead on Chris. the guy who has won most of our club tourneys this year fished nothing banks all year.  When i pass by him I wonder to my self why would he pick that bank. All of the banks have been on the main lake and not in coves or creeks. Long story short I am now a beleiver of the plain nothing banks.

[Guest avid]

I love these so called "nothing banks"  I have two favorites where I go to test the effectiveness of new crankbaits.  If I catch the breeze right, I can drift at a nice pace tossing crankbaits toward the shoreline and letting them "swim" down the dropoff.  Way cool.

[Chris]

Carolina rig Will

[Gatorbassman]

When I do find a nothing bank with fish on it there are some things that I look for to discover a pattern and perhaps find another bank with the same production. The first as Chris mentioned is the wind direction. The second is the angle of the bank. I have found in the past that if can find another bank whith these two things in common with the first then there is about a 90% chance there will be fish there. Structure close by is alway a bonus.