Ambush points

[Chris]

Bass take up positions on cover and structure for safety, comfort, and for a place to ambush prey. We all know that bass like all sorts of stuff to hang out in and around. Anything from weeds to stumps, rocks, depth change, or drop offs to anything in between. Understanding how bass use cover and their environment can help you catch more fish. Along the same lines understanding how bass react to the forever changing environment will help you stay on fish.  The key term is forever changing because it is changing as more and more guys learn better ways to catch the same green fish. Techniques, education, and equipment are advancing and to a degree the bass are changing along with it. They are not necessarily getting smarter they are just reacting to the environment though instinct. Things change and the bass reacts to it. One thing that will never change is that a bass still needs to eat. An ambush point is nothing more than an area that a bass move to where it has a good feeding opportunity. It is kinda like the bass's hunting ground. The bass only takes up a position in that given area just to eat. The spot must have either a population of bait or just a sweet spot that the bass has a high percentage rate to trap food. It is the kind of spot that if you put the bait there he will eat it. Largemouth bass are not made to chase down prey for long distances. They rather just take a short burst of speed to ****** up something than run it down over long distances particularly big bass. Because they want to conserve energy they take up a spot to ambush rather than hunt down. The hunting down part comes in when they find something injured. Many times when a lure gives off a weird swimming motion or vibration or acts scared they rush to investigate. They are looking to see if it is something easy to catch because it sounds or acts hurt. Active fish that are already in the feeding mode if you can catch them soon after the act of feeding you can throw anything that looks like bait and they will nail it. That is why you catch fish sometimes that have something like a tail hanging in the back of their throat or they look like they just got back from an all you can eat pizza place and they still hit your lure. Sometimes if the opportunity is there and they can make a short dash to catch something they take it. Two things that will trigger a bass is a easy meal like something slow moving and just something trying to get away. They hate the idea that something is going to get away. Ambush points are places that hold active bass. Like I said they only go there to hunt. It is like a spot within a spot. You take a point for instance you might find fish on your depth finder hanging all over the point scattered. You fish it one way then you change directions. You fish both directions and at different angles. Then all of a sudden bam you get a hit. The next thing you know you caught a few bass. On any given cover or structure there is a natural direction that bait will swim on that cover or structure. If you figure out that direction and you figure out the sweet spot things change...you catch fish. I have said this many many times on this forum find the place where the deep water runs close to the shallow water. This is a ambush point now find the right direction. The more you pick apart cover or structure it gives you clues to what the natural bait flow is. Some days each place is different other times you can just hop scotch around and duplicate it. What your doing is figuring which direction the bass is facing and which direction the food is coming from. This works shallow or deep around cover or structure. When I fished Florida lakes most of the lakes where filled with all kinds of grass from pads to cattails to hydrilla. One lake I fished was filled with what we called pencil grass that looked like sharp green pencils sticking out across the shallows. When you looked at the grass it was uneven and had grass points and pockets. Everything was spaced out the same and the only thing different was the edge that was irregular. The key was to find where there was a depth change close to the edge of the grass. That was the sweet spot that held the most fish and the bass was using that slight depth change as an ambush point. Cattails are the same way if you have a wall of cattails look for something irregular like a pocket or point or where you have two forms of cover like a change of weeds or wood or something different. The more variety the area has the better. The key to sweet spots or ambush points is something different or unique to a given cover or structure. There will always be one spot within the spot that is prime. I was fishing a river channel one time and the deep side of the channel ran straight for a good distance. I followed it fishing along then all of a sudden I came across a deep pocket no larger than 5 ft that dropped down to 9 ft while the surrounding channel was 6 ft. I fished through it then turned right around and fished it again making sure the bait was parallel to the channel and in the right depth. Bang I caught a 5 pounder. You need you understand that a bass uses a depth change or break to intercept anything that falls off the edge or shoots to the open water past the edge. In open water bait has no where to hide and a feeding fish is right there waiting to ambush. Flats are another example of a feeding area and it doesn't matter if the flat is deep or shallow the bass use it the same. Remember when I talked about a deep side of a point or any cover that is on the point bass use these areas to feed they are ambush points. You take a dam on a lake that has rocks and break it down to something that has a different size rock or a ledge running close to the rock or a group of rock that fell off away from the dam. This is something different that bass will move to and feed. The other part of this deal is window of opportunity. This is the time frame when the sun moon and stars align and magic happens. A window of opportunity is a time frame that the bass in that area move to ambush points and actively feed. Sometimes the window opens for a short span other times all day but if your not in the right place at the right time you don't cash in on it. Wind and overcast sky's extend the time that bass are active.  I hope you all are getting this stuff because this stuff is so important. This is like the keys to the city.  

[Panamoka_Bassin]

Yet another great article, Chris.  I really never thought of bass fishing that intensively, but all you said makes perfect sense.  The nice thing for me, personally, is that I do know all that you said, but I know it from fishing for salt water species like Striped bass and fluke (summer flounder).  I'll have to use that now for large mouth, and I'm sure I'll be a more productive fisherman for it!

[paparock]

Such a great post is why I spend 99% of my time on this site. I too have spent most of my life on saltwater. Through the explanations such as this it has helped me translate my knowledge of saltwater fishing to my new location on freshwater lakes.

[Chris]

Thank you

[Guest avid]

Great stuff here, thanks

[.ghoti.]

Chris, GREAT article. I believe fishing is 90% location and 10% presentation. You've stated about as concisely as possible the what, where and why of the location part of the equation. I'd like to add that on small waters, like the one where i do most of my fishing, the changes I target are subtle. I'm looking for 1' drops instead of 5 or 6'. But, that's just the nature of the lake I fish most. It's been there quite a while and the channels are pretty well filled in and gone. What's left of the structure is mostly very minor changes. The fish still use them. They will take advantage of what they can find.

You made a great point about direction. I'll have to put the into practice.

Thanks,

Good luck to all,

GK

[phisher_d]

Awesome post Chris, your knowledge never ceases to amaze me

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Hery way cool cChris hey is it ok to copy this stuff so i can keep it in my logs any problems with that?

[Chris]

it is part of a book I am writting in It I go into greater detail I put stuff on the forum for you to use any way you like and if making a copy of it and sticking it in your tackle box helps please do:)