Offshore Structure

[roadwarrior]

In most waters, especially in heavily pressured lakes, deep structure offers a unique opportunity to target bigger fish that rarely see a lure. In their natural setting, largemouth bass generally prefer a shallow, grassy environment, but as other options become available, especially in man-made reservoirs, bass adapt.

To find structure that potentially holds our prey, topo maps and good electronics are key. However, obvious structural features should not be overlooked. Perhaps the most common examples are primary and secondary points. These points are sometimes rounded and gradual or steep and sharp. Bass may be found scattered across this structure, but the focus should (usually) be the outer edge having the greatest access to deeper water.

To fish a point, the boat position should allow the fisherman to cast into shallower water and retrieve the lures toward deeper water. The positioning is away from the perimeter. When fishing an extended point, the presentation should begin away from the shore, moving in. This pushes fish up as opposed to pulling them out into deep water so that your presentation has the best chance of engaging the greatest number of fish.

I have found that largemouth bass tend to concentrate around secondary points. Smallmouth bass, walley and stripers seem to have a preference for primary points. I generally have better luck finding largemout on flat, shallow, rounded structure; smallmouth on steeper slopes with a greater degree of transition.

Ideally, if largemouth are the target, a combination of structue and cover in deep water is ideal. Finding submerged grass, bushes or timber on a point can be heavenly!

[justfishin]

Great article RW. You hit the nail on the head. I have to agree with every point you made in your post. Good stuff. Now, you wouldn't happen to be fishing those structures with a Stella reel,G Loomis rod, and Yozuri Soft fishing line would you?, lol. Again, great post. ;D

[SPEEDBEAD.]

 

[roadwarrior]

On rivers my favorite structure is a submerged ridge, in current, on the "outside" portion of a bend. Current is strong and the water tends to be deep along the inside of the ridge. This is the perfect ambush point for smallmouth bass.

Boulders, rock piles, ledges and pools are especially interesting, but anything that creates a current break is a potential holding area for aggressive smallies. These bass tend to "stage,"  alert for baitfish that come to them. The stike is usually aggressive, very aggressive.

[FIN-S-R]

To add to RW's info...and hopefully not sound too Baugherish (new favorite word). Check out the geology, or more importantly the geography of the shoreline. This can assist in finding those needle in a haystack type ares that are seemingly completely unassociated with anything else.

Like that hump out in the middle of nowhere. Its probably an old ridge that was disected by a stream, or a couple of streams and molded into an island. This is very common where you encounter transitions in rock type like sandstone and limestone, or different types of limestone, and especially really hard rocks like granite.

One area will weather faster than the surrounding areas, leaving chunks of land cut off from the bank. Try to draw a line in your mind from a point across the neck or cove your in or across the lake to a spot it may have connected to a few thousand or a few hundred thousand years ago, and then follow that line using your electronics to check depth changes.

Usually a stream or river will occur at the point in the geology of a system that rock type transitions. Figure out which is the more indurated (harder) rock and then follow the lines of disection imposed by the current over the life of the drainage system. For man-made lakes, it can be really helpful to find a map of the lake that contains the old river channel lines, or creek drainage lines.

I have done this successfully on a number of lakes, and found some of those spots that nobody else ever fished until I started...and be sure that once a boat or two sees you out there, it wont remain a secret long.

Another good way to find those less pressured spots is to get on the well known offshore spots and drive in a circle all the time moving a little further away from the center. You can ussually find a few more high spots only a little distance from the main spot, and it wont be recieving near the pressure the main area does.

There is a whole world of offshore structure out there just waiting to be discovered.

[Siebert Outdoors]

Good read RW.

Just my thoughts:

Bigger fish tend to roam these areas.  I think the main reason is becase of stability.  Down there in the deeper water, the conditions dont change as much or as fast.  Shallow water is where all the excitement is.  Boats, animals, people, rapid temp, and condition/clarity changes.  Deeper water is safer.

[fourbizz]

Nice read RW, the primary point subject is an interesting one for me. It has not been my experience that largemouth prefer secondary points over primary ones, for me it seems to be the opposite. What are everyone else's views on this subject. I fish almost all deep, rocky , clear, man made impoundments with just a few exceptions, so structure fishing is more the rule than the exception for me. I DO NOT want to say that you are wrong, just that my experiences have not been the same. Lookin for some more input from anybody!

[5bass]

In my experiences,I have found that secondary points are better in the spring and fall but main lake points RULE in the summertime.This goes for largemouth and smallmouth.

Good topic RW.  

[Catt]

Deep water to the serious structure fisherman is water with depths greater than 8-12 feet

Structure is a portion of the lake bottom that is different from the surrounding area, like ridges, humps, creek-channels, riprap, and submerged points of land.

A structure fishing situation consists of a structure, breaks, break lines and deep water. "Breaks" are things on the structure's bottom like stumps, rocks, weeds, logs, and bushes. A "break line" is a line or lines along the structure's bottom where there is a defined increase or decrease in depth, either sudden or gradual  like the edge of a channel, gully, or under water pond. There are other break lines, too, like a weed line wall, a brush line, a stump rows caused by boat lanes.

The beginning bass angler must get a proper mental picture on structure fishing. The anglers must recognize from the beginning that not all good-looking structures harbor bass. But bass will never be found that are not related to structure in some manner.

The angler who learns to recognize structure, then where and how to fish it on its breaks/break lines will be far ahead of other fishermen who do not understand such things

[fourbizz]

8-12?!?!?! thats shallow out here!

I'd say in my region, deep STARTS at about 25 feet.

[burleytog]

Please define primary vs. secondary points.  

[Catt]

Yea I know all about you wood butchers and your measurements  

[fourbizz]

ha ha. skil saws are for pansies, i go for the STIHL 8-)

[BASS fisherman]

Great post folks!  I am definatley archiving this one for future reference.  

I'm with Burley, please define primary and secondary points.  I have an idea, but not positive.

Thanks

[fourbizz]

We're all certain that we know what a primary point is right?

A primary point being typically located on the main lake body and being characterized by a strip of less deep water surrounded by deeper water on three sides { a "peninsula" if you will).

A secodary point is the same type of underwater peninsula that instead of protuding out of the general "main lake" shoreline, actually comes off  the side of another point ( a "primary" point at that). Very common in "finger lakes"

Thats my fairly short and simplified answer, thankfully it won't cost you guys a dollar a word, cause frankly it isnt worth it

[RoLo]

It has not been my experience that largemouth prefer secondary points over primary ones, for me it seems to be the opposite. What are everyone else's views on this subject

Actually, I leave semantics out of the picture altogether, so I'd have to say neither or both.

A primary point that adjoins the "delta" side of a river channel could easily have a shallow basin and slow taper.

A secondary point that adjoins the outside bend of a creek channel, could easily have a deeper basin and faster taper

than a primary point. During chart analysis, I'm only interested in the base depth of the contour and the steepness of the drop-off

(no semantics).

POINTS

You think that beating the shallows is bad? "Points" are highly popular and boldly conspicuous contours that are

beaten to a pulp by the whole world. I myself prefer "POCKETS" to points (the inverse of a point), whether they're small,

medium or large. Unlike points, which are divergent contours, "pockets" tend to corral baitfish and funnel gamefish.

The best feature of any point is the drop-off, but what if there is no drop-off. The term "point" normally refers to a point

in the "shoreline". However, it is only the underwater point that has any value at all (abrupt depth change).

A point of land that is not associated with an underwater bar, has no more value than a straight shoreline.

Paradoxically, some of the most productive holding sites on any lake are "underwater bars"

that do not etch a "Telltale Point" into the shoreline for all to see. These are true sweet spots.

Roger

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

All great info here.

I think RW's original point however was not about primary or secondary points, you gotta read between the lines,....he's saying.

Stop throwing at the bank if you want better size fish.  Go deeper, get out on the main lake body and find the structures.

[Bud]

Good post RW.  That is the way I like to fish.

[roadwarrior]

Exactly, Russ.

Roger,

I agree that points are "so obvious" that most fishermen beat them to a pulp, but my general observation is that they fish them too fast, meaning they don't spend enough time at any particular place.  Often (usually) guys fish them too shallow or treat them like just another portion of the bank. The "point" Roger is referring to (I think) may be 100 yards or more out from the "point" where land and water meet.

Regarding primary and secondary points,

In large lakes, primary points are generally related to the main channel and the deepest parts of the lake. Other than the point itself, there is very little associated structure and no cover. Fish found in the main channel are either suspending or moving from one location to another. Fish species that relate to the structure would include largemouth bass, but fish that are know to follow baitfish schools in open water are far more likely to be found close to the main channel, thus primary points.

[Catt]

Since points that extend outwards into the body of water are easy to locate they are targeted by everyone as RoLo mentioned. This however should not discourage one from fishing it because it has been my experience most anglers fish these points wrong. Most inexperienced anglers see the nearby bank and immediately position their boat within casting distance of the shore.

To properly fish any structure the key is to locate the "break line", that is where there is a defined increase in depth. On points this may be on the very end, along one side, or "POCKETS" to the points (the inverse of a point). The break line is where the bass will transition from deep water to shallow water, once in shallow water they will move to feeding areas.

RoLo also mentioned another key structure, underwater points that can only be located with a contour map. These are completely off shore and do not in any way touch the shore line. This structure is fished in the same way as mentioned above.

I can't stress enough the necessity of locating break lines along the bottoms contour, this is the key to structure fishing, be it a point, ridge, hump, island or what ever.

[justfishin]

I am glad someone mentioned underwater points. I fish them a lot. I like the ones that come off of a long flat that runs in 2-4 ft of water and then the point is at the end and drops of to about 12-18 feet. I have one such point that is awesome in the early spring and while I see a lot of anglers fish that flat I rarely see one out at the end on that underwater point. Its also a stair step type of point  as well. Under water points at a public lake are one of my first choices in the early spring and summer. They are basically a pre spawn staging area in the spring if they are mid to upper lake and in the summer they are usually associated with a nearby creek channel that hold fish.

[Catt]

It's actually quite amazing that this conversation has turned to the subject of points because I'm a firm believer that points point the way to fish. I however do not follow the normal definition of point being either primary or secondary because there are too many types of points.

Types of points

Above water peninsula

Under water peninsula

Weed/grass line points

Stump row points

Rock/rip rap points

All should be fished with the confidence that they will hold fish

I warned y'all

I can go off on the subject of structure fishing  

[FIN-S-R]

It sounds like there are some of you guys on this thread who do a pretty thorough disect and explore technique on the points you cant see, so I have a scenario for you that befogles me regulary.

Bluff sandstone point which flattens out upon entering the water (6-8ft deep), then regains "point" shape 20-30 yds off the bank (12-14ft deep). It carries out about 30-40 yds where it abruptly ends into the old river channel (50ft deep) in drop-off fashion.

I have caught a number of "big" 4+ lbers from this point, both LMB and SMB, and I have confirmed quite a few others who have done the same thing. The issue here is consistancy. These big fish seem to "move up" on the flat and feed, and they are catchable...sometimes schooling activity. When not in schooling mode, they seem to be impossible to catch...what would you guys do?

[Catt]

FIN-S-R

You simply move to the next piece of structure, consistently catching bass is about location and timing.

Being at the right location at the right time

Structure fishing is not a cure all solution but it will greatly increase your odds of catching more and larger bass.

[RoLo]

Bluff sandstone point which flattens out upon entering the water (6-8ft deep), then regains "point" shape 20-30 yds off the bank (12-14ft deep). It carries out about 30-40 yds where it abruptly ends into the old river channel (50ft deep) in drop-off fashion.

When not in schooling mode, they seem to be impossible to catch...what would you guys do?

Naturally the bluff above the water-line is of little value, except for shade or lee water it might offer.

The first break into 6 to 8 feet of water seems like a logical place for aggressive fish and maybe spawning smallmouth bass.

The real meat though sounds like it might be the second-tier taper into 12 to 14 ft of water, which adjoins the "main river channel".

What I normally do in a situation like this is spend a lot of time with the depth sounder and marker buoys.

You want to pinpoint the "steepest" drop on the structure between the crest (shallowest point) and the channel ledge.

A good starting point is where the depth lines on the contour map are most crowded together (compression point).

It may be time-consuming to pinpoint the sharpest slope, but once the coordinates are acquired, they're your's for life.

Roger