Offshore Structure

[Raul]

Unfortunately most anglers are "vision oriented", they fish what they see;

Unfortunately most anglers don 't now how to "read", there they are and what they see tells them.......NOTHING,

Unfortunately most anglers have no idea whatsoever about geology or botanny.

Willows grow ONLY WHERE THE SOIL IS MOIST YEAR ROUND ( at least in my neck of the woods that 's the way it is ), thus a willow growing in the wild indicates that it has his feet on moist soil, most likely a creek or a river, find the willows and you 've got yourself a creek bed or river channel not far away which means a dropoff and change in bottom composition from silt to sand and/or rocks.

WEEDS, submerged weeds like elodea, milfoil, hydrilla ONLY GROW IN A VERY SPECIFIC TYPE OF SOIL and ONLY AS DEEP AS THERE 'S ENOUGH LIGHT, a HOLE in weedbed indicates that either the soil is different or that the surrounding area to the hole or pocket has a different DEPTH.

WEEDS, emergent weeds like lily pads or cattails ONLY GROW ON SHALLOW GROUNDS.

[Catt]

Shh! Raul don't give em every thing, you gotta hold some back  

[ga_hawghauler]

I really like this thread on offshore structure beacuse most anglers are as said early vision oriented and they fish what they can see. On my home lake we have a tremendous amount of out of towners who fish it and 90% vision oriented so the ones of us who fish it regular has to go to underwater or offshore structure due to fishing pressure.  When looking for offshore structure a good topo map and electronics is a must.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

The whole "voision oriented" theory explains why alot of folks are still stuck throwing at the bank.  Everyone loves to skip a bait under a tree or land a floating rapala in a 12" wide indent in the weeds.  

But not only the chance to see your casting skills, This is also where we can see a bass relate to a rock or dock post,etc.  We see a bass riding a small creek channel that meanders into shallow water or a bass cruising the edge of a weed line.  These same things are happening out where you can't see them but it's the bigger fish relating to them.  The are the higher seniority areas.  This isn't saying that the big fish are never shallow, but for now, concentrate at where they are the majority of the time.

[Raul]

One day at my everyday day after the trip was over and we were loading all the stuff into the SUV again a couple of guys came by and asked us how we did, I saw them casting at drowned trees with vengeance all day long ( one thing that La Sauceda has is tons of standing timber, willows  from where it gets it 's name, willow = sauce, and mesquite ), I answered that we did very well, lots of half up to two pounders; then they asked what kind of baits we were using, to which we responded, grubs, senkos, worms, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, in other words, the entire arsenal; then they told us that they also saw us but they also saw that we barely moved locations during the entire day; obviously I asked how they did....... the question must have felt to them like a punch in the stomach because they replied they only caught a couple of fish during the entire day.

Guess what we were fishing ?

We were fishing the old Hacienda ruins 200 yards from the shore and under 30 ft of water when the lake is full, which is offshore structure and looks like this:

[Raul]

Another pic from the same structure:

[Raul]

Another one:

See those trees on the background behind the ruins, those are willows ( river channel ), the river channel follows that willow tree line and bends to meet with the main river channel which is located about 15 ft from the last rock you see in the left of the picture, the hacienda was built on a flat which stopped at the river channel.

[roadwarrior]

"1/2 to 2 pounders?"  

Were you catching crappie or bream?

[Raul]

Nope Kent, apparently the lake is full of them teeny basses, no wonder why you seldomly ketch a bigun there, doesn 't mean they arent 't there ( caught a 7.78 one last year, plus several 4-6 pounders ), it 's just that in order to get to them you have to mow between all those lil guys.

[roadwarrior]

Just pulling your chain, my friend.

I think I know the kind of bass you like. 8-)

[Long Mike]

Gawd, I love this forum, but my brain is beginning to hurt.

[Catt]

Unfortunately most anglers can not take a one dimensional picture shown on their depth finder and turn it into a three dimensional picture in their brain.

Unfortunately most anglers carry a topo map and only use it for finding boat lanes

Food for thought

Anglers must recognize from the beginning that not all good-looking structures harbor bass. But  never will bass be found that are not related to structure in some manner. Buck Perry

[Catt]

More food for thought

"As a rule, a shallow-water fisherman had better plan to go to the fish, as most of the time they are not likely to migrate along the structure to him. He should keep in mind the 'home' of bass is somewhere in the deep or deepest water in the area fished; and weather and water conditions seldom are conducive to shallow migrations of bass. This means an angler should not use shallow-water features to determine whether an area is potentially good for fishing. Rather, his key to the potential of an area or structure should be the availability of deep water, or the lack of it." Buck Perry

[Catt]

Spots where two creeks intersect or where a feeder creek intersects with the main river are areas experienced deep water anglers seeks. Inside the Y created by the intersection is where you want to anchor the boat in 12' to 18, cast deep with Texas Rigs, Jigs or Carolina Rigs to find the bigger bass. In winter months fish these areas with jigging baits in 20 to 30' of water

[ga_hawghauler]

The three things I found useful in finding off shore structure is a good topo map, good electronics and some knowledge of how to look at the banks and get a feel for how it relates to the lake. one of the lakes I fish is a corp lake and this past winter they have pulled the water down considerably. So one thing I have done has been to study the lake while the water is low. Hopefully this spring when it comes back to full pool I will have a few more place that may hold a bass.

[bubbler]

Great article.