Reading the timber

[fishfordollars]

Just wondering if anyone ever took the time to study types of trees, the type of soil that they generally grow in, and which ones grow in different terrains.

When you pull up to an area and all you can see are acres of the rotted bare post sticking above the water it helps to know whether these five to twenty feet tall tree stumps originally grew in a bottom land setting or were prominate in a higher elevation. If you can it immediately shows you where the humps, ridges, and creeks are located. You don't need a depth finder for this and it immediately cancels out 90% of the water that will hold no fish.

Some will show you a clay bottom, but others will never grow there and need a sandy type soil to grow. Which grow where?

Let's hear your thoughts and see what you really know about following creeks and drains, as well as picking out the humps and ridges in a flooded forrest.

[Matt Fly]

Jack,   for those of us who bass fished before good topos or graphs came about, reading the surrounding areas dry ground was important to get a feel for what the lake should look like underneath.

   Learning that larger trunked trees normally means depth, such as creek channels, river channels, and sharp drop offs.

    Also knowing what type a tree it is can tell you what kind of canopy is under the water.    Above timber rots, there still lots of timber under water.    

     Identifing the types of trees in your areas that grow on knolls and rolling flats can help find those subtle humps on the flats.

     We know as we move south, south west, we see more mesquite, ,salt cedar, and cedar as some common types of brush and pecan trees along river bottoms and such.

  Same with plants and soils they like to grow in.  

Love good post like this.

   

   

[fishfordollars]

Yes Matt, I guess all the younger guys never had to figure it out without any of the equipment that's out there today. I really figured some would give it a go, but so far no one seems willing to get involved in the discussion.

[cart7t]

I'm quoting Jimmy Houston here

"I can't tell an apple tree from a peach tree unless it's got apples on it."

Pretty much where I stand on my arborist knowledge.  

[JuniorFisherJJ08]

This thread is way over my head. I can tell trees apart by leaves, and bark, color. but getting into what types of soil etc. WAY WAY over my head. There is electronics. that tell me what i need to know. I think reading electronics is just as hard as studying the trees etc.

[Catt]

You see Jack these youngsters don't care to learn; just give them a GPS waypoint, a big dollar lure, a high speed reel, and a glitzy boat so they can imitate KVD.

There is no more apprenticeships where by anglers learn from the bottom up; I was told by a young student why learn ole school when we have the technological advancements for immediate success.

[Busy]

I sort of resent where this thread is going!

Lots of young guys like me go out fishing several times a week with no boat and no fish finder technology.  We hike our way around the lake.  Nothing makes my day like outfishing someone on a boat when they come in.  I'll admit that I don't know a whole lot about trees but I study the landscape at every body of water I go to.

Valleys are easy to spot.  Finding channels are a little bit trickier.  I've been way more of a cat-fish guy but am trying to translate that knowledge into catching good bass.  We find valleys and channels and hit the edges of them where cover is the most plentiful before the drop-off.  I'm a bit tired of having to find vegetation and structure with my lures so please keep the information coming in this thread (without the throws to guys my age).

[SDoolittle]

why learn ole school when we have the technological advancements for immediate success.

I have a very similar situation at work. I am constantly explaining to the young Soldiers that even in a modern, technologically advanced world with a global positioning system, Soldiers still need to be trained on how to navigate using a map, compass and other low-tech tools.  

The same thing aplies to fishing. We have the technology and a thorough understanding of it will, without a doubt, improve our fishing success.  But what happens when technology fails? What happens when you fish a small lake without a "hot spots" map?

[fishfordollars]

I sort of resent where this thread is going!

Lots of young guys like me go out fishing several times a week with no boat and no fish finder technology. We hike our way around the lake. Nothing makes my day like outfishing someone on a boat when they come in. I'll admit that I don't know a whole lot about trees but I study the landscape at every body of water I go to.

Valleys are easy to spot. Finding channels are a little bit trickier. I've been way more of a cat-fish guy but am trying to translate that knowledge into catching good bass. We find valleys and channels and hit the edges of them where cover is the most plentiful before the drop-off. I'm a bit tired of having to find vegetation and structure with my lures so please keep the information coming in this thread (without the throws to guys my age).

You shouldn't, it's only designed to make you think about the situation. Not meant to provoke anyone. When you loose the will to reason or learn you hinder your ability to improve yourself. Electronics fail, and it will help you if you have an understanding of the terrain above and below the water.

The modern day advantages we all have access to are outstanding. I wish I had taken more time to familiarize myself with this subject early on in my younger days. I would have been a lot more successful if I had.

[fishfordollars]

This thread is way over my head. I can tell trees apart by leaves, and bark, color. but getting into what types of soil etc. WAY WAY over my head. There is electronics. that tell me what i need to know. I think reading electronics is just as hard as studying the trees etc.

I'll have to disagree here. Reading and usage of today's electronics is a lot harder than reading the trees. At least it is for me.

Good point.

[Busy]

Sorry if I did not make myself clear.  I do indeed want to learn more about identifying things in the landscape because I do not have all these little tech toys.

Sure technology is nice but would you hike for 9 days with a GPS and not take a compass and map?  No way.  But I'd take a compass and map and forget the GPS easily.  Especially if my destination is small and remote.  A GPS will easily get you lost sometimes.

Not like I'm seriously provoked or angry, just wishing more people would be talking about how things in the landscape effect bass and bass fishing, instead just claiming that people don't wanto to learn those things.

[Catt]

Today's technological advancements will put you on a specific location on a piece of structure but it is still up to the angler to locate the sweet spots on the structure. To those of us who are adept at map reading can see a likely looking piece of structure, use the maps grid with/without a Coordinate Scale and figure GPS coordinates. Once on that specific piece of structure we can decipher possible sweet spots by looking at tree/brush or vegetations types.  

Busy, if you do not fit that category why the resentment?

[fishfordollars]

Busy, thanks, more good points you raise. The younger generation, many times, is accused of taking short cuts, and I for one think they are not given the credit due.

Back to the subject. Can someone tell me the location the following trees typically grow? To keep it simple let's group them instead of breaking them down into all the different subspecies. Feel free to add any you like.

Pine

Oak

Sweetgum

Cedar

Mesquite

Elm

[Matt Fly]

Don't need electronics to tell me that the bass are on beds when the dogwoods are in bloom in east Tx.

   You don't need to watch the weather, or be near the water, worry if its too early in Feb or March, don't need water temp reports, just look out your window when travelling about and you'll know when to go look for bedders.

    If you can identify a lobloly pine tree from sight in the water, you will know that mature pines will not have sparse branches close to the bottom, and what arms or branches are there will be further up in the water column.

      If you didn't know that a cypress grows roots that bend up, called knees by some, that the larger the cypress, the further out those knees will be from the tree.     You might have just pitched to the base off the tree and never hit its outer root system.

   Lots of things electronics don't tell ya.    

[Raul]

In my neck of the woods there are only two kind of trees that grow  wild naturally:

Willows

Mesquite

Willows only grow where the soil is moist year your, that only happens along rivers and creeks, since they are quite durable and the tree remains standing where it grew for a good couple of decades you see a drowned willow you can bet the river bed/creek channel is not too far away from the main trunk, since they don 't grow just like that all by their lonesome a row of willows is telling you that the river/creek bed is at their feet, so you alos know that not only there 's a depth change, in my neck of the woods the bottom composition of rivers and creeks is sandy with rocks.

Mesquite grow on all kinds of soil, unlike willows, they don 't like to get their feet wet but they are mainly solitary trees, few plants can grow underneath them because of their umbrella shape crown, they normally prefer flats and once they drown the way the branches extend and how they bend immediately tell you it 's a mesquite.

Other native plants in my neck of the woods are huizache brush, those grow on anything and everywhere, cacti and yucca are also common but none of those last more than a decade, once they rot they are gone forever.

[Matt Fly]

Raul,    is there any cactus or wild flowers that blooms in Mexico that   might indicate bass are on the beds?  

          In Texas, we have lots of stock tanks or ponds, and you'll find lots of willows in those areas as well.  Willows always seem to find the waters edge.

   

     

[Raul]

Taking advantage of the drought we had down here 4 or 5 years ago I took some pics, I 've fished this lake since 1980 ( lake waas formed in the mid 70 's, when I began fishing there the willows still had leaves ) and I had never seen it so low, this area is normally under 30 ft+ of water, yup, willows !, look how they are positioned, they follow the river. This is one of my favorite spots in this lake, it 's got:

The willows

The old hacienda ruins ( rock/brick piles )

The flat on which the hacienda ruins are standing on,

The flat is surrounded by a river bend on 3 sides.

The river bed

[fishfordollars]

That is beautiful country.

[Raul]

Raul, is there any cactus or wild flowers that blooms in Mexico that might indicate bass are on the beds?

Nope, by the time bass are on the beds there 's nothing blooming yet, bass here bed in mid March-early April, that 's the end of the dry season, wild plants and cacti begin blooming until late May when the first rains of the rainy season begin.

[Raul]

Here 's a pic taken on the same place but looking towards the shore, look at it closely and you 'll see the max level the water can rise, you can clearly see where the vegetation begins, all that green you see is huizache brush ( remember I said that those grow on anything ), below it you see only a surface lacking of vegetation. In the good all days when the lake was younger what you see above that line ( all that brush ) was also underwater, it was a jungle and a snag paradise ( just ask me how many lure I lost in there ), now all that 's left is the bare soil, the huizache rotted away quite fast, but the willows and the few mesquites are still standing there.

[IdahoLunkerHunter]

I do believe many fisherman out there look at their electronics rather than looking at the lay of the land first. I have a bay that consistently produces for me because I have researched the shoreline more than the depth contour on my finder. I have seen so many people just drive right over my honey hole because they do not look at the shore line pea gravel. Changes in soil and cover from shoreline directly relates to where fish are going to be in the water IMO.

[Raul]

Water plants also talk to you, weedbeds have a particular layout ( if you take your time to observe them ) because weeds only grow under certain circumstances and upon a particular kind of bottom composition, otherwise they don 't grow, so add what you see above water level to the particular layout of the weedbed and you 'll know what 's underneath and where the fish will most probably be.

The old say says: 90 % of the fish are in 10 % of the water, and 10% of the fiherman catch the 90% of the fish.

So we back again to step one: where to find the fish ? in the 10% of the productive water, why fish the remaining 90% if they aren 't there ?.

And then you blame the GPS, the lure, the boat, the conditions, the moon phase for having a bad day.  :

[Paul Roberts]

The electronics offer a signal. Your interpretation is only as good as what you actually know about what is producing those signals.

Good post.

[Paul Roberts]

is there any cactus or wild flowers that blooms in Mexico that might indicate bass are on the beds?

I've tried to do this. Since I follow the spawn on a series of ponds I look at flowering trees and shrubs. I especially paid attention to wild plum bc they are so common.

The facts were: The different ponds spawned at different times within the same year, varying by about a week and a half due to differences in volume mostly. The plums? Depended on the individual clump I looked at. They varied as much as 3 weeks! Some were on there way out while others were just starting to blossom. No help there!

Each water is slightly different and each year is slightly different. Plants may show individual variation that makes them, as a species, not very accurate in making predictions about what the fish are doing. Now, pick an individual tree and maybe. But...which one? :-/

Apparently TX dogwoods are a lot more consistent, and tied to the bass spawn, than are Colorado plums.

[jax]

I would love to learn to find fish and structure without having to use electronics. The problem is I know of no one around me that can even come close to fishing like that. It isn't from lack of wanting to learn. It is the lack of someone to teach.

Most people I know aggressively power fish anymore. They hit a spot a few times then move on. It is hard to learn when you are constantly moving. The reason I am always told is why waste time trying to catch fish that are skittish and don't want to bite. Drives me insane.

That is my rant for the day. I swear I wish some of you guys were in southern Indiana.  Anywho. Any advice is more than welcome.