Scenario

[Catt]

Throw about 4' of water on this area add some sparse/matted Hydrilla, Milfoil, Coontail Moss; that put these ridges in 8-10' of water. A creek channel runs about 1 ½ times the distance of a long casting from the top of each ridge (to the left); the channel is 35'. On the right side of the ridges its 17' slow tapering towards the point in the back ground.

July 13, 2009 6:00 am

Surface water temperatures: 88.7 degrees

Water Clarity: visibility to 6'

Weather: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 101. Heat index values as high as 107. West wind between 5 & 10 mph.

Your plan of attach would be?

[Eddie Munster]

Your plan of attach would be?

Come ask Catt?...............

Dunno. Guess at that time of the morning I'd throw some top waters/wake baits along the ridges and near the timber.

[J Francho]

Go back to sleep and fish at night.

[bigtimfish]

First it would be a spinnerbait all around the ridge. Then it would be a pegged Tx rigged Wave Tiki Lobster for the grass mats,the ridge and around the stick ups. Then to the deeper water with DD22's, Bomber fat free shads and c rigged 10" + worms.

[tnbassfisher]

Rat-L-Trap

[WRB]

The first thing is to ignore the wood and look at the humps for entry and exit areas that bass and bait fish use. Can't see any smaller rock piles on the close hump, looks like there could be to left of the second hump. The saddle between the humps is usually another good place.

It's hot and high sky, so the bass should be on the deeper break side.

I would slowly meter the both humps to find bait or bass.

More than likely position the boat in about 12' of water off the outside of the second hump and fan cast a slip shot 6" worm out into 35' and work it back. Work the saddle between the humps with the same rig, trying to determine at what depth the bass are active.

WRB

PS; didn't see the 6A time, was thinking mid day; early would work a buzzer and spinnerbait around the humps, then survey the area.

[Sfritr]

First thing I would do would be kneel on my casting deck and thank the fishing gods for letting me find a spot like that.  

Then I would fan cast the edges with search baits before honing in on specific spots.  Probably drop a nice big swimbait along the ridge as well.

[Bassn Blvd]

Very simple.  

Only need 3 rods/baits here: Zaraspook, crankbait and T-rig worm.

I would start with the spook for a good half hour to 45 min. If no fish then switch to the crankbait.

I would throw the crankbait for 1/2 hour and if no takers then go to the worm.

I'd give the worm a solid hour.  By now it would be 8:30-9:00 O'clock and if I haven't produced then I'm going home.

In fact, I'd be going home regardless if they were biting or not.

[bigtimfish]

So Catt I gave my gameplan. How would you attack this area?

[Catt]

Just curious as to how each individual would approach this scenario; was hoping for more participation.    

360 degree attack

[tyrius.]

Just curious as to how each individual would approach this scenario; was hoping for more participation.

I'd just be jealous of those with a boat.  Doesn't look like I'd be able to cast far enough from shore to reach it!!!  

[Busy]

6:00 am is a little too late for me to go for the topwater bite.  I'd be throwing 1/4oz spinner baits through all those stumps and progress to bigger spinnerbaits especially around the edge of the channel.  After combing the water for a while I'd get around the bottom with a T-rigged worm and work it around the humps and saddle.

Mid afternoon I'd drag craws along the bank-side of the channel up towards the point in the background and look for good structure on the slow taper on the way back.

[TommyBass]

Well to sit and guess is hard to do... I would start shallow and work deeper with the day.  Trying to anticipate good areas on those spots is nice... but if we were all bass fortune tellers we wouldn't be sitting here thinking about it, we'd be fishing toward the classic.  I would start by working my way around it covering as much water as possible at varying depths, maybe with a nice deep diver or C-rig.  Once I caught a few Id work toward using a jig to find the ever so needed Spot within the Spot.

[Muddy]

Gotta wait until I get home, work computer filtered out the pic RATSSSSS

[vatech]

Dynamite.  ;D

[RoLo]

The word "structure has been convoluted over time, so it was intentionally omitted herein.

I own a GPS unit and depth sounder, so I see little need for locator lures.

In the real world, I'd have to spend most or all of the first day visually inspecting the terrain

and sounding the trial sites I selected on the home computer using the GPS contour map.

Taking it afield, I'd now have two major onsite tasks before me:

1) Confirm the quality of each drop-off selected at home, regarding the steepness of the slope

and its magnitude (depth range between crest and base). That means that each trial site will generate two waypoints.

Although humans have many names for bottom contour, to a bass it's just a Rapid Change in Depth.

That is, spots that we may dub a ridge, sunken island, lump, hump, channel, bank, bar, reef, hole, ditch, ad nauseam.

2) Evaluate the quality of the cover, which is something that cannot be performed at home,

but must be performed onsite. The weeds, wood and rocks need to be evaluated, both submergent and emergent.

At the same time, breaklines of any kind will be sought (soft and hard) using both the naked eye and depth sounder.

What may seem like a lot of work to another fisherman, happens to be my favorite facet of fishing.

Assuming I were ready to fish, I'd probably begin in the shallows where the best cover was found.

Bass are passive most of the time, so working the shallows would encounter aggressive bass (strike while the iron is hot).

With winds between 5 and 10 mph (mild ripple) I'd probably start on top with something like a Stanley Ribbit floater.

In this light breeze, I would not position the boat upwind, but place it within casting distance for both boatmates,

then use the electric motor thereafter. Unless I encountered a topwater bite, I wouldn't spend more than 10 to 20 minutes

on the surface.

While working the top, I'd be anxious to move to a subsurface lure. Though it may only be inches below the surface,

my confidence level tends to rise the closer my lure is to the bottom. More time would be spent in midwater than

that spent on top, but the vast majority of time (all the rest) would be spent combing the bottom with soft plastics,

especially the mighty "Plastic Worm". Needless to say, the whole time attempting to stay within the spot on the spot.

If there's a mild breeze running parallel to the breakline, that might allow me to drift fish.

More often the case, it'll be necessary to anchor-up to hold the boat position over pinpointed features,

particularly as the wind picks up later in the day.

Roger

[Bass_Akwards]

Wow, mouthwatering spot bro.  What's fun is you get to try a bunch of different things here.  

Start with buzzbaits early.  Then when the sun comes up, I can't imagine why you wouldn't love to throw a shakey head in this spot.  If that doesn't absolutely crush 'em, why not a beautiful Jig n Pig?  God I'd even huck a Rapala DT-10 in there and bounce it off those beautiful pieces of cover.

After looking at that picture, I officially have honey hole ***.

[WRB]

Just revisiting the thread and reading the replies when it dawned on, almost everyone has missed the main theme. The honey hole as some has claimed is simply 2 humps connected to a long point that drops off into a channel; outside structure.

Catt has posted a picture of the type of structure he has been describing in several posts; humps. The fact that this is a low water condition photo that exposes the humps and wood cover, this is what lays underwater out away from the bank in nearly every bass lake. Out of sight out of mind and the bank fishermen pass this up everyday, missing the home of larger bass.

WRB

[Catt]

It is nearly impossible to see in the picture but from the description and a little 3D vision in the minds eye this is in fact the end of the point. Picture in your minds eye a point that tapers down towards a creek channel; the humps were actually at one time low bluffs along the creek channel. The same mind trick takes place when looking at a topographical map or depth finder screen, it turns off the our 3D part of our brain focusing only in 1D. It's easier when the entire terrain is viewed in the back ground but for this demonstration it worked fine. If your game plan evolved simply attacking from one direction you may have never noticed what was in front of you other than good looking but not great looking structure.

From WRB's post some times you have to look more than once for it to register

[Fishing Rhino]

Never fished a place like that, so it would be all guesswork for me.

Nonetheless, I'll give it a shot, since it often works well around here, though mostly with rocks, not timber.

I'd toss a wacky jig head hook, or similar with a Strike King finesse worm on the shady side of everything that is deeper than four feet.

I'm on a tear recently.  Had been using spinnerbait or chatterfrog in three foot depths, typical wacky rigged on circle hook in the deeper water, and small wacky rigged or Rage Tail in the shallows.

I wanted to try some finesse stuff, so I rigged some Megastrike ShakE2 with finesse worms and SK caffein shad, and have done well.  I tried the Wacky Jig Head hooks with smaller senko style and they worked very well.  Also worked with the Owner twistlock jig head rigged weedless with a finesse worm and liked it as well.

Today was windy, and started off with a couple of two pounders and a dink, then nothing.

Changed all the jig heads to wacky style worming with finesse rather than Senko style and Bingo.  I was into the fish again.  They loved them on the drop.

It seems to me that dropping something like that in the shadows would be effective.

With surface temps that high, and the sun that strong, the shallows have to be scalding to a bass.  I would not expect them to be in anything less than three, four or maybe even more feet of water.

The above is nothing more than conjecture.  No experience in the situation you posed.

[Pond Hopper]

That late in the morning would be a swim jig, worked along the edges of the drop off parallel to the island.  After that would be a big worm worked along the bottom from a depth of 6-15 feet depending on where the lake was stratifying.  Chances are the fish would be in that range, relating to some structure, and obviously near some cover.  My casts would be either from a similar depth range to the same, or from deeper water to shallower, pulling it down the contour.

[Fishing Rhino]

That late in the morning would be a swim jig, worked along the edges of the drop off parallel to the island. After that would be a big worm worked along the bottom from a depth of 6-15 feet depending on where the lake was stratifying. Chances are the fish would be in that range, relating to some structure, and obviously near some cover. My casts would be either from a similar depth range to the same, or from deeper water to shallower, pulling it down the contour.

I do the opposite when it comes to casting, and here's why. It has to do with the "scope" of the line.

When anchoring, you need to use more line in deep water  than in shallow. The simple quick answer is, duhhh, of course you need more line, the water is deeper.

An anchor will not hold if you let out only enough line for the anchor to reach bottom. Anchors work best when the force against them does not exceed a specific angle.

As you retrieve, you are shortening the line that is out, thus reducing the "scope" and exerting a more upward pull on the line.

By casting into deeper water, when you retrieve, you do not reduce the "scope" as quickly, making it easier to maintain contact with the bottom. Pulling the lure into deeper water means you have to progressively slow the retrieve to maintain contact.

When I find the fish at a given depth, I'll cast parallel to the shore, or if its a point or ledge extending outward from the shore, I cast along that depth line.

I figure the longer (time and distance) the bait is in the zone, the greater the chance of a strike.

I may be all wet. It's just a different perspective.

[fishfordollars]

I want the big bite first. I'm starting out in the deeper portions of the funnell and working my way shallower.  I would also thorw a jig, 10" plastic, and a trick worm at every piece of wood I could find and slowly work my way in to the shallow water  concentrating on the funnell edges and where it tails into the points. As I neared the 6-10 ft water I would be also throwing a trap(Gold/BLK back with an orange spot). No wind pushing any bait so they should be staged a little deeper. Depending on the bite as to whether I'm going on in shallow. This is a big bite area so I am going to stay a little deeper.

As far as the other side with the hog back I would probably make a quick early pass on the back side of each point just to pick off some feeding fish. I would definately keep an eye on this area watching for schooling fish as the day went on. If this area had any grass I would cover it with a plastic, a blade, and a trap just in case it was being overlooked by other fishermen.

Mid day I am out in the 17-35 ft depths where I started fishing a large plastic and a DD 22. If the bite is off out deep I have no problems moving back up in the 6-10' depths midday fishing the heavy grass and timber with a jig and large plastic. You just never know so I would keep the mid depths checked.