Follow Bass To Transition Banks

The seasons dictate where a bass will be any time during the year. They typically are in deeper water in wintertime, shallow water in spring, deeper water in summer, and shallow time during the fall. They're constantly moving around. And to move from those deeper areas to shallow and vice versa, they use migration routes.

And a lot of times the migration route could be nearly identical, almost the same, regardless of season. And what they use along those ways is, and I call these transition banks, they'll use the certain banks along those migration routes where it'll act as holding areas where the bass will be. And these are the areas I target during those transition periods between the seasons. That's what I look for where you can catch a lot of bass.

Transition banks, what am I talking about? Usually, so if you look on a map, whether it's on your graph or you have a paper map, yeah, I know, paper map. Some of you guys don't have electronics. Maybe you fish from the bank or you fish from canoes and you don't have all these electronics. Paper maps work just the same. They're very good.

What you're looking for is an area where all those lines all get together, gets dark. They all, like, stack up against each other. That signifies a very steep drop. That's what you're looking for. And even if you don't have a map, you can still look on the bank and you can see where it gets steep. You can visualize under the water it's going to still be steep. Those are the type of things you want. A bluff works really well. Just a real sharp, 45 or steeper bank. Maybe where a channel swings up against the bank and it creates that steep drop. That's what you're looking for. Those are the type of things where they'll stack up on.

Now to make it a little bit more interesting is you got to go look at these things. But first of all, where it transitions from really steep to not as steep or maybe transitions from a steep bank to a flat, those transitions within a transition will be hotspots. Narrow down even more where it changes in bottom composition. So chunk rock to scattered rock or maybe to pea gravel or gravel or it transitions from pea gravel to a soft or muddy bottom. Those changes, that will hold bass on those transition banks. So look for those areas when you're there. You're not going to find that on a map per se. You got to go look at it. You got to go check out that bank.

Even more so, look for other changes and anomalies on that bank. For example, laydowns or scattered boulders, right, or scattered vegetation, or a weed line. Those type of things will hold bass on those transition areas. Docks are excellent cover that really holds a lot of bass on a transition bank.

Even more so, look for little indentations and changes along the shoreline. It could be very subtle. Something that's even smaller than the size of your boat can make a big difference, like fish. A river that's got a lot of current and there's a certain bank that I find that's very productive and one of the reasons has these little points that come out. They don't come out more than 3, 4, or 5 feet at the most from the shoreline. The bigger ones are like 4 to 5 feet. Some of these are so subtle you might not even notice. But it's just enough to break the current, and for some reason, it's a little deeper, a little bit of a hole right there and the bass will sit up right behind that little...they'll be right up on the shoreline, stacked up there during these transition periods and you cast a lure up there and, bam, you're going to catch one.

I can go down the whole shoreline and hit those little bitty points, turn around, come back at the beginning, and do it again. I can just rinse, lather, repeat. Catch a lot of fish that way. So pay attention to those subtle nuances and changes on these transition banks during these transition seasons, and this is what will increase your catch rate.

The difference on these is even though the bass use the same or very similar migration routes and transition banks during the year, how you approach them, how you fish them differs by season. So if it's, for example, winter transitioning to spring, at the beginning of that transition period, you're fishing deeper lures and slower-moving lures. Suspending jerk baits, for example, jigs on the bottom, tube jigs, right, drop shot.

But as the temperature warms up and the fish are more active and a little more shallower and they get towards the other end of the migration route, now you're throwing faster moving baits like spinnerbaits, lipless crankbaits, even topwater, you can throw that in the mix and catch those aggressive fish as they get ready to spawn.

When they're transitioning from spring to summer, again, that kind of opens up your arsenal. Now they're more active, so you can fish just about anything. It's really more about what kind of cover dictates what you're going to throw. So for example, if you've got a lot of woody cover and weeds, throwing treble hook baits is probably going to just annoy you. You're going to get hung up a lot. So fishing Texas rig, plastics, for example, or topwater, throwing spinnerbaits over the tops of these tends to work really well when they're very aggressive. But when they're in the weeds and they're in these logs, then you want to throw Texas rig baits or jigs, things like that that don't get hung up. 

When they're again transitioning from summer to fall, they're...bass are focused on baitfish right now. So you'd better be throwing crankbaits, either lipless crankbaits or deep-diving crankbaits, medium-diving crankbaits. If they're in the logs, in the weeds, maybe a square bill. They don't get hung up as much.

Topwater plays a role, so are spinnerbaits. Those are minnow-type baits. The topwaters I would be throwing would be minnow-type baits that struggle on the surface like a Zara Spook or maybe an Abino 110F from Nishine Lure Works. That's a double prop bait. Those type of prop baits that create a lot of commotion look like a struggling baitfish. Large popper-style baits, those work really well in the fall.

And then again, when they're transitioning from the fall to winter, it's just the reverse of spring. Same thing, faster-moving baits towards the beginning of fall. As you get into winter, you're going back to those slower type baits, those suspending jerkbaits again, and baits that are on the bottom. But those, you still are attacking the same transition routes and those are the same migration routes and the same transition banks. You just approach them a little bit different depending on the season.

Hope that helps. Hope you catch a lot more fish doing it that way. For more tips and tricks like this, visit bassresource.com.