Structure fishing discussion

[chrisw]

I’m not happy with my ability to target striped bass on structure and would like to have input from the forum. In the interest of clarity, I’ve made a markup to a partial lake map that shows some interesting structure. This is NOT a section of SML, so no one needs to worry about their favorite spots being shared.

For the first figure, I’ve highlighted some areas that I THINK would be good areas to look for stripers in the summer. However, I know that looking for striped bass in these areas has brought me limited success in finding fish, let alone catching them, so the areas I’ve highlighted are WRONG. You can tell me why, and point me in the direction to get better at this.

I’m going to define summer for my purposes as the time of year when the spawn is complete, there is a defined thermocline, and the first cooldowns of late August or September have not happened yet. So roughly the first of June to the middle of September. This is also assuming dawn to dusk, because the shad spawn may mean that night fishing is mostly a shallow shoreline game, at least for the first half of the summer period. My assumption is that daytime activity during this period will be centered around the thermocline or slightly above it, and that the thermocline is between 20 and 30 feet deep. For shallow activity, such as at night, the map would look considerably different.

The other question I have is of course, once I’ve found good structure, how do I know I’ve found a good place to stop and fish versus moving on to the next likely area? In other words, what should the sonar look like? Everyone wants to see large schools of stripers making spaghetti on the screen, but I have never seen this even on other people’s boats, so I’m guessing it’s rare.



Depending on how this goes, I may make similar markups for other times of year and times of day. I’m also including a blank map in case someone wants to make their own notations.

[chrisw]

Blank map image.

[johnr]

It’s a lot to chew on if you’re trying to find striper structure in that map. So start with the process of eliminating water.

If you set out on your trip and you are marking a lot of “activity” at 25’, start your elimination of water right there. Cross off all the areas under 20’ deep. Next, try to identify abrupt changes to the structure in the 25-30’ range. And finally, find those areas along routes to-and-from baitfish concentrations, and nearest the baitfish concentrations.

Now go look at these areas. Look at the ones closest to main creek or river channels. Look for signs of bait. Look for a few arches hanging around. Look for nearby cover, trees, forests, etc. Sometimes you find the cake already cooled and frosted. Other times you gotta wait for it to bake. Either way, you need all the ingredients, including time/timing, before you get to eat it.

Stripers move a lot. Sometimes waiting them out in a likely area is a good bet.

I fished yesterday, not at SML. Structure fishing using my map. Found fish on the very first place I looked, never fished that spot before. Searched a dozen other similar spots, without seeing much. Went back to the first spot and started investigating for what was different. Rocks, and deep grass. Saw some crawdad exoskeletons floating. Lightbulb went off: near-new-moon probably had some of them molting, soft shells. They live in rocks. That’s why I found fish there right off. Once the sun got up the fish left because that bite was over, and I was fishing dawn spots during mid morning. Shoulda went off the breaks, or to brush or adjacent timber, or chasing bait in open water hunting wolfpacks. By lunchtime, the baitfish was pushed down onto deep point ends, and the fish were moving in too. Timing.

[chrisw]

Thanks John. There's a lot in your post and, I think it raises even more questions for me. Like:

How do you know to eliminate water <25' if you haven't started marking fish yet? Stripers can change depth very quickly just like they can change location quickly (unlike largemouths, which change depth slowly). What if you see one fish (and how do you know if it's a striper if there's only one?) at 25' and another at 10'? Some may even be near the surface and never show up on sonar at all. I will note that my depth assumption for daytime summer fishing has a big hole in it, because they aren't always confined to a certain depth, even when the surface is hot and there's a thermocline limiting oxygen below.

Yes, stripers move a lot, and waiting on them to show up can be a good bet. So that comes back to a variation on my original question: Given the contours shown, what areas would you be inclined to wait on, and which ones would you pass by if you didn't see anything?

One thing that is challenging about this concept for me is that stripers use structure and largemouths use structure, but they do not use it the same way. Largemouths, generally, use structure as something to stay within a few feet of and relate to directly. Stripers use it as a general area. They may be 100' or more away from the actual structure, suspended in the water column over deeper water nearby, but they are there because of the presence of that point or dropoff just the same as the largemouth is hiding behind a stump.

So once I've eliminated the shallowest of water because the sun is out and the surface water is hot, what else can I eliminate? I could just drift over the main lake basin and eventually make contact due to luck and the fact that the fish are moving. But few people fish that way. So how can I use bathymetric maps and my knowledge of the fish and food chain to increase the odds compared to blind luck?

[31Airborne]

My $0.02, based on my LM fishing.

Understanding the structure is one part, seeing how the fish are relating to said structure is another. You gotta look at both. Then to Johnr's point, stripers are pelagic. There are behaviors that can be patterned by season, but that's never going to be 100%. The only thing you can bank on 100% is that they'll move. Getting to a place where you understand to where and when is built upon tons of TOW, but even with all that TOW, you'll never be 100%. The fish always have a say.

Your approach to map study is impressive. I like the way you break it down into small chunks. This is a super way of getting to know a lake. Having a short list of places you've gotten to know allows to start from an informed position (vc a blank sheet of paper). The newer generation of electronix will allow you to shade the targeted depths and areas you want to avoid. The visual makes for faster decision making and [hopefully] smarter adjustments. It's been invaluable to me for patterning fish. tThink it'll help you.

[johnr]

What else can you eliminate? Start with areas that do not have any bait or fish activity. If you go in a creek and it’s barren, leave. If you search a series of points and outside creek bends and there’s no signs of life, leave. If you go in the very back of a creek and there is no bait, leave.

On the flip side, If you see the opposite of what I just mentioned, stay and search for the structure they’ll use to herd bait or travel up against.



From right to left:

Saddle- this is a shortcut from the main river channel into a likely feeding creek, provided the creek has food and suitable water conditions. Good place to encounter fish.

Creek bend - on the lower side of this area you have a prominent underwater point. Across the creek bed you have a steep cliff in an outside bend, capped by a relatively shallow complex of humps. This is a bait trap. A funnel. A neck down. Easy pickings for stripers. Nearby, on those old creek channel flats and downsloping ridges would be timber if it were SML. This is where stripers will hang until they go on the hunt. This is where they ambush bait. And bait will come here for cover during certain times of the day.

Creek bend 2 - again a tight bend where the channel narrows. Surrounded by shallower water, but leading right into the creek back where bait ought to get juicy. A good place for comings and going’s of gamefish and baitfish.

Check them all, looking for an activity zone. Find the active zone and focus in.

[herringbone]

This is some great breakdowns of excellent information. Absorb it, I am. Thank you John and 31 for the input. Hope I can pay it forward this detailed one day. Thanks again. I want to go ride and look at my sonar now. 😂

[mwardncsu]

Come on now - we all know the way you fish in the summer is to ride around looking for guide boats or a grouping of boats and just crowd your way in.. Googan style 😂

[johnr]

Jun 27, 2022 18:52:03 GMT -5 mwardncsu said:

Come on now - we all know the way you fish in the summer is to ride around looking for guide boats or a grouping of boats and just crowd your way in.. Googan style 😂

This is by far the best bet…

[chrisw]

Thanks for all the input, this is what I was hoping for. John, I like that you focused on the funnels. An article I read elsewhere mentioned the same thing, and two of the areas you highlighted were on my map too.

But we all know that different people focus on different areas, so who else sees an area they would want to check out?

P. S. There are no guideboats on my hypothetical map. 😂

[chrisw]

From Bentrod's Live Bait post:

"Well, if you haven’t caught on that Becky and Betty’s is generally a good location to look in the summer months, then you want to check the major feeder creeks around the mid to lower lake areas. Also look out in the main channel near trees and underwater humps, roadbeds, etc."

Ignoring the SML-specific reference, it sounds like he looks for mid-lake and lower lake creek channels, along with a combination of trees, underwater humps, and man-made structure in the main channel.

[johnr]

That advice is a very SML specific scenario. Unique lake here, especially compared to other Southeast reservoirs. The depth and amount of deep feeder creeks is what makes this place special. It also makes it fish much larger than it actually is.

But yes that advice is spot on for this lake in summer. (And winter).

[choochoo]

Beckys and Betty’s is no secret as far as being a good location. But when you learn why it is a good location, you will be on your way to figuring out more good locations. B and B is basically a giant fish trap. The trap is formed by the fact that the channel coming out of Betty’s does not run straight out to the main channel through the gap at the island. The Betty’s channel turns and runs south behind the island before joining the Becky’s channel. Then the combined channel continues to run south out by the condos, separated from the main river channel by the ridge coming south off the island. Fish moving up lake on the Franklin side end up diverting into the B and B channel and end up “caught” in the B and B area. In to summer they can be squeezed by hot surface water and the long shallow island ridge so that once they get in there they are “trapped” until they find their way back out the deep water in front of the condos. Ever wondered why the condos are hot in the summer? Bingo

[chrisw]

Jun 28, 2022 20:16:36 GMT -5 choochoo said:

Ever wondered why the condos are hot in the summer? Bingo

See, now you’re giving away secrets.

But not my secrets, so carry on. 😀

That area probably also traps more than a few boaters new to the lake during summer too, until they find their way out.

[chrisw]

Like this I guess is what you mean: