Where Are The Bass?
How often have you gotten ready for a bass fishing trip to a body of water you have not yet fished and found yourself wondering where are the fish are? Fear not, for this is not a problem that only happens to you as it is one of the more commonly discussed fishing topics in bass fishing.
Learning the right ways to go about detecting the hot spots for bass can be rather challenging and even frustrating at times. This is due to the many factors that are all dependent upon each other. You must know how to read your map, you must be able to seek out the more practical locations where active bass might be both in the early spring, late fall and after a cold front. You must understand water depths, temperature and clarity, seasonal patterns, and how to find structured areas or areas with vegetation.
The key to learning how to use a lake map is to study it over all at first and then divide the lake into sections. You then fish the sections and note any hot spots accordingly. Plot anything on the map where you notice irregular contours, vegetation, shallow water in close proximity to deeper water and any kind of structure.
There are many different kinds of techniques and baits that can be used when bass fishing, but many of these are rather tricky to master since so much bass fishing consists of fishing within grass and weeds. This can lead to a lot of tangled fishing tackle. Unfortunately, this is one of the best places to find your bass is the spots that are rather full of grass and weeds.
If you are having a difficult time locating weeds then there are other things in the water to keep an eye out for. Be on the lookout for overhanging tree branches, stumps, rocky areas, road beds, docks and ditches. All of these places are popular homes and hideouts of bass. As long as you are not making the mistake of fishing for bass in open water, then you are probably in a decent location.
Always be sure that you have done your research on the area that you have never fished before. Many times just learning about that new environment can help give you clues as to when to fish and with which kinds of lures. Always have a variety of tackle, fishing gearnd a great deal of patience.