By L. Taylor
Answer these five
questions and you’ll find the fish.
With Oklahoma’s Lake Wister severely
flooded but falling quickly, Harry Padgett was confident that the fish would be
up a certain creek and relating to flooded wood or the briar patches common
around the shorelines. With the water falling, he figured the fish might be on
the outside edge of the flooded timber and pastures instead of buried into the
middle of the thick stuff.
We caught a bundle of stout
largemouths in short order, making things seem almost too easy. For me, it was
easy, because Padgett did most of the thinking. All I had to do was throw my
spinnerbait around the stuff he said they would be using.
In many rivers and lakes, the
task of locating fish in thousands of acres of water is daunting. It often
seems like the fish could be anywhere. Too often, anglers allow the big-picture
view to overwhelm them and they simply start fishing, picking a bank at random
and casting to everything that looks like it could hold a fish. Occasionally
that works; usually, it does not.
Padgett, an Arkansas tournament
angler, takes a much more systematic approach that begins with looking at
things from the bass’ perspective. Always taking into account the type of water
he is fishing and what he has learned about fish in his own part of the
country, he considers the five factors that he has found to have the greatest
impact on a bass’ locations and behavior: season, water, temperature, water
color, water level and weather.
SEASON
Season provides answers to many
big-picture questions that help you know where to begin searching for fish. Are
stages of the spawn a factor? Should the fish be on mid-summer structure? Are
they apt to be following baitfish up creeks? Not all fish in a lake do the same
things at the same time, but thinking about the season helps you narrow
thoughts about where most fish should be.
Season, more so than other
controlling factors, must be tied with geography. Fish finish spawning in
Florida while Minnesota lakes remain frozen. Pay attention to when things
happen on the bodies of water closest to you, and that will give you the first
piece of the puzzle.
WATER TEMPERATURE
Narrowing the focus a little
more, the water temperature reveals more about how the fish will behave and
about where they will be. Anglers too often ignore the temperature readings shown
on their electronics.
Exactly how the temperature
comes into play depends upon the season. During the summer, you’re often
looking for those areas that are a couple of degrees cooler than the rest of
the lake. During winter, the opposite is true. Through spring and fall,
temperatures help you know how far along fish are likely to be either in
spawning phases or in transitional moves.
The water temperature, which
can change as a day progresses, also affects the activity level of the fish. When
the water is somewhat cool late in the fall, for example, the fish often will
become more active and may move shallower as the day progresses and the water
warms.
WATER COLOR
The water was heavily stained
where Padgett and I fished. That’s the common condition at Wister, especially
in the spring, and it influences the normal behavior of the fish. Generally
speaking, dirtier water causes fish to stay shallow, hold tight to cover and
rely heavily on their lateral lines for finding meals. In clear water, the fish
are more apt to use offshore structure or cruise flats and to feed visually.
Also take note of how water
clarity varies within a body of water. If a lake was badly muddied by a big
rain but the backs of its creeks have begun to clear, there’s a good chance
that feeding fish will be concentrated in the clear water.
Understanding the influence of
water color helps you pick potentially productive areas and to choose the best
lures to use. It also impacts color selections. Padgett’s picks range from
darker colors that are easy for fish to see for dirty water to translucent
colors for very clear water.
WATER LEVEL
Some waterways are subject to
massive level fluctuations, while others only vary slightly. Most go up and
down some, though, and the fish tend to move up and down with the water. High
water generally pushes fish toward the banks, especially when new cover gets
flooded. Low water draws fish out toward creek and river channels.
In most rivers and many
reservoirs, high water has the added effect of creating current, which helps
position the fish because they either move into pockets that are fully
protected from the flow or they hold in predictable positions behind trees,
dock supports or other current-breaking pieces of cover.
As with other variables
discussed, the trend is at least as important as the current conditions. In
other words, as you look at the level and consider how the fish will react, also
take into account whether the water is rising or falling (or neither) and how
the trend will impact the fish’s positioning.
WEATHER
The weather is a “constant
variable,” according to Padgett, and the bass gave evidence to that as we
fished together. The morning began bright, and while the sun continued shining
the fish bit well. When thick clouds settled in a few hours into the trip, the
bite slowed dramatically and the fish repositioned themselves.
Rising
and falling pressure, rain, clouds, sunshine, steady wind… many weather
conditions dictate where the fish are likely to be, so watch for clues. Pay
especially close attention to any condition that changes during the day and
note how that change affects the fish.
BRINGING IT TOGETHER
To cover all variables involved
would require “a very large volume,” according to Padgett, and there’s no
simple, specific formula that leads to the fish every time. That said, giving
fair and intentional consideration to these factors and taking into account
acquired knowledge about the waters you are fishing can be a major step toward putting
fish in the boat.
Of course, Padgett doesn’t
assume anything, but lets the fish provide the final answers each day.
“I’m still trying and
learning,” he said, “because, after all, the fish make the rules and can change
their rules when and where they choose.”
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