04/04/2000
- Article
Subtle
Transitions Attract Fish
They
may be hard to find, but changes in bottom composition can be
important to anglers searching for fish. Here’s how to find them.
In
the world of the structure fisherman, mountains dominate the mind.
When you talk structure with many anglers, they appear to think only
of spots where the bottom rises or falls a significant amount such
as drop-offs, points, and humps. There is a forgotten, maybe
misunderstood for many perhaps undiscovered component of structure
that can and does funnel fish activity, and can and does lead to a
lot of nice catches. For those who find it, that is.
It
sounds mysterious, and in a lot of ways it is, because it can be
difficult to find. Bottom depth might not change much, if at all,
where you find this potential hotspot. We are talking about changes
in bottom composition. The line the zone where sand gives way to
gravel, gravel reverts to larger rocks, mud changes to marl, is an
edge in every sense of the word. And edges collect life, in any
natural environment. In many cases, weeds begin to grow along this
edge. On this line could be the beginning (or end, depending on
which direction a fish is coming from) of a feeding field ripe with
emerging insects. A change in bottom composition can also be a
change in color, which might allow prey items to hide. Therefore,
just on the other side of the color change could lurk predators.
Whatever
the reason, whatever the specific situation, changes in bottom
composition are significant to anglers searching for fish. Changes
in bottom composition are also structure in every sense of the word,
fitting nicely into structure Guru Buck Perry’s original
definition of the term. The bottom line is that more anglers should
study the bottom line, that line where one type of bottom
composition meets another.
Finding
the Bottom Line
This
advice (that you should look for the transition between different
bottom compositions) is not new. Cutting edge fishing magazines have
been writing about it for many years. But the rub has always been
that these zones are not easy for the average angler to pinpoint.
With today’s best sonar units, you can definitely locate changes
in bottom composition, but it takes practice and an educated eye.
On
a flasher, you can tell when you go from soft bottom to hard bottom,
because the signal gets brighter as the bottom gets harder. Also,
the bottom signal gets wider, and often a second echo of the bottom
appears on the display. Advanced flasher users have learned to
notice a dithering of the bottom signal when their boat is over an
area with larger rocks or boulders (larger rocks have gaps between
them, which show up as the bottoming out of the dithering pattern).
On relatively smoother bottom surfaces (regardless of whether
they’re soft or hard), the dithering disappears.
On
a liquid crystal (graph) unit, the bottom signal is narrower when
the bottom is softer, wider when it’s harder. Also, many units
have a feature known as grayline (or similar name), which helps you
distinguish between stronger and weaker signals. Stronger echoes are
sent back to your transducer by harder bottom, and are displayed as
a wider gray area. The wider the grayline, the harder the bottom. By
watching your display closely, you can tell when you move from areas
of harder to softer lake bottom.
Astute
trollers of crankbaits can purposely choose lures that will at least
occasionally bump bottom, and sensitivity (the ability to tell what
kind of bottom is being bumped) is greatly enhanced with no-stretch
superlines. For example, you might choose a #9 Shad Rap, trolled on
superline, to check out a 20-22 foot flat. Adjusting the amount of
line you let out will allow the lure to regularly contact bottom.
With practice, you can tell whether that lip is ticking rocks or
softer substrate.
The
best crankbait casters are masters at flirting with the bottom, too,
and learn a lot about the makeup of a lake by purposely dragging
their lures through the mud, so to speak. Rapala pro staffer David
Fritts deliberately tries to get hung up when he’s practicing for
a tournament, partly to determine exactly how deep every individual
lure in his box runs and partly to check out what the spot is made
of.
How
to Know For Sure
Nothing
will ever beat seeing something with your own two eyes. Until now,
serious anglers who wanted a fish’s eye view of the underwater
world had to become scuba divers. But now, with the emergence of
relatively inexpensive underwater cameras many with infrared
capabilities to allow viewing in dim surroundings you can see for
sure what’s down there.
This
would appear to be the investigative tool of the future, and the
technology with which the masses will finally scope out the
transition zones between rock and gravel, mud and sand. By putting
in some viewing time, you can get to know the subtleties previous
generations of anglers could only guess about.
Note:
These articles are provided by the Rapala Professional Advisory
Team. Join the Rapala
Fishing
Club, and help shape future lures! You get a prototype lure and
become a Field Evaluator! You also get 6 issues of “Profile,”
the Club publication, and two different decals. Cost is $12 in the
U.S., $17 in Canada, and $25 in all other countries. Send membership
dues to: Rapala Club, Dept. SC, POB 581126, Minneapolis, MN 55458.
|
