No cover, No Structure... No Problem!

Close your eyes and dream of the ideal "honey hole"... You may imagine some form of aquatic grass, lily pads, a stump field, fallen timber, a dock, deep brush, a point, a rocky bank, a culvert pipe or some other kind of structure/ cover. We are visual creatures, we like visualizing a strike, we like to picture what our lure is doing when it is hopping and weaving through the brush as we anticipate a strike! But what if there is nothing visual to throw at? No trees, no grass, no rocks, stumps or docks... 

We are so enamored with "beating the bank." It's like a magnet that pulls us in! We grew up learning how to fish from shore and that cover/ structure is where a majority of our bites came from. And when we don't get bites on our favorite stuff we say "they're just not biting." Here in the Smoky Mountains the lakes are pulled way down to winter pool and there is either very little or no structure/ cover in the water. This keeps a lot of anglers off the water because "they don't bite in the Winter" or (there is nothing to throw at, which can be intimidating).

Here's a little secret, as long as a fish is living it is burning calories, as long as it is burning calories it needs to eat! The only reason why a fish gets locked on to cover or structure is because it holds food. Being that we have an abundance of shad (and I mean an abundance) the fish continuously gorge because they have to eat! When there is nothing to throw at, the schools of SHAD BECOME YOUR STRUCTURE AND COVER! If you find shad or some other kind of bait you have found where the bass will hold! Shad very rarely swim directly on the bank but will often swim in the middle or top of the water column. So the question becomes "How do you find shad?"

Shad eat plankton which are often on the top 1/3 of the water column. Wind creates surface current and will blow plankton, the shad follow the plankton, the bass follow the shad and we follow the bass! I call it "chasing the wind." Using your electronics are also very helpful in keying in on what depth the schools of fish are active as well as where the specific schools of baitfish are located! This will then help you narrow down your bait selection to match the hatch! 

If there is one thing to remember when the lakes are pulled down with nothing to visually throw at, the bait or SHAD BECOME YOUR STRUCTURE AND COVER! Match the hatch!