Hey folks Glenn may here with BassResource.com and I got a question the other day about boat traffic. When you're on the lake when there's lots and lots of boats out there during the summertime. How do you deal with that? How do you cope with that? How do you you strategize around it? Does it change your fishing at all? Well I'm gonna tell you what I do, and hopefully you can incorporate some of that into your style of fishing.
First of all, if I know that I'm gonna be on a lake that has a lot about traffic, the first thing I do is break out a map of the lake, even before I get on the water. What I want to do is look and see where the productive areas that I want to fish that day, and then I narrow down by, okay what are the areas that are going to be exposed the most by all that boat wakes? All the all the boat traffic in and what might be disturbed during the peak of the day. Those are the areas I want to fish first.
Typically that's the main lake points, the bays that are completely exposed. But even then I narrow down even further and I look at what are the areas that might be a hazard, a safety issue. Places where there's lots of high boat traffic that I'm probably don't want to be right in that traffic during the day.
So for example the entrances to marinas, or a sharp point where if I want to fish away from it, if a boat might come winging around it on the plane and suddenly I'm right his path, that's a dangerous situation. So those areas I'm definitely going to fish first in the morning.
Then as the day progresses and the boat traffic increases, I'm gonna go to areas that are a little more protected, such as inside the boat marinas, if they allow fishing in there, or in the backs of coves and creeks and bays, or even little channels - especially those areas that are marked off with no wake zones. Those are perfect areas to fish when the lake is, out in the main lake is rock 'n roll n'.
As a matter fact, here's a little tip, on those long pockets were the no wake zone, you gotta go way way to the back or even canals were it might take you 20-25 minutes to idle all the way towards the back, I found that the further back you go often times the more productive the water is. And that's for the simple reason is there's not a whole lot of fishing pressure back there. Specially you tournament guys, you don't want to spend a whole lot of time in a 45 to 1 hour round-trip back in those coves just idling and not fishing, that's a lot of time when your in a tournament. So if you're out there fishing and you want to get away from the boat traffic and get to some areas that are pretty productive, hit some of those pockets. A lot of guys are willing to go that far.
Now conversely I've noticed some areas actually turn on because of all the boat wakes. Those tend to be areas that have milfoil on them. And that's the simple reason the wakes get going, they churn up and then that starts breaking away all the algae and some of little bugs that are in algae, and the bait fish come in and start feeding on them, and of course the bass come in to to follow them. So those areas, some of the areas that I found be really productive in the morning. I might hit those later in the day where the wakes are hitting them really hard and stirring it up. Sometimes that turns them on.
The fishing can even be better.
This is actually especially true in clear water lakes. A lot of areas where I fish, you have visibility of 10 feet or more, and some of these lakes you can see the bottom in 30-40 feet of water. I kid you not. It's like bathwater. The light penetration is key on those lakes.
A lot of times, those lakes are really good when it's cloudy out, raining or when the wind is up. But on those bright sunny summer days, you've got straight sunlight going through them, and sometimes when the boat traffic gets going, and the wakes pick up, and it breaks down that light penetration, it can actually improve the fishing.
Matter-of-face a friend of mine found a little pattern during a tournament, I can't take credit for this but it was brilliant, he found while he was fishing, the only time he got bit is when a boat came by and the wake kicked it. The area that he was fishing in, and then he would get bit. After awhile he figured that out, and actually he would motor out, kick on his big motor and do a couple of 360s out there, and motor back really quick and throw right back in the wakes that he just created, and he would get bit. So cool little tip especially on clear water lakes.
So don't be afraid to fish those areas that have a lot of wakes. But I personally I don't like to fish them all day long because I'm wore out at the end of the day. My legs are hurting, my back is hurting.
So try those tips out. I hope they help. For more tips and tricks and for answers for all your bass fishing questions visit BassResource.com.
