Whether you're fishing your home waters or an unfamiliar lake, investing in the right bank can pay big dividends.
Finding the right bank becomes a key to success anytime bass are shallow. In many bodies of water throughout the country, bass remain close to the shoreline year-round, but the types of banks the fish prefer vary with the seasons.
Taking the time to analyze a bank and study its features helps you discover honey holes that produce for you year after year. The search for ideal banks begins with a study of contour lines on a topographic map. Wide bands of contour lines indicate shallow flats, while tightly bunched lines represent steeper banks. The prevailing seasonal pattern helps you pinpoint the section of the lake and the type of bank you need to fish in.
After consulting the map and picking some banks to check, narrow your choices by scouting the areas. Inspect the area's bottom composition to determine its bass-holding potential. Bass generally prefer hard bottoms over silted-in muck.
Let's look at how to analyze a bank to determine whether it's worth investing a lot of time and effort throughout a day of fishing.
Bank On Big Rocks And Logs
Big isolated rocks and logs are key ingredients for finding an ideal bank. Shorelines with this type of cover seem to attract more quality bass.
Big bass hang around big boulders when the water is colder in the spring and fall. Logs usually hold more big bass during the summer. Big logs along flats are ideal spots for catching heavyweight bass in the summertime.
Since most anglers like to fish visible wood, try searching for banks that have a lot of underwater wood cover by relying on your electronics or just while fishing down the bank. Even if you are not getting bites, if you feel your lure bumping into things along the bottom, that is a good place to keep fishing.
A shoreline with a steeper slope is usually more productive than a gradually sloping bank unless that water color is stained to murky. In dirtier water, target flatter banks with shallow laydowns where the ends of the logs are only about 3 feet deep. On clear-water reservoirs, the best banks usually feature steeper slopes with heavy cover and big rocks.
Baitfish Attractors
The presence of a bass' favorite forage aids you in a search for the right bank. If there are baitfish in an area, there will be bass there too.
You can scan your electronics for shad when idling along a bank. If you don't see baitfish actually flicking the surface in the shallows, then look for any baitfish on your depth finder. Even if baitfish are on the surface, keep a vigil on your electronics to see if any bait might be holding in deeper water nearby.
Shores lined with docks are considered prime cover for bass and dining areas for shad that eat the algae off dock floats and posts. The docks provide shade and ambush points for bass, and regardless of the time of year, there are always some baitfish and bass around the docks.
Transitions And Irregularities
Another key element to search for along a bank is a transition spot. Classic examples of transition spots are shorelines that change from boulders to chunk rock or from chunk rock to pea gravel or mud.
Look for irregularities when scouting for the right bank for bass. When searching in a creek or bay, try to find the side that has irregular contours, such as a flat with more than one or several guts, drains, and underwater breaks along the bottom. Sometimes, the irregularities are not evident from the surface, so you must investigate with your electronics because these areas are usually highly productive banks. If you find these sweet spots that are undetected by the casual passerby, you will find bass stacked up there, especially when the deep cuts run close to the flat bank.
Bank irregularities in creeks can also be created by the accumulations of drifting wood or logs. Key on flat banks that catch the most wind where the drifting wood accumulates in the shallows and lodges in the mud. The logs become prime permanent cover for bass when the water level drops.
Sun and wind also play roles in determining a bank selection process. In the spring, try fishing north or northeast banks where the sun in the Southern Hemisphere shines the most during that time of year. In the summertime, focus more on the direction of the wind than the sun's location to find the most productive banks. Anywhere the wind blows into the bank, it is best to fish no matter what direction the bank faces.
Finding these types of banks will help you invest your fishing time in the most productive manner. These banks are so valuable that you can return to the spots throughout the day or multiple days and continue to catch bass.
