| Boat Positioning | |
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By: "The Bass Coach" Roger Lee Brown
One of the biggest problems or mistakes an angler will make when fishing drop-offs, steep ledges or bluffs is that they will usually position their boat to far away (or out from) the contour of the structure itself.
For example, if I was going to fish along side a ledge or bluff, I’d surly want to keep my bait where the bass are "normally close to or near the structure areas"..... Now, where would be the most probable place to position a boat in this situation? If you guessed parallel and as close to the structure as possible, you’re right!
The reason for this is because if you make a cast parallel (or along side) of the ledge the bait would remain in a close proximity to the ledge, especially if you added some weight to the bait (like plastic baits, jigging spoons, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, etc.) right?
Now, what would happen with one of these baits mentioned if I was out from the ledge or bluff at least a good casting distance away and made a cast as close as I could to the ledge area? The answer is that the bait will hit the water (unless you smack it against the ledge, which we all do!) and will start to sink, but when it starts sinking it will start moving or drifting away from the ledge back in the direction towards your boat, kind of like a pendulum swing and the result would be that it would fall away from the fish area and wind up under your boat to far away from where the fish are holding.
Fishing point drops:
Points are probable one of the best areas you will ever fish for bass on most any body of water, and they can be fished many different ways. One of the best ways to fish a point would usually be to fish the back side of either a current or windy point area as close as you can get to the point itself, especially if you happen to find any structure or irregular drops on the bottom contour.
Now, keeping this important factor in mind, 99% of the time the bass are facing "INTO" the current or wind!, so the most logical place to position your boat would be facing into the wind or current (more times than not you’ll have to keep on your trolling motor to hold your boat in place) on the back side of the point casting into the wind or current and retrieving your bait across the point! Sometimes, the bass will hide behind whatever structure
or contour is offered and wait for the food source to come over the point and come up and take it.
Next page > Boat Control > Page 1, 2, 3, 4
If you have any questions concerning boat control and positioning or may be interested in my 3-day bass fishing school or just a day of bass fishing on Lake Champlain or Lake George, NY, please contact me anytime at my email address:
rlbrown@capital.net or you may phone me at: (518) 597-4240 or visit my sites at:
www.capital.net/~rlbrown or www.fishing-boating.com/basscoach
Until next time!.... Take Care & God Bless.... "The Bass Coach" Roger Lee Brown
