RIVER CHANNELS[/b]
Wow what a massive topic! Whilst I was competitive fishing I use to read a lot of articles on Bass fishing in particular about structure and whenever I found something of interest I made a note of it in a big black book. This “Bass Bible†is still a reference whenever I fish a tournament, which unfortunetly nowadays does not happen very often. I am currently sitting in the armpit of Africa through business and will probably spend most of my life here for the next 5 years. Together with topographic maps it usually did the trick for me. I just referenced this book on River Channels and realized that the amount of info I have on river channels is huge! Probably the most info I have on any structure. I am a firm believer that all bass movement is relative to deep water.
In most dams, submerged channels are where the best fishing action can be found most of the year…….
In dams, river and creek channels serve the same functions for bass that roads do for humans. They are pathways for travel. They are focal points for “Neighborhoods.†They lend order to, what many times, is an otherwise featureless dam bottom. For these reasons, channels are fundamental in bass’ day to day existence. Good anglers understand this fact and pay this four star structure the attention it’s due. River channels and creek channels differ in some important respects, I’ll treat them separately in this article. All dams in South Africa have these channels and it’s important that anglers understand them properly.
I do honestly believe that if a person does not know how to fish a river channel he’s missing some of the best fishing there is. In my experience, and according to some pro’s, majority of bass in a dam will stay along these channels probably 75 percent of the year!
If you have any experience in coaching bass anglers or like taking out novice anglers every now and again you will understand that your main goal is to put these individuals onto fish. To many times we focus on showing them how to fish shallow water structure and we forget about channels. I mentioned to another Sealine member that I was privellaged enough to introduce an angler to bass fishing that is today under the top three in South Africa. I took the person to Witbank dam and unfortunately, or rather fortunately I would say, the shallow water bite was not on. We ended up fishing a creek channel with Carolina rigs and caught 30 – 40 bass, needless to say he was hooked and look where he is today!
River channels are very complex systems. Several variables are involved: Depth Ranges, Water Clarity, Amount of Current, Presence or Absence of Special Features like vegetation, timber, bottom content and seasonal patterns of the fish. All these things affect bass’ locations along channels and determine what anglers must do to catch them.
WHEN TO FISH RIVER CHANNELS
Knowing when to fish river channels is the first key to success. Except during spawning time, I believe in most dams most of the time, more bass will be deep than shallow. True, some fish will stay in shallow water all year long. But from the end of spawning season to the beginning of the next, the best odds are on the channels. Bass locations and fishing techniques for channels vary greatly between warm weather and cold. Following pertain to warm-water conditions only.
BASS LOCATIONS ALONG CHANNELS
After learning when to fish channels, you must know where to fish them. Approaching channels haphazardly will lead to confusion and frustration. You must be systematic in your approach to searching out this complex structure. For anglers fishing competitively the time to do this is not on competition day, you have to take time to go and do homework and find these areas before competition time.
Always look for an edge that drops off into deep water. Typically this is the old river bank, the bass feed along such edges, and they move off the drop and down into deep water when they’re not feeding or when they feel threatened. Next, look for different or unusual places along these structure edges. An example would be a few meters of bank that are a little higher than other banks in the same stretch of channel. Or it could be a stretch of bank with tree stumps washed up on it, or it could be a stretch of bank that have vegetation growing on it, a place where the channel bends, where the creek empties into the river channel, a hump or sunken island in the channel or where the bottom content changes from mud to gravel or sand, ANYTHING different from the majority of structure along the channel.
Be aware of water clarity and the fact that bass hold near shallower structure in murky water and deeper structure in clear water. Use the following a rule of thumb, in a dam where your visibility is from 30 cm to 2 meters, most fish will stay in 10 to 30 foot of water, assuming that the oxygen content is sufficient at these depths. Time of day may affect bass locations. If suitable structure is available in a range of depths, bass may hold shallower in the mornings and late afternoons, then slide deeper in the middle of the day.
The venue that comes to mind taking the above in consideration is a dam like Tzaneen dam. If you ever fished a tournament at Tzaneen you would have noticed that 90% of the anglers do what I call “bank bashing.†I have spent a considerable amount of time on this dam, studying topographic maps and searching with my depth finder. Fishing channels in this dam produced better quality fish for me. One particular channel that I can see in my mind right now are very interesting, from my boat looking at the bank I see a sand bank on both sides of a creek, the creek is not very long, from the main dam points probably 150 meters to the back of the creek. Yet when I check the creek channel I see a massive amount of brushes, trees and a hard bottom. The creek runs from 3 foot of water into 22 foot of water when it drops into the river channel. I religiously fish this creek when on the dam and this creek has accounted for many a fish, sometimes I get 2 fish sometimes I get my limit here. One particular tournament I stopped my boat about 300 meters before the creek and started fishing top water on the sand bank approaching the creek, before I reached the creak I had 5 fish in the boat and my partner 3 fish, YES on the sand bank! We did not bother to fish the creek as we wanted to leave fish for day 2. These fish were obviously in the process of migrating to the creek and my timing was perfect!
In the meantime another boat was watching us filling bags, needless to say when we arrived the next morning they were on the sand bank throwing top waters. Luckily for us they did bag one fish quickly which made them stay on the sand bank. We simply went to the creek channel where we threw top water in the back of the creek and filled our bags. Later we went to the deeper water in the channel, about 15 foot, and upgraded our bags. I upgraded 3 fish and my partner upgraded 2 fish, to the dismay of the other boat.
Tzaneen dam is also a very good example of fish moving shallower in murky water, fished this dam when it was 110% full and the water was ginger beer color, we slaughtered the fish very shallow fishing timber as shallow as you can. Two weeks later you had to fish deeper, the water have settled and was much clearer.
AIDS FOR FINDING FISH
Once you have an idea where to look for bass along river channels, you must actually get on the water and find these spots. This search requires three aids: a dam topographic map, a depth finder and marker buoys. The most common mistakes anglers makes with depth finders is keeping the sensitivity to low, so that it only provides bottom reading no objects between the bottom and surface. I use Garmin 240 which I can set the sensitivity, not sure if the latest technology does automatic setting for sensitivity. If you can set your sensitivity keep on increasing until you see a double bottom echo, stop at that point. Now you’ve got the sensitivity set high enough to show everything that comes between your transducer and the bottom.
Marker buoys provide a reference for fishing deep water spots. In deep water you want to fish as precisely as you do in shallow water, and marker buoys help you do this. Although in this country anglers have very little respect for marker buoys and they sometimes attract anglers rather than force respect for your area, especially in money tournaments. Make sure you understand the rules when it comes to marker buoys and make sure you respect other angler’s markers.
Dam topographic maps are the angler’s equivalent of a roadmap. Without a map, an angler would have to turn on his depth finder and drive in random until he locates structure. But by studying a map and marking likely spots, the angler can then motor into the vicinity, turn on his depth finder and find the spot quickly by using shoreline references and a circling, searching pattern. In South Africa it sometimes is an absolute mission to get hold of topographic maps. However your Department Of Water Affairs has maps of all registered dams in South Africa. To get hold of them is the mission, I managed to get hold of the maps that I was looking for and can confirm that they have maps for the following dams: Witbank, Bronkhorstspruit, Tzaneen, Injaka, Albert Falls, Inanda, Midmar, Clan William, Theewaters, Kwaggas, Harties, Heyshope, Loskop, Middelburg, Wriggleswade and Vaal River. Getting hold of these maps cost me a fair amount of money and some of the maps is of poor quality and very big. The maps will always be worth every penny you spent if used correctly.
CATCHING BASS ALONG RIVER CHANNELS
I’ll usually start out trying where creak mouths dump into the old river channel. I’ll also check channel bends (VERY IMPORTANT both inside and outside). I’ll mainly just be looking with my depth finder for the right combination of elements. I also want to see fish on the sonar, I never try a deep spot if I don’t see what I think are bass returns. I don’t see every fish I catch but, I want to know there is something down there before I spend time trying. I will head straight where the creek empties into the river channel, and I’ll idle across the creek channel with my depth finder on. If all the fish returns show up on the one side of the creek I will concentrate on the structure I find that coincides with the depth. Or if I don’t see any activity deeper than 12 feet, I’ll know to stick to shallower structure. Learning this activity zone gives me a starting point.
Once over the right channel edge I look for fish that is holding close to the bottom, these are the feeding fish, the ones I feel I can catch. I will then cast deep crank baits, jigs and various plastic rigs. I will hit a spot, test fish it with a minimum of casts, then move somewhere else if I don’t get a strike.
I will normally throw crank bait if the structure is shallow enough, 12 to 14 feet, to drag the lure across the bottom. I hold the boat of the deep side of the structure and cast at a 45 degree angle up onto the shallow side. I want the bait digging when it comes across the lip of the drop, then I’ll stop my retrieve for a second or two as it comes off. A lot of times the bass are lying right at the edge of the drop, and they’ll hit the crank bait when it breaks contact with the structure.
The other fast bait I use when prospecting along river channels is the jig, most people think this is a spring and winter bait, but I catch fish on a jig all year long. When you can find bass that is bunched up on the channels, you can drop a jig down to them and tear them up. Normally I use a 1 ounce jig so it will get down fast. When I want to test fish a place, I’ll move my boat right over it and drop the jig down, after five minutes , I’ve either caught a fish or I know I am not going to catch one. The drop-shot rig is also very good for this purpose.
In a typical day, I may run and check 5 to 10 places like this. This depends on the amount of potential channels and venue you fish. The only way I’ll spend more than a few minutes on any one place is if there’s a school of feeding bass on it. When action slows down with the fast baits, I’ll back off and change to slower baits and presentations like Carolina rig and standard Texas rigs also a jig. When scouting for bass along river channels, anglers must relise that a sudden increase in current is likely to trigger a feeding spree among the fish. This is something that does not happen very often in South African dams put it is important to know when fishing a venue like the Vaal River. In dams that don’t have significant current, feeding times are normally governed by Solunar periods, wind currents, sudden drops in barometric pressure and other stimuli.
WINTER BASSING ALONG CHANNELS
The coldest months of winter can offer some of the year’s hottest bass angling, and river channels are where it happens. When the water temperature slides through low 50’s (F), bass form dense schools along deep channel drops. Find these fish in a feeding mood, and the catching can be fast and furious. Bass normally hold deeper in winter than they do in the warmer months. While I may fish 10 to 20 feet deep in a particular dam during summer, I expect to find bass ganged up at 30 to 40 feet in winter. In the cold months, the fish’s activity zone is much better defined and easier to see on the depth finder. In winter the bait fish and the game fish will all be clustered in a very thin well-defined layer, normally no wider than 5 to 10 feet.
In terms of location, winter bass prefer steeper drops. I look for the sharpest break I can find. We see in SA now that the weather in winter is very unstable, and the fish like to hold where it’s easiest for them to move up or down in the water column in response to changes in temperature and barometric pressure. Since bass school so tightly in winter, anglers must be even more exact in their presentations in this season. This is why jigs and drop-shot rigs are the primary baits for catching bass along channels. An angler can position his boat directly over a sharp drop-off and then ease down it, always watching his depth finder and keeping his bait within inches of the structure.
Sometimes I employ a slight variation in the standard vertical method of fishing my jig. If I have trouble zeroing in on the bass, I may hold my boat over the deep side of the drop, and I’ll pitch my jig up shallow and then hop it back down the drop under the boat. It’s like walking it down a set of steps. Then once I learn the fish’s depth I can move the boat right on top of them and begin fishing vertically.
HOW TO FISH CREEK CHANNELS
The underwater creeks that feed into river channels are similar to the structure discussed above, except shallower. Many of the techniques for finding and fishing each are identical, although there are important differences. Creek channels are one of the dominant places to fish in South African dams as they are all man-made impoundments. They‘re highways for bass and bait fish. Many creeks are lined with timber, stumps or old logs that have washed down the channel. The drop-offs that form the channel walls allows the fish to move up and down the water column, depending on day-to-day conditions. And sometimes creek channels are extra-rich in nutrients. When fresh nutrients enter a dam, they move with the currents down the channels. Bass spend a great part of their lives along them.
Step No 1 in learning to fish creek channels is knowing when to fish them. As with river channels, creek channels are more attractive to bass at certain times of the year than others. I fish creek channels all year long except during the spawn, but early and late summer are the most consistent periods. In late summer when the water temperature starts dropping, the fish make another run up the channels to the backs of the creeks and after a few weeks when the water temperature gets cold, they head back deep again. Anglers should memorise key temperatures for these major movements. The pre-spawn migration to shallows start when the water temperature climbs into the mid to late 50’s. The late summer run begins when the water temperature lowers back to 70 and below, the bass head back deep again as the temperature into the low 50’s.
WHERE TO FIND BASS ALONG CREEK CHANNELS
Bass locate along different portions of creek channels in different periods of the year.
PRE-SPAWN – [/b]When the pre-spawn migration begins, bass are normally out in deep, main channel areas, and they start swimming into major creeks. At first, when the water temperature is in the mid 50’s, the fish will be somewhere toward the lower (deeper) to middle third of the creek. To find them I look on a topo map for places where the creek channel swings in close to the bank. Then I go check these areas with my boat, and I hope to find several lay downs, brushes or any significant structure. These are prime places to locate big bass as they’re headed back to the shallows. In the immediate pre-spawn period, when the fish are close to their spawning areas, I look for horseshoe shaped sections or points along the shallow portions of the channel. I hunt for definite structure changes on the creek itself, which is probably meandering through a flat. Another main spot is where little feeder branches come out of the side pockets and empty into the creeks. This is the type of spot where the big bass collect and hold before swimming on toward bedding areas.
POST-SPAWN – [/b]After spawning, the bass backtrack to deeper water. Traditionally, this is a difficult time to catch fish. I believe this post-spawn migration happens quickly, before most anglers realize what’s going on. The fisherman is still up there, locked to shallow water, and they don’t get on the fish’s movement back out of the creeks until it’s too late. One of my favorite spots is where a creek channel cuts a point that’s real shallow and then falls quickly into deep water. After spawning I think the fish prefer steeper drops, say where 5 feet of water falls off into 15 to 20 feet.
SUMMER – [/b]In summer I prefer to fish major creeks and if possible with some flow. Bass will live in these creeks all year, where as they’ll leave smaller creeks and pull out to the main river channel. In summer a small group of bass remains in the upper half of the creek in shallower water. The second larger population spends the summer in lower, deeper half. Both populations will cluster around key structures along the channel. In the upper half bass will be scattered in smaller schools. In the lower halves, they will form large schools in places where anglers can catch plenty of bass. Key structures may be where a roadbed intersects a creek, a hump on the ledge, a major bend in the channel, or a stump bed adjacent to the drop-off. One of the best areas is where the creek dumps into the river channel. On major creeks that have 15 feet or more water, you can still catch fish on the bends of the creek channel itself, but you need that deeper water close by.
LATE SUMMER – [/b]In the late summer, bass in most dams swims to the backs of the creeks as they follow bat fish. Both predator and prey stick close to the channel banks. They hold to the same type of structure they did in the deeper water, except the depths are shallower. In the late summer bass may hold on banks as shallow as 3 to 4 feet that drop into channels 6 to 8 feet deep. If they have stumps on them, so much the better.
WINTER – [/b]It takes some really brutal weather to drive the bass back to deep water for the winter. A little cold front won’t do it. But when the fish do move, they’ll head back down the channels to deep water to spend the winter, and huge numbers of fish will pack into one little area. They’ll be near the mouths of the creeks or adjacent to deep bends, down in the bottom of the channels in water 12 to 30 feet.
HOW TO FIND BASS ALONG CREEK CHANNELS
Once an angler knows the type of structure to look for, it’s time to go exploring for creek channel bass. As in fishing river channels, a map and a generous portion of planning are important in locating key structures. Before I ever go onto the dam, I study the creek channel I plan to fish, noting how it runs and where it changes directions. I can quickly pick out places that have a high likelihood of holding bass. I’d rather fish a channel that’s got two bends than one that’s got 20. This means I am looking for the fish in a smaller haystack. And second, I still run and look at the whole channel, because lot’s of time the map will not be very accurate. If I can find some little feature that’s not on the map, that’s like a secret spot, and it can be good because other anglers won’t know about it.
Once I homed in on an area I want to fish, I cast deep running crank baits or Carolina rig two baits that I can work quickly to cover the maximum amount of water in the shortest amount of time. I normally use a crank bait designed to run deeper than the structure. This means the bait will reach the bottom faster and stay there longer during the retrieve. Also, as I move along a drop-off, I make one cast up on the ledge, then I follow with a cast ahead of the boat so the bait runs back along the lip of the drop. By casting this ’cross- stitch’ pattern, I cover more potential fish locations along the channel.
When I catch a bass, I will cast the crank bait again. If about 10 casts fail to produce a second bite, I’ll try a plastic or a jig to see whether I found a school of bass or a loner. If I get a second or a third bite, I figure I found a honey hole!
The most frustrating thing about fishing a creek is visualizing what the channel’s doing. This is where most anglers makes their biggest mistake. They’ll work along a short stretch of channel without finding anything, then give up and go and fish the bank. You’ve got to work hard to find those few little spots where the bass stay. I will put my trolling motor down and start fishing along the channel break. When I lose it, I’ll circle around and pick it back up and follow it some more. Channels can become difficult to trace, and this is where the frustration comes in, where a lot of guy’s give up. But they should realize that when they lose the channel, it’s probably because it’s done something real cool like made a sharp bend, and this can be a key area to fish.
My other method of tracing a channel involves dropping marker buoy every 5 to 10 meters as many as 10 markers on a channel. This attracts attention from other anglers and is not recommended during competition time. When you are doing homework for a tournament would be best time to use this method. Stand back and take a mental picture of the channel breaks and make notes of what you see on your depth finder at those channel breaks. Better yet if you have a digital camera take a picture of buoy which should be a very good reminder of what you saw when you were practicing. I fish crank baits and Carolina rigs on deeper channels, but when fishing in the back of a creek, I cast the ledges with a spinner bait or a top water. When the channel tops slide into deeper water (10 feet), I switch to a crank bait. In the shallower part of the creek, I’m looking for scattered, individual bass more than the wads of fish like you find in deeper water. I move fast work very quickly to cover more territory. The fish I’m looking for here are usually feeders, and if I can run a bait by them, they’ll hit it!
Sjoe! That was a mouth full, please note this article might make channel fishing sound very complicated but if you read it carefully you will realize that you are doing most of the techniques and strategies already. All you need to do now is extend that to deeper water and you will probably catch more fish. Also remember as I mention in this article fishing channels can be frustrating before trying this you have to be very clear in your mind that you want to learn to fish channels. These techniques can be used in any dam in South Africa and to the Natal boys this is probably everyday fishing for them as they have the deeper dams in SA. Give these techniques a try and I am sure you will have some success!!
Wow what a massive topic! Whilst I was competitive fishing I use to read a lot of articles on Bass fishing in particular about structure and whenever I found something of interest I made a note of it in a big black book. This “Bass Bible†is still a reference whenever I fish a tournament, which unfortunetly nowadays does not happen very often. I am currently sitting in the armpit of Africa through business and will probably spend most of my life here for the next 5 years. Together with topographic maps it usually did the trick for me. I just referenced this book on River Channels and realized that the amount of info I have on river channels is huge! Probably the most info I have on any structure. I am a firm believer that all bass movement is relative to deep water.
In most dams, submerged channels are where the best fishing action can be found most of the year…….
In dams, river and creek channels serve the same functions for bass that roads do for humans. They are pathways for travel. They are focal points for “Neighborhoods.†They lend order to, what many times, is an otherwise featureless dam bottom. For these reasons, channels are fundamental in bass’ day to day existence. Good anglers understand this fact and pay this four star structure the attention it’s due. River channels and creek channels differ in some important respects, I’ll treat them separately in this article. All dams in South Africa have these channels and it’s important that anglers understand them properly.
I do honestly believe that if a person does not know how to fish a river channel he’s missing some of the best fishing there is. In my experience, and according to some pro’s, majority of bass in a dam will stay along these channels probably 75 percent of the year!
If you have any experience in coaching bass anglers or like taking out novice anglers every now and again you will understand that your main goal is to put these individuals onto fish. To many times we focus on showing them how to fish shallow water structure and we forget about channels. I mentioned to another Sealine member that I was privellaged enough to introduce an angler to bass fishing that is today under the top three in South Africa. I took the person to Witbank dam and unfortunately, or rather fortunately I would say, the shallow water bite was not on. We ended up fishing a creek channel with Carolina rigs and caught 30 – 40 bass, needless to say he was hooked and look where he is today!
River channels are very complex systems. Several variables are involved: Depth Ranges, Water Clarity, Amount of Current, Presence or Absence of Special Features like vegetation, timber, bottom content and seasonal patterns of the fish. All these things affect bass’ locations along channels and determine what anglers must do to catch them.
WHEN TO FISH RIVER CHANNELS
Knowing when to fish river channels is the first key to success. Except during spawning time, I believe in most dams most of the time, more bass will be deep than shallow. True, some fish will stay in shallow water all year long. But from the end of spawning season to the beginning of the next, the best odds are on the channels. Bass locations and fishing techniques for channels vary greatly between warm weather and cold. Following pertain to warm-water conditions only.
BASS LOCATIONS ALONG CHANNELS
After learning when to fish channels, you must know where to fish them. Approaching channels haphazardly will lead to confusion and frustration. You must be systematic in your approach to searching out this complex structure. For anglers fishing competitively the time to do this is not on competition day, you have to take time to go and do homework and find these areas before competition time.
Always look for an edge that drops off into deep water. Typically this is the old river bank, the bass feed along such edges, and they move off the drop and down into deep water when they’re not feeding or when they feel threatened. Next, look for different or unusual places along these structure edges. An example would be a few meters of bank that are a little higher than other banks in the same stretch of channel. Or it could be a stretch of bank with tree stumps washed up on it, or it could be a stretch of bank that have vegetation growing on it, a place where the channel bends, where the creek empties into the river channel, a hump or sunken island in the channel or where the bottom content changes from mud to gravel or sand, ANYTHING different from the majority of structure along the channel.
Be aware of water clarity and the fact that bass hold near shallower structure in murky water and deeper structure in clear water. Use the following a rule of thumb, in a dam where your visibility is from 30 cm to 2 meters, most fish will stay in 10 to 30 foot of water, assuming that the oxygen content is sufficient at these depths. Time of day may affect bass locations. If suitable structure is available in a range of depths, bass may hold shallower in the mornings and late afternoons, then slide deeper in the middle of the day.
The venue that comes to mind taking the above in consideration is a dam like Tzaneen dam. If you ever fished a tournament at Tzaneen you would have noticed that 90% of the anglers do what I call “bank bashing.†I have spent a considerable amount of time on this dam, studying topographic maps and searching with my depth finder. Fishing channels in this dam produced better quality fish for me. One particular channel that I can see in my mind right now are very interesting, from my boat looking at the bank I see a sand bank on both sides of a creek, the creek is not very long, from the main dam points probably 150 meters to the back of the creek. Yet when I check the creek channel I see a massive amount of brushes, trees and a hard bottom. The creek runs from 3 foot of water into 22 foot of water when it drops into the river channel. I religiously fish this creek when on the dam and this creek has accounted for many a fish, sometimes I get 2 fish sometimes I get my limit here. One particular tournament I stopped my boat about 300 meters before the creek and started fishing top water on the sand bank approaching the creek, before I reached the creak I had 5 fish in the boat and my partner 3 fish, YES on the sand bank! We did not bother to fish the creek as we wanted to leave fish for day 2. These fish were obviously in the process of migrating to the creek and my timing was perfect!
In the meantime another boat was watching us filling bags, needless to say when we arrived the next morning they were on the sand bank throwing top waters. Luckily for us they did bag one fish quickly which made them stay on the sand bank. We simply went to the creek channel where we threw top water in the back of the creek and filled our bags. Later we went to the deeper water in the channel, about 15 foot, and upgraded our bags. I upgraded 3 fish and my partner upgraded 2 fish, to the dismay of the other boat.
Tzaneen dam is also a very good example of fish moving shallower in murky water, fished this dam when it was 110% full and the water was ginger beer color, we slaughtered the fish very shallow fishing timber as shallow as you can. Two weeks later you had to fish deeper, the water have settled and was much clearer.
AIDS FOR FINDING FISH
Once you have an idea where to look for bass along river channels, you must actually get on the water and find these spots. This search requires three aids: a dam topographic map, a depth finder and marker buoys. The most common mistakes anglers makes with depth finders is keeping the sensitivity to low, so that it only provides bottom reading no objects between the bottom and surface. I use Garmin 240 which I can set the sensitivity, not sure if the latest technology does automatic setting for sensitivity. If you can set your sensitivity keep on increasing until you see a double bottom echo, stop at that point. Now you’ve got the sensitivity set high enough to show everything that comes between your transducer and the bottom.
Marker buoys provide a reference for fishing deep water spots. In deep water you want to fish as precisely as you do in shallow water, and marker buoys help you do this. Although in this country anglers have very little respect for marker buoys and they sometimes attract anglers rather than force respect for your area, especially in money tournaments. Make sure you understand the rules when it comes to marker buoys and make sure you respect other angler’s markers.
Dam topographic maps are the angler’s equivalent of a roadmap. Without a map, an angler would have to turn on his depth finder and drive in random until he locates structure. But by studying a map and marking likely spots, the angler can then motor into the vicinity, turn on his depth finder and find the spot quickly by using shoreline references and a circling, searching pattern. In South Africa it sometimes is an absolute mission to get hold of topographic maps. However your Department Of Water Affairs has maps of all registered dams in South Africa. To get hold of them is the mission, I managed to get hold of the maps that I was looking for and can confirm that they have maps for the following dams: Witbank, Bronkhorstspruit, Tzaneen, Injaka, Albert Falls, Inanda, Midmar, Clan William, Theewaters, Kwaggas, Harties, Heyshope, Loskop, Middelburg, Wriggleswade and Vaal River. Getting hold of these maps cost me a fair amount of money and some of the maps is of poor quality and very big. The maps will always be worth every penny you spent if used correctly.
CATCHING BASS ALONG RIVER CHANNELS
I’ll usually start out trying where creak mouths dump into the old river channel. I’ll also check channel bends (VERY IMPORTANT both inside and outside). I’ll mainly just be looking with my depth finder for the right combination of elements. I also want to see fish on the sonar, I never try a deep spot if I don’t see what I think are bass returns. I don’t see every fish I catch but, I want to know there is something down there before I spend time trying. I will head straight where the creek empties into the river channel, and I’ll idle across the creek channel with my depth finder on. If all the fish returns show up on the one side of the creek I will concentrate on the structure I find that coincides with the depth. Or if I don’t see any activity deeper than 12 feet, I’ll know to stick to shallower structure. Learning this activity zone gives me a starting point.
Once over the right channel edge I look for fish that is holding close to the bottom, these are the feeding fish, the ones I feel I can catch. I will then cast deep crank baits, jigs and various plastic rigs. I will hit a spot, test fish it with a minimum of casts, then move somewhere else if I don’t get a strike.
I will normally throw crank bait if the structure is shallow enough, 12 to 14 feet, to drag the lure across the bottom. I hold the boat of the deep side of the structure and cast at a 45 degree angle up onto the shallow side. I want the bait digging when it comes across the lip of the drop, then I’ll stop my retrieve for a second or two as it comes off. A lot of times the bass are lying right at the edge of the drop, and they’ll hit the crank bait when it breaks contact with the structure.
The other fast bait I use when prospecting along river channels is the jig, most people think this is a spring and winter bait, but I catch fish on a jig all year long. When you can find bass that is bunched up on the channels, you can drop a jig down to them and tear them up. Normally I use a 1 ounce jig so it will get down fast. When I want to test fish a place, I’ll move my boat right over it and drop the jig down, after five minutes , I’ve either caught a fish or I know I am not going to catch one. The drop-shot rig is also very good for this purpose.
In a typical day, I may run and check 5 to 10 places like this. This depends on the amount of potential channels and venue you fish. The only way I’ll spend more than a few minutes on any one place is if there’s a school of feeding bass on it. When action slows down with the fast baits, I’ll back off and change to slower baits and presentations like Carolina rig and standard Texas rigs also a jig. When scouting for bass along river channels, anglers must relise that a sudden increase in current is likely to trigger a feeding spree among the fish. This is something that does not happen very often in South African dams put it is important to know when fishing a venue like the Vaal River. In dams that don’t have significant current, feeding times are normally governed by Solunar periods, wind currents, sudden drops in barometric pressure and other stimuli.
WINTER BASSING ALONG CHANNELS
The coldest months of winter can offer some of the year’s hottest bass angling, and river channels are where it happens. When the water temperature slides through low 50’s (F), bass form dense schools along deep channel drops. Find these fish in a feeding mood, and the catching can be fast and furious. Bass normally hold deeper in winter than they do in the warmer months. While I may fish 10 to 20 feet deep in a particular dam during summer, I expect to find bass ganged up at 30 to 40 feet in winter. In the cold months, the fish’s activity zone is much better defined and easier to see on the depth finder. In winter the bait fish and the game fish will all be clustered in a very thin well-defined layer, normally no wider than 5 to 10 feet.
In terms of location, winter bass prefer steeper drops. I look for the sharpest break I can find. We see in SA now that the weather in winter is very unstable, and the fish like to hold where it’s easiest for them to move up or down in the water column in response to changes in temperature and barometric pressure. Since bass school so tightly in winter, anglers must be even more exact in their presentations in this season. This is why jigs and drop-shot rigs are the primary baits for catching bass along channels. An angler can position his boat directly over a sharp drop-off and then ease down it, always watching his depth finder and keeping his bait within inches of the structure.
Sometimes I employ a slight variation in the standard vertical method of fishing my jig. If I have trouble zeroing in on the bass, I may hold my boat over the deep side of the drop, and I’ll pitch my jig up shallow and then hop it back down the drop under the boat. It’s like walking it down a set of steps. Then once I learn the fish’s depth I can move the boat right on top of them and begin fishing vertically.
HOW TO FISH CREEK CHANNELS
The underwater creeks that feed into river channels are similar to the structure discussed above, except shallower. Many of the techniques for finding and fishing each are identical, although there are important differences. Creek channels are one of the dominant places to fish in South African dams as they are all man-made impoundments. They‘re highways for bass and bait fish. Many creeks are lined with timber, stumps or old logs that have washed down the channel. The drop-offs that form the channel walls allows the fish to move up and down the water column, depending on day-to-day conditions. And sometimes creek channels are extra-rich in nutrients. When fresh nutrients enter a dam, they move with the currents down the channels. Bass spend a great part of their lives along them.
Step No 1 in learning to fish creek channels is knowing when to fish them. As with river channels, creek channels are more attractive to bass at certain times of the year than others. I fish creek channels all year long except during the spawn, but early and late summer are the most consistent periods. In late summer when the water temperature starts dropping, the fish make another run up the channels to the backs of the creeks and after a few weeks when the water temperature gets cold, they head back deep again. Anglers should memorise key temperatures for these major movements. The pre-spawn migration to shallows start when the water temperature climbs into the mid to late 50’s. The late summer run begins when the water temperature lowers back to 70 and below, the bass head back deep again as the temperature into the low 50’s.
WHERE TO FIND BASS ALONG CREEK CHANNELS
Bass locate along different portions of creek channels in different periods of the year.
PRE-SPAWN – [/b]When the pre-spawn migration begins, bass are normally out in deep, main channel areas, and they start swimming into major creeks. At first, when the water temperature is in the mid 50’s, the fish will be somewhere toward the lower (deeper) to middle third of the creek. To find them I look on a topo map for places where the creek channel swings in close to the bank. Then I go check these areas with my boat, and I hope to find several lay downs, brushes or any significant structure. These are prime places to locate big bass as they’re headed back to the shallows. In the immediate pre-spawn period, when the fish are close to their spawning areas, I look for horseshoe shaped sections or points along the shallow portions of the channel. I hunt for definite structure changes on the creek itself, which is probably meandering through a flat. Another main spot is where little feeder branches come out of the side pockets and empty into the creeks. This is the type of spot where the big bass collect and hold before swimming on toward bedding areas.
POST-SPAWN – [/b]After spawning, the bass backtrack to deeper water. Traditionally, this is a difficult time to catch fish. I believe this post-spawn migration happens quickly, before most anglers realize what’s going on. The fisherman is still up there, locked to shallow water, and they don’t get on the fish’s movement back out of the creeks until it’s too late. One of my favorite spots is where a creek channel cuts a point that’s real shallow and then falls quickly into deep water. After spawning I think the fish prefer steeper drops, say where 5 feet of water falls off into 15 to 20 feet.
SUMMER – [/b]In summer I prefer to fish major creeks and if possible with some flow. Bass will live in these creeks all year, where as they’ll leave smaller creeks and pull out to the main river channel. In summer a small group of bass remains in the upper half of the creek in shallower water. The second larger population spends the summer in lower, deeper half. Both populations will cluster around key structures along the channel. In the upper half bass will be scattered in smaller schools. In the lower halves, they will form large schools in places where anglers can catch plenty of bass. Key structures may be where a roadbed intersects a creek, a hump on the ledge, a major bend in the channel, or a stump bed adjacent to the drop-off. One of the best areas is where the creek dumps into the river channel. On major creeks that have 15 feet or more water, you can still catch fish on the bends of the creek channel itself, but you need that deeper water close by.
LATE SUMMER – [/b]In the late summer, bass in most dams swims to the backs of the creeks as they follow bat fish. Both predator and prey stick close to the channel banks. They hold to the same type of structure they did in the deeper water, except the depths are shallower. In the late summer bass may hold on banks as shallow as 3 to 4 feet that drop into channels 6 to 8 feet deep. If they have stumps on them, so much the better.
WINTER – [/b]It takes some really brutal weather to drive the bass back to deep water for the winter. A little cold front won’t do it. But when the fish do move, they’ll head back down the channels to deep water to spend the winter, and huge numbers of fish will pack into one little area. They’ll be near the mouths of the creeks or adjacent to deep bends, down in the bottom of the channels in water 12 to 30 feet.
HOW TO FIND BASS ALONG CREEK CHANNELS
Once an angler knows the type of structure to look for, it’s time to go exploring for creek channel bass. As in fishing river channels, a map and a generous portion of planning are important in locating key structures. Before I ever go onto the dam, I study the creek channel I plan to fish, noting how it runs and where it changes directions. I can quickly pick out places that have a high likelihood of holding bass. I’d rather fish a channel that’s got two bends than one that’s got 20. This means I am looking for the fish in a smaller haystack. And second, I still run and look at the whole channel, because lot’s of time the map will not be very accurate. If I can find some little feature that’s not on the map, that’s like a secret spot, and it can be good because other anglers won’t know about it.
Once I homed in on an area I want to fish, I cast deep running crank baits or Carolina rig two baits that I can work quickly to cover the maximum amount of water in the shortest amount of time. I normally use a crank bait designed to run deeper than the structure. This means the bait will reach the bottom faster and stay there longer during the retrieve. Also, as I move along a drop-off, I make one cast up on the ledge, then I follow with a cast ahead of the boat so the bait runs back along the lip of the drop. By casting this ’cross- stitch’ pattern, I cover more potential fish locations along the channel.
When I catch a bass, I will cast the crank bait again. If about 10 casts fail to produce a second bite, I’ll try a plastic or a jig to see whether I found a school of bass or a loner. If I get a second or a third bite, I figure I found a honey hole!
The most frustrating thing about fishing a creek is visualizing what the channel’s doing. This is where most anglers makes their biggest mistake. They’ll work along a short stretch of channel without finding anything, then give up and go and fish the bank. You’ve got to work hard to find those few little spots where the bass stay. I will put my trolling motor down and start fishing along the channel break. When I lose it, I’ll circle around and pick it back up and follow it some more. Channels can become difficult to trace, and this is where the frustration comes in, where a lot of guy’s give up. But they should realize that when they lose the channel, it’s probably because it’s done something real cool like made a sharp bend, and this can be a key area to fish.
My other method of tracing a channel involves dropping marker buoy every 5 to 10 meters as many as 10 markers on a channel. This attracts attention from other anglers and is not recommended during competition time. When you are doing homework for a tournament would be best time to use this method. Stand back and take a mental picture of the channel breaks and make notes of what you see on your depth finder at those channel breaks. Better yet if you have a digital camera take a picture of buoy which should be a very good reminder of what you saw when you were practicing. I fish crank baits and Carolina rigs on deeper channels, but when fishing in the back of a creek, I cast the ledges with a spinner bait or a top water. When the channel tops slide into deeper water (10 feet), I switch to a crank bait. In the shallower part of the creek, I’m looking for scattered, individual bass more than the wads of fish like you find in deeper water. I move fast work very quickly to cover more territory. The fish I’m looking for here are usually feeders, and if I can run a bait by them, they’ll hit it!
Sjoe! That was a mouth full, please note this article might make channel fishing sound very complicated but if you read it carefully you will realize that you are doing most of the techniques and strategies already. All you need to do now is extend that to deeper water and you will probably catch more fish. Also remember as I mention in this article fishing channels can be frustrating before trying this you have to be very clear in your mind that you want to learn to fish channels. These techniques can be used in any dam in South Africa and to the Natal boys this is probably everyday fishing for them as they have the deeper dams in SA. Give these techniques a try and I am sure you will have some success!!
