How many times do you have to fish in an area or new body of water and wish you could see the bottom? I bet if you could you wouldn't be as afraid of fishing new bodies of water. The ability to read water is not a mystical power or a special talent it is just being observant to the lay of the land. When we are driving to our fishing destination do we pay attention to the surrounding land hills, bluffs, mountains, or swamps, we should. Whenever I fish a new body of water I always try to learn as much as possible about the surrounding area. In this article I will try to give some insight into how to categorize different types of water and there characteristics, we will look at rivers, both tidal, and single current, lakes, manmade, and natural, and hopefully give you the keys to reading and really learning the water you fish.

Tidal Rivers are without a doubt the hardest water to read, this is because they are altered by man and nature twice daily. The Hudson and Connecticut rivers are prime examples around our area. I will only touch on this subject briefly, because there basic characteristics are the same as single current rivers, each day the tide comes in and goes out the bass know this and there only a dumb fish so you have to know this .On an outgoing tide or incoming tide the fish know to go to areas were the current pulls food out of shallow flats, back bays, coves, these areas are generally deeper than the surrounding bottom contours. You may ask yourself why? Because every day, and every night the water goes in and out through that very same area taking with it a buffet table for any Bass just sitting and waiting behind every rock nook and cranny on the river. SO HERE IS THE KEY FIND WHERE A FLAT DUMPS INTO A SECONDARY CHANNEL NEAR THE MAIN RIVER CHANNEL WITH COVER AND LET THE TIDE WORK FOR YOU!! The second thing unique about this type of river is man building various structures on the river, on the Hudson we have squared off points, lighthouses, and barge cribs. All of these alter flow and the Bass uses all of these at different times of the year. However we must remember these areas have to have water on them 24 hours a day. So we should be conscious of the tide all day long. Keys to river success is being able to duplicate areas of success not only by type of structure but also by time of success by either running up or down stream to use the tide to our advantage, because the tide is never ever the same everywhere on these rivers.

Now for some basic trout fishing info, every good trout fisherman knows how current positions trout in a stream and every good Bass fisherman knows Bass are much smarter than those pellet eating soft-rayed fish raised to put extra meat on large Bass, but for some reason Bass fishermen don't see the connection. How simple do they have to make it every thing in a river is current connected the shallower or the narrower the faster the current this is a basic law of physics? Outside bends are always deeper than inside bends any time something interrupts flow you have a key break, any time a manmade object interrupts flow fish behind it! The top half of a river flows faster than the bottom half. These are the keys to reading water on a river Pay attention to the angle the bank enters the water it is a good indication to the depth and current speed in that area. Look for areas were roadways or railways run next to the bank because man constantly fights erosion with rocks or fill great fish holding areas. Try to remember after a rain the river will get muddy but the color will change from top to bottom as the plume moves down stream so you can find clearer water by changing location. One thing rivers have that other bodies of water don' t the are the least effected by cold fronts. The fish in rivers are least affected by weather and there location is far more predictable than that of lake fish. The key to remember is on a river current dictates not only location but presentation, this is the most important thing any Bass fisherman can learn " LOCATION DICTATES PRESENTATION " anywhere any time any place this is a universal truth! Next month in part two we will discuss reading water in lakes and impoundments.

PART 2

In part 1 of this article we learned that location always dictates presentation, in part 2 we will hopefully learn a few more " secrets " of success. My philosophies of fishing are based upon a few simple laws of nature, one Bass need to protect themselves from predators, and two Bass need to eat. Once we realize this we can "uncomplicate" a subject everybody and their brother has complicated. Think about this for a few minutes, and then try to think of every thing you have read about bass fishing and all the times you have caught your limit or limited your catch. Think about all the variables when all is said and done every thing comes down to one thing you found where the fish were and you caused them to strike. Reading water is only one part of the picture but a very critical one. Try to keep in mind that the best lure in the history of mankind fished at the YMCA swimming pool will catch zero and a poor lure choice in a good area will still catch Bass. I hope in writing this it is food for thought just as " BUCK PERRY 'S " books and articles made a thinking fisherman out of me and a few other fishermen. No article on modern day Bass fishing would be complete without giving credit to the father of modern day structure fishing. To this day people still use and misuse his basic concepts of bass fishing. Perhaps misuse is a bad word, I think complicate is abettor word, but more on this in an upcoming article.

Now lets get to tackling new water, in this case a manmade lake. We are in luck before even seeing our new impoundment we have a good map of it. In order to read water we must first ask our selves a few questions, number one how deep is the deepest water in the lake? Number two what is the average depth of the lake? Number three what are the topographical features of the area around the impoundment? Lots to think about isn't it, but wait lets try to eliminate as much of the lake as possible, lets say this lake's deepest water is 65 feet and this covers about a third of the lake. This would one, eliminate about a third of the lake, and two tell me this is not where I am going to start looking for fish. Isn't that great a 6000-acre impoundment and were down to just 4000 acres to find fish in. Lets say the average depth is 25 feet, this would tell us the lake is not that shallow but the first major break line would be at about 15 feet. So lets eliminate all the water 25 feet and deeper, another 1000 acre's gone. On to question three this has got to be one hilly, bluffly place. Before leaving for this lake I would ask local people a couple of very important questions, one how deep do the weeds grow and how clear is the water normally? Also do the lake management people draw the lake down in the winter? Try to discount silly answers like the lake is very dirty but the weeds grow down to 35 feet, why is this impossible because remember this " no light no life " weeds can not live without light (PLEASE NOTE NOT ONCE DID I ASK WHAT LURE THE BASS BITE). Aside from reading water before we leave for this little lake ask ourselves what the season is and how will that effect location. Now lets take a ride to the lake as were approaching our destination we notice very hilly land mixed in are large boulders and rocks. Take a good look around this is what is under the water, now read the lake look around as you drive imagine your fishing, better yet imagine your a Bass were would you be. As we prepare to launch the boat we notice that the ramp is in the back of a major cove the water seems to be clear but shallow on the topo map it shows 5' out to the middle than 10' to 20' heading to the old river channel. We notice that at this location the bank enters the lake at a 15-degree angle you can now bet this is a shallow flat. At the end of the cove we see a 45-degree riprap bank running next to a road. We ride over and take a look it looks like a good steep bank but when we look we realize the area is just as flat but man tampered with the terrain, we motor out to the main lake and go towards the dam the water here is deep, the banks are steep and rocky their are not many flat areas and almost all the points break into the main river channel, the water is also clear. As we motor away we notice more creeks entering the lake the points become flatter and their are more weeds, and stained water. This is the middle ground were most people like to do their fishing. But we will continue to head away from the dam, we now notice more weeds, dirtier water, massive flats, and if there are any stumps this is were you will find them. This is just an example of one manmade lake there are exceptions to every rule. We decide to try the middle grounds as we motor back we notice small boulder islands when we motor around them we realize there is 28' of water around them and there is just a series of boulders dropped off years ago by a glacier, would you like to bet there is a few more rocks around this area. After checking out the area, we decide to check out the bank we pick out one that is not that steep and notice how fast the bottom drops down to 20', as we motor down the bank our depth finder shows a sudden depth change the bottom goes from 20' up to 10' and stays that way for 35'. We make a "U" turn and discover that this 10' flat (BAR) goes all the way to the 35' zone, we have found us a honey hole this is my favorite structure to fish, these areas are twice as consistent as points and humps, find one that wanders out to the old river channel and you have a gold mine. People fishing points or the bank will be talking about the crazy fool fishing over were their is no structure.

Sorry but I have to stop before Joe has no room left for important stuff, in closing I hope this article at least make you think about things and hopefully bring you closer to knowing everything there is to know, when you do let me know because those dumb fish still make me look stupid.

GOOD FISHING !