PLAYING PERCENTAGES

Anglers who dote on structure fishing often recant a familiar tenet. It goes along the lines of: “When you’re casting to the bank, 90 percent of the fish are behind you.”

While this may be true, bear in mind that more than 90 percent of the water also is behind you. In the spring, when bass move up in response to their spawning urges, the bank—and near shore cover—surely holds more bass per acre than the rest of the lake.

On most bass waters, bank fishing peaks in the spring and fall and falls off in the summer. However, many river systems and murky lakes provide good bank fishing throughout the summer as well.

FIND BASS FAST

The advantage to fishing the bank is that the most likely cover lies right before your eyes. Windfalls, overhanging limbs, boat docks, stumps, aquatic vegetation, flooded bushes and other objects provide obvious bass hangouts. When visiting a lake for the first time, a competent bank fisherman can find bass fast, even without the help of a depthfinder or a contour lake map.

It takes longer, however, to find productive offshore structures, especially on large lakes. If you are visiting a strange body of water and have only a day or two to fish it, you may not locate productive structures in time to take advantage of them.

FISHING PRESSURE

The downside to fishing the bank is that the most prominent cover lies in plain sight of every other bass angler. These spots are fished hard on popular lakes, and bass respond by becoming more difficult to catch.

I recall an extreme example of the negative effects of fishing pressure. This took place several years ago when I fished a major bass tournament on North Carolina’s Lake Norman. Throughout the three official practice days and the first of three competition days, good numbers of post-spawn bass were holding beneath the lake’s many boat docks.

It was such an obvious pattern that many competitors quickly caught on to it. Boat docks in the best fishing areas were pounded relentlessly. During the final two days of competition, the boat dock bonanza fizzled. Most anglers believed the boat dock bass had either been caught or had moved to deep water.

A few savvy anglers, including the eventual winner, realized that fishing pressure had pushed the bass away from the docks to the banks nearby. Those who fished bare banks between the docks continued catching bass, while those who continued to key on docks fared poorly.

While excessive fishing pressure can drive bass away from bank cover, the fish more often move tighter to cover and become lure shy. This explains why bank fishing is generally more presentation oriented than structure fishing. It demands pinpoint casting, critical boat control and refined lure presentations.

BRAIN DEAD BANK FISHING

Many anglers fall into a mindless cast-and-retrieve rut when they fish the bank. They tie on their favorite lure, move down the bank at the same pace and employ the same retrieve cast after cast. This approach nets a bass every now and then, and—when bass are committing suicide—it can actually result in a nice catch. But successful outings with this brain-dead approach are pure happenstance.

Proficient bank fishermen consider the seasonal movements of bass, study the available cover and try a variety of lures and retrieves until they determine what the bass want. It takes an alert, astute angler to figure out the subtle patterns that bring about consistent catches. Bear in mind that fishing the bank doesn’t always mean shallow water. I’ve caught many bass 15 to 45 feet deep while fishing creek channel banks.

FIND BASS FIRST

Even when bass are up, most banks don’t hold appreciable numbers of fish. You must eliminate unproductive banks quickly. Start out by fishing banks that coincide with the seasonal preferences of bass.

If the bass are no deeper than 12 feet or so, you’ll generally have better luck locating them with a moving bait, such as a spinnerbait or crankbait. These may not be the most productive lures for a given time and place, but they cover water fast and normally encourage enough strikes to let you know that bass are in a given area. Then, if need be, you can slow down and tailor your presentation to the mood of the bass. Some good seasonal starting points include:

Spring Banks

Look for the warmest water early in the spring. You’ll typically find it in the northwest portion of a lake—or in major creek arms—in protected areas that receive ample sunlight and serve as spawning areas a little later. As the spring progresses and the water continues to warm, similar areas throughout the lake begin producing bass.

Concentrate on banks that display cover, including fallen trees, flooded bushes, docks and new weed growth. But don’t overlook bare banks that feature hard bottoms. Such places also can be good and they attract fewer anglers. Steep creek channel banks and small points and pockets near deep water often yield big bass early in the spring.

A jig with a pork frog trailer is the undisputed big bass lure in early spring. Spinnerbaits, crankbaits and jerkbaits also take bass early when retrieved slowly. Pick up the pace as the water warms and add topwater minnows, soft plastic baits, floating worms and soft jerkbaits (such as the Slug-Go) to your arsenal.

Summer Banks

The most productive banks in hot weather are found in murky lakes and in river systems. On large, clear-water impoundments, where structure fishing prevails in the summer, you can often find bass relating to the bank up the major tributaries. Here the water usually is cooler, contains more oxygen, has more color and sometimes a noticeable current.

Plastic worms, craws and other creature baits should be high on your priority list of bank fishing lures in the summer and don’t overlook jig and pork combinations. Methodically work these lures through weeds, wood cover and around docks. Buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, floating worms and soft jerkbaits also readily take bass at this time.

Fall Banks

Many bass follow baitfish into the shallows in the fall, especially on impoundments. Look for baitfish and bass in the backs of creek arms and up tributaries. This may be the best time of year for a buzzbait. Spinnerbaits and shallow running crankbaits also are deadly, especially when you match them to the size of the baitfish on which bass are feeding. Also have topwater plugs, jigs and soft plastic baits rigged and ready.

Cast to schools of baitfish when you find them, but most strikes will come from nearby cover, often stumps, windfalls, brush and perhaps rocky banks.

Winter

On most waters, bass move off the banks in the winter and relate to deep structure. The exception is creek channel and bluff banks that drop sharply. Fish a jig tipped with a pork frog slowly down these banks and through any stumps and brush that may be on the bottom. Jigging spoons, fished vertically, also take cold-water bass.

REFINE BANK PATTERNS

Once you find an area that’s producing bass, take note of as many existing factors as possible so that you can duplicate the conditions elsewhere. Does the bottom drop sharply or slope gently away from the bank? Is deep water close to the bank, such as a creek channel? Is the bank exposed to the sun or in the shade? Is the bottom comprised of rock, gravel, sand, marl or mud? Are the bass relating to points or pockets? Are they holding in an area where the bottom composition changes, say, from gravel to mud? Is there incoming water nearby?

Be just as inquisitive in regard to the cover. Are the bass relating to wood, rocks, weeds, brush, docks or a bare bank? Are they holding tight to cover or loosely related to it. Say, for example, that you catch a bass from a fallen tree. Was the bass near the tree, close to a large limb branching off the tree or to the smaller outermost branches at the top of the tree?

The more questions you ask, the more you will refine the exact pattern for catching bass from the bank. When you start calling strikes before you cast, you’ve got it down.