Fishing the Worst Water

On Thursday, I did something I’ve never done before in 30 years of semi-serious bass fishing, and 40-plus years of trying to catch little green fish – I purposely fished water that I thought was typically likely to be unproductive.

“Grade C” areas? Count me in.

“Grade D” pocket? I’ll give it a shot.

Even when I fished areas or stretches that I generally consider to be productive, I kept going for a few hundred yards or more after I’d normally stop.

There were a few things that enabled me to do this:

• First, I wasn’t practicing for any tournament. I was by myself, with no time limitations except for waning daylight.
• Second, it was on a relatively small power plant lake, approximately 3,000 acres, one that’s changed a lot in the 30 years I’ve fished it, but also one where at some point I’ve cast at or at least viewed just about every inch of water.
• Third, the water was low and clear, not only shrinking the fishery’s footprint, but also enabling me to see things (with my eyes as well as my electronics) that might not normally be obvious.
• Finally, after an unusually cold winter, things heated up quickly, apparently the power generation schedule, and with water in the 60s it seemed like every bass had run to the bank.

I caught two on a Senko before I got out of the no wake zone and then pulled onto a bank I stopped fishing in the late 90s, simply because it never really produced. Immediately I spotted a bed. A little bit later I caught a second decent keeper. My next stop was a cove that looks like absolute dog crap to me – featureless banks, silty bottom, no docks or laydowns or anything notable. The first 40 yards showed nothing, but then I saw a 3-pounder on a bed on a stump I’d never noticed before, as well as a perfectly-formed bed just out in the middle of nowhere.

I never turned on my forward-facing sonar. I never needed to do so, but it reminded me of a practice day for the 2024 Bassmaster Classic, when I rode with Kyle Patrick. He pulled into several popular areas but consistently started on what I thought were the worst looking areas. Maybe he knew something that I didn’t about them – but I suspect what he knew most is that there are unpressured fish in areas where we least expect them.

It also reminded me of the 2005 Classic, when I rode with Rick Clunn and he told me about the mental guardrails that prevent many anglers from excelling. We ride up and down a lake or river saying “good spot, bad spot, good spot, bad spot,” without really understanding why. In doing so, we end up returning to subpar areas and ignoring some that might be good. 

Of course, it was a perfect storm of conditions on Thursday and I caught fish everywhere I went, the rare day when you can do know wrong. There will be plenty of days on that same lake where it won’t be anywhere near that easy. But I know at least four or five little “spots on the spot” that I will return to on those tough days – single stumps or hidden laydowns or ditches that I never otherwise would’ve found if I hadn’t been willing to spend part of a rare “perfect” day fishing “Class D” water.