River Bass
Understanding rivers can help your fishing be more productive on lakes as well
By Randy Womack
We had just finished Sunday dinner at grandma and Pep Pa's when dad hollered, "Okay boys, let's go to the river!" My cousins and I shot out the door and started gathering minnow seines, trottines, minnow buckets, and rods and reels. We all knew there was a tow sack already loaded in the '58 Ford. It was there from last weeks river trip. It was there for the mud holes we hit on the way to gather crawdads.
I can say, without a doubt, some of the best times of my life were spent on a river. I pray that I can write well enough to make you appreciate rivers as much as I do. They're glorious places that need to be protected forever. They are a very important part of our ecosystem.
If you think about it, rivers are the arteries of our lives. They come in all sizes and are scattered all over the country. The bass that live in them are pretty predictable. When you fully understand a river, and how it works, it holds the key to all other bass fishing.
There are several different species of bass that inhabit rivers. In the US we have largemouth, smallmouth, and the Kentucky spotted bass, which was actually discovered in Alabama I believe. We also have what is called a shoal bass and Suwanne bass, which are found in the Suwanne River in Florida. In Texas, river bass are called Guadalupe bass. They are named for the river in which they live.
No matter where you find them, bass are still bass. Whether you're fishing a river in Canada or Mexico, bass have pattern characteristics and behaviors that we can use to our advantage when fishing for them. The most important ones to remember are their use of outside and inside curves, creeks feeding into, sloughs going off of, and current breaks.
First we'll talk about the inside and outside curves. As a river flows, the current cuts deep banks, which are called outside curves. It deposits gravel, sand and debris on the inside curves. Outside curves mostly consist of deep water, fallen trees, root systems and bigger rocks. Inside curves consist of sandbars, smaller pea gravel and shallow water flats.
Current breaks can be any type of object that provides a substantial reduction in water flow. This can be a man-made bridge, a tree lodged in sand in the middle of a river, log jam, large boulders, or any type of fallen trees along the bank. One thing you have to remember is that fast-moving rivers are harder for bass to live in.
Medium or slow-moving rivers are best. The number one key to fishing rivers is to find "peeper" holes. This might be a hole 10 feet deep and 30 yards long on larger rivers. It can also be 20 feet deep and run for a quarter of a mile or more. I would say that most of the time bass live and stay near these deep pools. There is an exception to this. During the spring, they will scatter and travel up sloughs and feeder creeks to spawn.
And remember creeks and sloughs are also good areas, if they have enough depth. You want to find water that is seven to 10 feet. This will usually hold fish year round. Creeks and sloughs will be at their best in the spring as bass travel all the way to the backs of these areas. Fall can be another peak time for these areas, but fall also usually brings lower water levels and bass don't normally venture too far from the main river.
When you run out of depth, you'll run out of fish. Most sloughs have dingy or tea-colored water. This factor alone will hold fish shallower throughout the year. A lot of these areas have flooded hardwoods such as oak trees, which cause the water to have that color. Tannic acid is the main reason. As this acid seeps out of the bark and roots of the trees, it will settle to the bottom. In these areas, most bass will be located up against the roots or around logs in 1-1/2- to 4-foot of water. If the center of the slough is eight feet deep, most bass can be found above six feet to avoid the tannic acid.
To compensate for this positioning of the fish, it's always good to simply raise your rod tip a little higher than normal to get the bait some distance off the bottom. Lighter jigs work well for this because they fall through the strike zone slower.
Now we'll get back to the river itself. As I said earlier, most of the time bass will hold in deeper pools during the day. Late evenings, at night or in early morning times are when you will need to fish shallower water. The inside curves will have sandbars and small pea gravel points. These are excellent places for bass to ambush bait. Two other prime feeding areas are where the river is coming into a deeper hole and where it's going out.
Most of the time a river will be wider with shallow water just before a deeper pool. As it flows into a hole, it will usually compress or get smaller. Bass love to feed just at the front of these holes. If the water is fairly clear, you'll see the bottom just as it falls off into the hole. Another indication of a drop-off is a small line of tiny ripples on the surface. Any place where you find drop-offs of some significance are ideal ambush places for bass. On the lower end of a hole, where the river starts to widen back out, is another area where bass will be feeding.
If you think about it, the river itself is not that complicated. You have two banks that are not usually very far apart. The number one place I always rely on is a deeper bank, where there are drifts that have fallen trees and brush piles. These banks will have root systems, rocks, and undercut banks. They will always hold a good number of fish.
One of the most important things to remember about the current, whether it is in a river or creek, is that bass will always hold on the down-stream side of current breaks. With this in mind, most of the time the bass will be looking upstream, or just to their sides. This should give you an idea of the best way to approach fishing a river. I'm always going to slip upriver and fish ahead of myself. If the water is moving pretty good, I move out at about a 45-degree angle from where I'm fishing. What this does is give me more control over my bait. If you get directly behind a shoal or sandbar, the current carries your bait toward you too fast and you can't feel the bait.
Always pay attention to what's going on ahead of you. It may be a raccoon on the bank or a crane standing in the water next to a drop-off. The coon may be digging for crawfish or searching for frogs or grasshoppers along the grassy bank. The thing that needs to click in your mind is that bass also eat all of these things. What the coon is not catching, he's flushing. I have seen it all my life. Animals use each other to catch their prey. That crane is not standing there looking up at the sky thinking it's a pretty day. He's there for a reason. There are minnows or some type of prey right there close. All of these things can tell you what's going on under the water.
Since I just mentioned minnows, you should also realize that they are the mainstays of many rivers. When I was 17, an old man told me about how the minnows migrated up rivers in the fall. We all know that shad do so, but as early winter arrives they move back toward deeper water because they have a low cold water tolerance. Minnows, on the other hand, go as far as they can. Some travel hundreds of miles. One day in October as I stood above a river and looked down into the water, I saw what the old man had told me about. It's like one of those pictures where you stare at it for five minutes then it jumps out at you. I could see the sand, then the sand was moving. It was minnows, a huge line of them as far as I could see. There must have been millions of them. I have only seen this migration twice in my life. Many people never see it, so I feel fortunate to have witnessed it.
Now we'll talk about baits for fishing rivers. I'm not going to tell you to use any particular bait, at a certain time of the year. The best thing I can do is to try to teach you how to use your own instincts. This starts at the tackle store. I may see something hanging on a rack and know before I buy it that it will catch fish. You may look at this same bait and not be impressed. That's why it is so important for you to use your own judgement. When you've purchased the lure, you then already have confidence in it before you ever tie it on.
When fishing rivers there are a few guidelines that I live by. First and foremost, downsize a little. The main forage in rivers are minnows, crawfish, freshwater shrimp, grasshoppers, and worms. Use any minnow-type imitations. In-line spinners work well and crawfish imitations, like small hair jigs or spider jigs, are always good. I've also had success with wacky worms when drifting down the current. When using this technique you'll need to pinch on a couple of split shot weights about 18 to 24 inches above the bait.
The main thing is to be creative and open-minded. Try different baits until you find something that works.
Normally I start on some type of shallow sandbar or maybe at the front of a drop-off hole. As the day goes on, especially if it's sunny, I move toward deeper holes. I'll continue to use smaller baits because I know, on average, I'm not going to catch a lot of really large fish. Bass in rivers generally range from about two to four pounds. This is because of their environment. River bass are constantly swimming against current, they have to chase their prey more, and their prey in the river is smaller. I also believe that bass, which live in rivers, are younger bass. I think as they get older they swim down the river to slower water and on into lakes. I don't mean they all do this, I just feel it contributes to their smaller size.
There are exceptions to this rule. Deeper sloughs, off the main river, where there is little or no current can hold larger fish. Older bass in rivers can grow quite large and during the spring, large females will migrate up from lakes downstream. So there are some bigger bass in rivers. One consistent place to find larger bass in a river system is in oxbow lakes. To picture an oxbow lake best, draw a picture of a pear without picking up your pencil. Your start point is top left. As you get almost to where the stem would connect, turn out to the right and draw another pear lying at opposite ends of the one you just drew. Now, where the lines are closest together, draw a line between them. This whole pear-shaped lake is cut off from the main river to form what is called an oxbow.
Sometimes it takes years for the river to eat into the bank until it eats its way to the other side and creates the oxbow. When it is formed, a lot of things start happening. First, current is cut off. This allows nutrients to fall to the bottom instead of being washed away. Rains wash in some topsoil, leaves fall and start to rot on the bottom, and in three or four years you can have a pretty fertile piece of water. Algea blooms and plankton growth increases, which causes an increase in the numbers and size of baitfish. Aquatic vegetation such as lily pads and cattails can also start to grow here. These are all factors that will equal larger bass.
River lakes are probably the most difficult places to pattern bass. This is due partly to the fact that residential traits have slowly been phased out. Twenty-five years ago, I could go to an old stump next to a creek channel and catch a five-pound bass. Then I could do it again the next week. There's a sow bass that roams the river channel and only moves up to that same stump to lay her eggs. What do you think her babies will be? That's right, they'll be roamers. They're going to inherit the behavior traits of their mother. Through genetics and fishing pressure we now have roaming, schooling-type bass that are hard to figure out.
Bass that roam are following the bait. As shad swim along and feed on plankton, the bass follow. As the shad scatter when attacked, this adds to the dispersal of fish. It's a continual movement effect. Which is exactly why, if you locate fish on Saturday, Sunday can roll around and by 1:00 p.m. you decide that some body has poisoned your spot in the night. You decide they just aren't hitting today. But if that's the case why did the team three quarters of a mile up the bank weigh in 23 pounds? I'll tell you why. They caught fish out of the same school you found Saturday.
Most people don't realize how far a bass can travel in 24 hours. The simplest way to think of it is to compare it to your own survival instincts. Forget you know about McDonald's and think about how far you would go to find food. Four or five miles wouldn't be anything; you could probably walk that in a couple of hours. I know this may sound silly, but it's the truth. We have very similar instincts to animals, but we have lost touch with some of ours because of modem society. They haven't. Sometimes you just have to think like they do in order to find and catch them.
Rivers are great places to fish and, enjoy. Understanding rivers can help your fishing be more productive on lakes as well.
A river is like a good woman. You never stop discovering her. Every time you're around her, you catch little glimpses of beauty that you never realized were there. Always remember to treat her like a lady.
Now, I think I'll go kiss my good woman and go to the river. As always, keep a bait in the water.
