Are bluffs just contours that are very close together that run parallel?

 

is this a bluff?

 

 

Yes .

 

I dont have much success fishing bluffs .  Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I'd be hitting these spots, especially towards the fall.

 

Rock Cliff banks are my

number one producer by a landslide 

6 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Rock Cliff banks are my

number one producer by a landslide 

You know them better than me. When I see a bluff  I turn my back to it and look at the other bank. There are no spots and very few smallies here so maybe thats the reason.

3 minutes ago, scaleface said:

You know them better than me. When I see a bluff  I turn my back to it and look at the other bank. There are no spots and very few smallies here so maybe thats the reason.

Well you catch about 3000 more fish per year than I do so…….

 

Mud flat might be much better option haha

12 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Rock Cliff banks are my

number one producer by a landslide 

Oh' I didnt read it right . You fish by the landslides,?

Bluff walls are where the big girls are

So if that’s a bluff how do you know which ones are productive since there are many spots that look like that

15 minutes ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

So if that’s a bluff how do you know which ones are productive since there are many spots that look like that

 

I like to probe with crankbaits/spinnerbaits/swim jigs/chatterbaits and hit structure and try to get my bait in the strike zone as it travels down the drop.  Caught many fish doing 90° casts from about 20 ft and bringing the bait back slow letting it fall and swimming or hopping or twitching it back etc.

 

Sometimes they are under you while you're doing this though and that's when it pays to periodically fire a few casts parallel to the bank ahead of you just in case they're at the same depth as your boat and off the bluff rather than up shallow.

 

I like a lipless crankbait for paralleling a bluff if it doesn't have too much wood, if it does, I prefer a swim jig or a lipped crankbait that runs just above the wood tops.

 

Cheap down  imaging can help sort all of this out very quickly.

24 minutes ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

So if that’s a bluff how do you know which ones are productive since there are many spots that look like that

Time on the water will show you which are productive at what time of the year.  There are lots of bluffs on the lakes that I fish.  Some are good in the winter and others in the summer.

 

There are also some that have never given me a fish.

Bluff is basically a cliff or vertical structure. Look for isolated elements at the depth are suspended at.

Isolated structure element is shown on the red circled map as shelved indicated by wider separation in the elevation lines. Crevasse breaks in the rock wall or  some wood.

The landslide statement has merit as isolated structure.

Look closely and the fish holding elements will stand out.

Senko’s can be very effective falling vertical within a foot of the wall and are good landed on the shelves.

Tom

Contours often continue under the water, so a gradual slope my lead to a shallow flat, where a steep drop off is often deep water right away.  It doesn’t always run true, but more often it does.  I like bluffs after sudden cold spells, and often fish deep hugging the rock walls.

On 3/24/2023 at 10:33 AM, GoneFishingLTN said:

So if that’s a bluff how do you know which ones are productive since there are many spots that look like that

Ain’t hard to distinguish them here, got a cliff like this bout every mile or two on TN river, sometimes more. Most of them are 30+ feet above the water, 50+ feet below the water shear rock wall

Cover the crevasse and flat rock with water, that is isolated structure on the rock wall.

Tom

On 3/24/2023 at 10:33 AM, GoneFishingLTN said:

So if that’s a bluff how do you know which ones are productive since there are many spots that look like that

 

When fish are around hard bottom (wall in this case) they are fairly easy to see on the FF.

On 3/24/2023 at 9:33 AM, GoneFishingLTN said:

So if that’s a bluff how do you know which ones are productive since there are many spots that look like that

If you approach a bluff the way you should any structure, you look for changes and any form of cover.  Bass will hold somewhere along (down) the drop, so that is where you are looking for those changes. 
The base of the bluff can hold fish, but I’ve found that only bluffs that bottom out in 30ft. or less and have chunk rock, or cover productive. 

I find that the transition ends of the bluffs and the points (where a corner or part sticks out slightly into the water) are the spots I target the most.. if you are going down a rock bluff and come across a patch of chunk rock that slopes out into the water in the middle of the bluff that, my friend, is a smallmouth killer…