I want to learn about the topic of ditches. Are ditches the same as shallow creek channels? What defines a ditch?

That's a good question. I hear pros mention ditches and never certain what they are talking about. I usually imagine a fairly well defined channel that isn't more than about 3-10 feet wide. Well-defined to me means noticeable drop on one or, usually, both sides. If I'm thinking 'ditch', it is probably in less than 12 FOW, and 2 or more feet deeper than the surrounding area. It is likely a channel of a creek, but sometimes a run off or steady discharge.

I'm I correct that these would be ditches?

I consider a ditch as the area along the side of the road.

I've never heard anyone in my entire lifetime refer to a part of the lake as a ditch.

In the above photo, I'd refer to those as creek arms or bays.

Ditches/drains/culverts/saddles/ledges/low spots etc etc etc

Places where a flat bank suddenly becomes a little deeper and more concave that usually corresponds to a place where water is constantly concentrated when it rains.

Backs of pockets usually have multiple ditches - flatter banks usually have subtle ditches. Big steep banks often have huge ditches that you can see sticking out of the water where the landscape makes a hard “V” - that V usually keeps going underwater and forms little points and ledges on either side of the ditch.

Saddles are where two islands or humps or even points are close enough together that there is kind of a “valley” that runs between them - this is another form of ditch basically.

It’s just places that get eroded and as a result stay pretty clean and hard and have well defined depth changes that provide good opportunities for ambush and reproduction and moving up and down in the water column without leaving the area.

Walk a bank during a drought and you’ll see the little snakey looking depressions in the bottom that seem to randomly shoot off the bank - those are ditches.

I think a better thing to look out for that makes a LOT more sense is “look for depth changes”.

When I think ditches I am looking for erosion channels typically in the back of pockets with steep banks that get a lot of runoff during a hard rain and the sides of submerged road beds that were covered when the lake filled. Some are great and some don’t seem to hold fish. A good mapping program on your sonar unit along with good topographical maps can help you a lot.

You can use your trolling motor and go back and forth over it marking waypoints to delineate each side. I do that a lot with humps and ledges also. Then drive 50 to 75’ outside it using side scan to look for structure or cover along it. If your unit records then record the side scan so you can study it and mark good stuff.

I like to set my recording unit to 4 screens (2d, side, down, and mapping). That way I can pull out to a quiet area and study the recording. Once you get it set up and saved to your unit you will always have it. I have a couple that I have fished for many years and by using my saved data I know just where to position the boat.

Use satellite images taken in winter, when Kentucky Lake is low, to locate the ditches that cross the shallow flats in the backs of creeks. Then in spring, use your phone to locate those same features on the water. Some of them may be better described as small creek channels or creek branches. The fish don't care what we call them.

What these guys above said. If you do a search on this forum, we had a topic about it last year with a lot of good replies. Here are some of the examples from navionics. The first one has the main creek channel in red from a larger lake arm. The line in green is a small hollow that is where water would have drained off the hillside before it was a lake (there is no creek in that arm). Erosion would have made the drain and then the lake filled up. In the second picture that's a similar story except I think that was off a main lake area. No creek, just a hollow going up the hill and this is the wet end of it. In both cases they are fairly large drains and I would be looking hard for fish in them when the water is in the 50's. They both have relatively deeper water very nearby such that fish can slide shallow or deep without swimming very far. And both have some docks that abut the deeper stuff for some cover (and possibly some brushpiles dropped off them). They are both limited a little in the area available for spawning up shallow which could be a limiting factor for how many fish fill it, but both are worth checking for sure.

Drains/ditches don't have to be along shore or in creek arms. That are just a spot where at some time erosion made a linear depression to drain water out. Same concept that makes creek except creeks have a pretty constant water whereas ditches were most likely created from seasonal runoff before the lake was filled. And now they are wet.

Great explanation. Thanks!

A ditch is a main creek channel and a drain is a channel that runs from the back of a pocket or creek out to the ditch.

I have had to get my car out of a ditch a time or two. Have not not slid into a creek yet.