So I recently got a chance to drive from NC to Pa I-85 and I-95. Got a good look at a lot of lakes and realized how different they were from my home lake. A lot of the advice I did not understand on here really made sense looking at those lakes.

For example, I hit Lake Wylie in NC a lot. It is pretty deep in most spots (20-60 ft), there are some great shallows and drop offs but not much vegetation to speak of. Most of my fishing is in 15-5 ft of water. More on the deeper side actually. The shallows have never been great for me in my lake. and I royally stink at deep water (20+ ft) at catching anything but catfish. Summer top water temp is in the 90's, winter 50's, Spring and fall between the 2, usually mid 60's to low 70's

So my thought on this was first of all, selfish, anyone fish a lake of the type of Wylie and have any pointers to increase odds of finding them in such a lake?

Also, any other lake types, or methods you would utilize to focus on specific areas in those lake types?

ALWAYS look for structure surrounded by deep water.

If there is some vegetation or other cover associated with the

structure, so much the better. An obvious starting point on

unknown water is a point.

8-)

Lake Types

In the broadest sense, there are two major lake types: "Natural" and "Manmade".

You're apparently accustomed to fishing natural lakes, which are formed by glaciers (Lake Hopatcong),

sinkhole activity (Orange Lake), ocean depressions (Lake Okeechobee) and other natural events.

By contrast, manmade lakes are impounded streams involving masonry or earthen dams.

Very basically speaking, natural lakes are generally shallow rounded pools where vegetation abounds,

because they were born at the hand of Mother Nature. In sharp contrast, artificial lakes typically display

a serpentine shape with several entering creek arms. Not to be intimidated by semantics:

"manmade lake" is synonymous to artificial lake, reservoir and impoundment.

Because reservoirs are formed at the hand of man, suitable vegetation is rare or even non-existent.

This is due to many reasons, not the least of which is unsuitable bottom composition and wild fluctuations in pool levels.

All that said, there are two broad generalities that tend to separate natural lakes from manmade lakes.

> In most natural lakes, "vegetation" is the key to bass location, followed by "bottom contour".

> In most impoundments, "bottom contour" is the key to bass location, followed by "vegetation" (if it exists at all).

The word "structure" has intentionally been omitted, because with regard to manmade reservoirs,

the meaning has become convoluted and overlapping. Bass living in a reservoir (which is an unnatural situation)

are forced to adapt and tend to use "bottom contour" as a substitute for "cover". They'll gravitate to any ridge, depression,

submerged vehicle, submerged barn, submerged culvert and so on. Whenever an angler tells you that "wood" or timber

is the key cover in his home lake, he has also told you that his home lake is a manmade reservoir.

In a natural lake where they're given a choice, largemouth bass will naturally gravitate to soft cover in the form

of lush natural weeds. Smallmouth bass fill the opposing natural niche, and tend to gravitate to hard cover

in the form of ledgerock, boulders and pea-gravel.

Roger

I would add to the discussion that here along the west side of Michigan we have a third type of lake, which has many of the characteristics of a manmade reservoir, but that was naturally formed.  These are the flooded river mouths that form along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

These rivers were in fact large coves formed after the retreat of the glaciers.  Over time, sand dunes forming along the shore filled in the mouth of these coves and creating a lake with a small outlet into the bigger lake.  While many of these lakes now have a manmade channel put in by the Corps of Engineers for navigation, they are naturally made.

Many of these lakes actually still retain a serpentine area of deeper water that at some point was the river channel.  They also contain large shallower flats that can either be covered with weed growth, but sometimes are nothing more than a large barren sand flat.  They also maintain current through them, though at times, some of these lakes actually have a reverse current as you nearer to the manmade channel.  Some of these currents are much like a tidal river in that the current switches directions in a normal and steady rhythm.  A breakline forms between the water from the river and that of Lake Michigan and in most of these cases, there is not only a color change to these waters, but a temperature break as well.  Many times a person fishing right along this color line will catch both bass and walleyes (warm/cool water species) and various trout or salmon (cold water species).

On another note, many of these lakes were used heavily during the late 1800's in the logging industry.  Conventional wisdom at the time was for the saanother sitells to take the bark and scrap wood (slab wood) and to pile it on top of the ice during the winter.  In the spring, much of this would sink to the bottom of the lake.  Over time, long thin piles would form on the bottom that still exist today.  It is not uncommon to be sitting in 30' of water and be within casting distance of 10' of water on both side of the boat.  Of course these piles are no wider than 30-40' and the the water drops right back down to its normal depth.

If you ever get the chance to fish any of these lakes, these slab wood piles are a great place to start your day as both smallmouth and largemouth will use them.

Natural lakes differ just as greatly as man made impoundments or reserviors. You chould also add rivers to the classification waterways bass live.

The Canadian shield natural lakes are deep with steep rocky structure and the wood or trees are shoreline lay downs or man made dock and cribs. Out west we have few natural bass lakes; Clear lake being the most famous.

Reservoirs are generally classified by the type of terrain they are located in and the type of dam. Most bass reservoirs are flooded river valleys known as High-Land, Hill-Land, Flat-Land, Low-Land and Canyon. Reservoirs that are used primarily for flood control and water storage tend to have stable pool levels, whereas power generation lakes where the water is run through the dam, tend to have fluctuating pool depth. Age and location of the reservoirs tends to greatly affect the aquatic weed growth.

The original river bed or channel is the main feature of most reservoirs and streams or creeks that join the main river channel become bays or arms. Bass tend to locate where these prominent features join together and provide structure elements and cover.

Locate the prey near structure and or cover and bass should be there.

WRB

This is great info guys. Up north I fished Erie, and the NIagara River a lot.

Down here I hit Wylie which is an old impoundment. That makes a lot of sense what you are saying on the lack of vegetation.

Back in the 60's, Al and Ron Lindner, along with Bill Binkleman layed out their F + L + P = Success formula (Fish + Location + Presentation) formula. This became the corner stone of the In'Fisherman concept.

They defined structure and lake types as well as the "Calendar Periods" for each, way back then. No one has ever refuted this vast knowledge base. It has been amended and added to, but never challenged. It's been confirmed too many times for that.

The In'Fisherman has well defined lake/reservoir types which you might want to do a Google search on. There are many publications and books on the subject as well.

One clarification to what has been said above, structure should only be defined as the bottom contours within any given water system. Anything else that exists there, are just breaks on those breaklines - or "cover" if you will. Knowledge of this kind will help any angler tremendously, in achieving his/her goals.