There are few things more frustrating nor more exhilarating than fishing a new body of water. On the one hand, there’s new opportunity to explore territory where you’ve never wet a line. Sure you may have read plenty about the big bass folks are catching there. You’ve probably seen a few pictures of some hogs out of this water where you could stick both fists in his mouth. It keeps the fires lit for anglers wanting to try new water.
On the other hand, if you’ve never been to a fishing hole, chances are you don’t know the first thing about how the water lays. You’re uneducated on the local spots that will hold fish at varying times of the year. Reading the water can be tricky unless you were there before the lake was flooded.
Such is the case with many at
I recently took a trip with local angler Fred Hess of Hess Fish and Tackle. It was a gorgeous day, but the water was up significantly, muddy, and the water temperature was still fairly cool. The fishing wasn’t the best because of the conditions, but the lake has the potential to yield big fish if you know where to look.
"Right now it’s one of those days where you won’t get many bites, but when you do it’s a good one," said Hess between casts of his spinner bait in and out of the standing timber.
The first thing anglers on
During the pre-spawn and spawning days, fishermen will want to locate roadbeds. These are easily recognizable as roads that literally run straight into the water. They’re numerous on this body of water that was formerly farmland.
"Some of them are old access roads to hayfields or pastures," Hess told me as we went along.
Anglers will also be excited about two key landmarks, the pond and the corral. "The Pond" is a former farm pond that was swallowed up in the lake’s development. It retains its original perimeter minus a small spillway about 2-feet in depth.
"That little break allows you to sneak in there with a little boat," said Hess. "It’s a great place to fish during the spawn and I send a lot of bank fishermen here."
The corral as its name implies is a former loading spot for cattle on the edge of a former pasture field. Board fencing is still visible on the surfaces and provides tremendous bass cover. Nearby an old bridge abutment is also located near the far bank, which is unseen from the water’s edge.
"It’s just a place where they used to load cattle and never took it down," Hess tells me. "It’s a well known landmark right here in the bend. It gets a lot of pressure. Sometimes you can pull up and catch three three-pounders off it. Other times you’ll pull up and fish for hours and not get a bite."
Eventually the corral did produce our best fish of the day, just over four-pounds.
Learning the water is critical to success. Fred is plenty forthcoming with the information and most fishermen in