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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12009721 12/29/16 11:53 PM
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Donald Harper Online Happy
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I pick the best 60 spots on the lake shallow. I fish many of them more than once because the rating system I use will grade about 20 of those spots as excellent and will give them more than one chance to produce depending on the weather and lake conditions each trip. It takes about one year to fish all those spots thoroughly and will give me the best 3 shallow water spots on the lake. Then I go to work on the 3 best mid-range spots starting with those top 3 shallow water spots. I will eventually have the best 3 mid-range spots to go with the 3 shallow water spot. Next comes the deep water spots; utilizing the 6 spots found both shallow and Mid-Range. Finding the 3 best deep water spots also takes another year of hard fishing, driving and graphing. When finished you have 9 spots to fish each day. I never hammer the fish. I go through those 9 spots and take what I can get, leaving many good fish for the next time. Yes, I could set on them and probably come up with a winning stringer; but a couple of days like that, then you want have a spot. I work through all 60 spots for each of the 3 levels of fishing to come up with the 9 best spots that will produce Shallow to Deep fish.


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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12010530 12/30/16 01:32 PM
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Mr. Harper

You are truly a class act. Your posts are always so helpful and a pleasure to read. Guys like you are what make this forum so great.


Thanks.


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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12010776 12/30/16 03:48 PM
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Great write up Mr. Harper thanks for the great info. I also want to be better at offshore fishing. I always find fishin on my graph on ledge or creek channel, mark it and fish it and seems like it never works out. Very seldom it has.


Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Kens3313] #12010841 12/30/16 04:18 PM
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Donald Harper Online Happy
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Originally Posted By: Kens3313
Great write up Mr. Harper thanks for the great info. I also want to be better at offshore fishing. I always find fishin on my graph on ledge or creek channel, mark it and fish it and seems like it never works out. Very seldom it has.


It is not only about finding them deep like you have found them. Now you have to find the top of the slope with heavy cover on it. That is their first stop when they make a move to feed. If there is no heave cover only a few feet away from where they are suspended in the ditch or off that ledge then you may want to look for a spot that does. You can waist a lot of time trying to force feed fish that do not have cover to get around. Getting the Big Bite is all about cover on the top edge of that ledge. All they have to do to get a bite to eat is move 10 ft. in and out of it or up the ledge to that cover. Look for big piles of rocks that is different from the rest of the surrounding rock. Look for tall bushes on the top of the ledge. Look for stumps/hardwoods or heavy grass at the top of the ledge. The magic depth in the back 1/3 of most creeks is 12 to 15 ft. of water. Side Scan and Side Scan some more until you find a spot with cover on top of these comfort zones. Those fish are close to where ever they go to feed and the less distance they have to travel the better they like the good life. You can bet their first stopping place to ambush is very close by. Find the fish then find the sweet spot they go to first. Then learn to position your boat to sit close to it but not on it. I will keep going back every hour on the hour once I find such a spot until I learn the time table the Bass are using to feed.
What makes this so hard is, that many huge fish are nocturnal and you will never figure out why they are not in that cove. I have found some of the most excellent spots on Falcon, Amistad and Ivie to learn they are using them at night when we are not there.


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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12010876 12/30/16 04:43 PM
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Excellent write up Mr. Harper. Now if only we could get the fish to read. smile. The truth is the fish don't have the reasoning to know what a PH is, they don't know that a mile away there is a really good drop off. They don't know there is clear water if they go 2 miles down the lake. I think your write up is really excellent; but, the one thing missing in all of this is the baitfish. The elite pros will all tell you they look for the baitfish first and then look for the bass.

The bass DO KNOW where the baitfish are and they follow them. It is the baitfish that determines what area of a lake or what part of a ledge the fish will position on. Once the bass have found something to eat they will move to all of the situations and conditions you mentioned. It is the bass fish that will position the fish.

Again, This was a great write up. I also agree about fishing repositioning at night. Many people know water vegetation generates oxygen during the day, but few people realize it removes oxygen from the water at night. This low oxygen level causes the baitfish and bream to leave the cover of the grass and move into open water and I firmly believe this is why a certain spot on a ridge will produce only at night.

Great write up


John K Fontenot
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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12010889 12/30/16 04:54 PM
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Great discussion guys. One other point for consideration, I think what Mr. Harper has not specifically said is that these key structural areas are key for a reason. They contain a healthy ecosystem that attracts and retains food sources on a consistent basis. My take is that the bass use these areas because baitfish make their way across the structure on a regular basis and the bass know this. So they don't really need to move off of good structure to continue to feed, they simply wait out the movement of baitfish to feed. Also, good ecosystems contain other food sources, like crayfish.

My $0.02. Tight lines.

Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12010931 12/30/16 05:12 PM
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Donald Harper Online Happy
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Excellent points Texascajun69. These Old Big Bass know everything as they have seen it all and experienced it all through out their early life. I am a firm believer that when they get to a certain age and weight that they stop moving around so much. If you want to catch numbers then yes certainly look for bait fish and follow them in those areas that you have had the most productivity in.

I have been very successful with finding exact spots where big fish live and do not move from those spots except to feed on a short route toward the shore. When they have feed up they return. It takes a couple of years to do what I do to locate these spots. For those wanting to find fish of many sizes then following bait balls is another way to do it. If there are big fish lurking around those balls you can bet they are living close by. If the cover exist close by then those Big Bass know that the bait is going to use that cover also sometime during the day or night. Driving down that same ditch in deep water and finding bait would definitely produce a big fish on occasion that lives in that area. Big Bass do not like the chasing of the yearling Bass and will separate themselves just under or off the side staying close to there cover and ambush what ever is left over.

In other words I am targeting a Bass's home grounds that she has chosen for the rest of her life and will not leave it unless something drastic takes place like a 10 year drought.


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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12010934 12/30/16 05:13 PM
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Great information. One thing that I really noticed back in my Fork days when fishing with some different guides on offshore structure was how well some of them could read the fish. After you find productive areas and even if you see fish learning how fish position themselves in areas and near structure will tell you if it is a spot to fish or pass up for the time being and return later. I was amazed at how many times I would see fish, and sometimes big fish and would ask if we were going to stop and fish and be told that we would be wasting our time like Mr. Harper said trying to force feed a fish suspended and not feeding. Then we would run up on a hump or drop off and we would graph and I would be told this was the spot. Seems like so many times we would fish and immediately start catching fish because of the persons knowledge of reading feeding fish at the spot.
Some people I know who aren't anglers don't have a concept of what bass fishing actually involves and is the main reason why it has been such an obsession of mine for so long. Also explains why some people are also better than others because of the knowledge they have in learning everything involved with catching fish.

Last edited by TBassYates; 12/30/16 05:14 PM.

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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12010960 12/30/16 05:31 PM
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Good job. Glad you was able to experience that first hand. Nothing like being in the boat with an old guide that knows his business. Wish I would have learned those things. It would have saved so much time. All I new was that they were there and it was for a reason. I didn't take long to know if they were in or at the edge of the cover they could be caught. If they were suspended I left the area.

I have noticed that many suspended fish will be connected at that same depth; say on the side or end of a point. When I am seeing suspended fish all up and down that ditch at the same depth then I will fish the points at that depth. When they do feed they will move straight into those points at that depth and start feeding. If I am seeing many fish at 15 feet all over that cove that is the depth I will fish points and drops.


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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12011304 12/30/16 09:18 PM
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Donald you are absolutely correct about big bass being home bodies and not moving much. Years ago John Hope was putting transmitters in big bass and tracking their movements. He had a 12 lb. bass he tagged at Jackson Hill and released. The fish swam about 1/2 mile out in 30 ft. of water and suspended about 15 ft. down. There wasn't any type of structure around or any irregularities. The same time every afternoon she would start moving very slowly to the bank on the south point out of Jackson hill to feed. She stayed at 15 ft. and when she hit the bank at this depth would slowly move back and forth feeding. When full she swam back out to almost the exact spot and suspended.

John would sit in Jackson Hill marina and make a coke bet with people that in the evening he could tell within 5 minutes the time she would start to move. He says he never lost that bet. He firmly believed it had to do with the angle of the sun. He once tracked her repeatedly swimming directly under 2 different boats. They were throwing to the bank and willows and she was swimming directly under them in 15 ft. of water. He said he tried to catch this fish while she was suspended and never had any success. She used the 15 ft. break line as her feeding ground where she was probably catchable.

John published a monthly article in Honey Hole Magazine for a long time about his findings and to me they were remarkable. Sadly TP&W got this tracking practice outlawed except for "Licensed" individuals so we don't see this scientific studies anymore.


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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12011340 12/30/16 09:48 PM
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Thanks for the info.. I probably should have read some of those books. I am not a reader and have never read any of the great books that are out there. That is my loss; so I would suggest to all our young fisherman to gather them up and read them. It will save you a ton of time in some aspects. Above all most of them; I have been told will change your whole perspective toward fish.

There is a lot of difference in Book Knowledge and self learned knowledge through fishing with some of the best and against the best. It has got to be better to do a little of both; as in do all the reading you can and fish with the best ever chance you get. Seek out those that are the best in the techniques of which you are the weakest and get on the water with those people as often as you can.


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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12011638 12/31/16 12:47 AM
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This is very helpful information for young guys like me moving from fishing neighborhood ponds to big lakes. Thank yall so much.


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Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Texascajun69] #12012737 12/31/16 06:20 PM
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Originally Posted By: Texascajun69
Donald you are absolutely correct about big bass being home bodies and not moving much. Years ago John Hope was putting transmitters in big bass and tracking their movements. He had a 12 lb. bass he tagged at Jackson Hill and released. The fish swam about 1/2 mile out in 30 ft. of water and suspended about 15 ft. down. There wasn't any type of structure around or any irregularities. The same time every afternoon she would start moving very slowly to the bank on the south point out of Jackson hill to feed. She stayed at 15 ft. and when she hit the bank at this depth would slowly move back and forth feeding. When full she swam back out to almost the exact spot and suspended.

John would sit in Jackson Hill marina and make a coke bet with people that in the evening he could tell within 5 minutes the time she would start to move. He says he never lost that bet. He firmly believed it had to do with the angle of the sun. He once tracked her repeatedly swimming directly under 2 different boats. They were throwing to the bank and willows and she was swimming directly under them in 15 ft. of water. He said he tried to catch this fish while she was suspended and never had any success. She used the 15 ft. break line as her feeding ground where she was probably catchable.

John published a monthly article in Honey Hole Magazine for a long time about his findings and to me they were remarkable. Sadly TP&W got this tracking practice outlawed except for "Licensed" individuals so we don't see this scientific studies anymore.

This is a great story, ive always thought it would be cool track bass to see what they do each day.


Re: Offshore bass fishing [Re: Ryan T] #12021485 01/05/17 01:35 PM
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We had John Hope at one of our bass club meetings many years ago and had a real casual question and answer session. It was really great to have him speak to us and give us so much of his knowledge he gained over all of his years of study on bass. His book The Lost Bass is a must read for every bass angler. I am going to look for my copy and read it again soon.


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