Posted By: Donald Harper
Article 4 - Inside Bends - 04/18/20 03:03 PM
ARTICLE 4 – INSIDE BENDS
Inside Bends are excellent areas for year round fishing. In the Spring the shallow inside bend of a creek provides a great spawning ground for Big Bass in the last 1/3 of the coves. In shallow water coves the creek may fork in the back; this fork produces a spawning flat inside bend between the two creeks. With deep water coves that fork in the back you will find them holding quality Bass staging to feed at 15 to 20 feet on the inside bend where the two deep water creeks split, making it a good Summer time hole. The River Channel twist and turns from one end of the lake to the other. These sharp bends in the river many times will have some high ground on the Inside Bend of the river where large hardwoods may be involved and the outside bend may have heavy brush. NOW let’s take a look at each one of them individually.
- Creek Channel Inside Bends: Use the research maps that are available to you as well as Google Earth Pro to look at Low Water Imaging to find the best Irregular Features on these shallow water creek bends. Even though your maps may be to shallow at 10 ft. to show good contours; all inside bends in a forked creek will have excellent contours to attract big fish during the spawn. Concentrate on bends that have just stepped up from deeper water to 10ft. Deep in the middle of the creek. These will be in the last third of the coves. The inside bend will shallow up fast as this is nothing but a shallow water point where two creeks forks down both sides of it. Or it could be a point with the creek channel swinging around it. These shallow inside bends must have good cover to produce, which would be; Grass, Bushes, Hardwoods and Rock. The bend must have at least one of these to be a good producer. This is the kind of area that you want to fish during BAD Weather condition: Thunder Storms, Fog, Sleet, Snow and High Pressure Systems. Bass stack up on them like a magnet during bad weather conditions.
![[Linked Image]](https://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics/userpics/2020/04/full-28031-47739-4_creek_bends.png)
- Creek Channel Forks: When a deep water creek forks in the back it also forms an Inside Bend Point. This is a great Summer time feeding area for quality fish. Look for any gouges on the side of the point. Start about 100 yards on one side or the other of the point and come out and around the point with the man in the front throwing search baits and the man in the back dragging the contour line. These inside bends are close to deeper water. If that point provides bushes during the spawn move into them for the larger fish.
![[Linked Image]](https://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics/userpics/2020/04/full-28031-47740-4_inside_bend_points.png)
- Deep Water Inside Bends.: Creeks that are extremely crooked form many inside bends that will hold fish all year. Each one provides a small inside flat that extends out to the channel. This is an example of those bends. They are as good as it gets for Summer time fish staging to feed on the slopes out to the lip of the channel. Even the Top Water Bite here will be excellent.
![[Linked Image]](https://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics/userpics/2020/04/full-28031-47741-4_deep_water_bends.png)
- River Channel S-Bends: These are the most difficult to find; but when you do, we are talking huge fish will be there. I have taken two 30 lb. Stringers off this S- Bend and the heavy brush on the outside of the bend. As a bonus this area has a Creek channel full of heavy brush for Spawning fish; that goes SW. out of the River Channel. When I am researching a lake this is the first thing that I look for. Then I go to the area and Graph every foot of it to find the cover that is in the right depth of water. Big Bass live in the river trees and only have to move a few yards to the lip of the channel.
![[Linked Image]](https://texasfishingforum.com/forums/pics/userpics/2020/04/full-28031-47742-4_river_bends.png)
Inside Bends are excellent areas for year round fishing. In the Spring the shallow inside bend of a creek provides a great spawning ground for Big Bass in the last 1/3 of the coves. In shallow water coves the creek may fork in the back; this fork produces a spawning flat inside bend between the two creeks. With deep water coves that fork in the back you will find them holding quality Bass staging to feed at 15 to 20 feet on the inside bend where the two deep water creeks split, making it a good Summer time hole. The River Channel twist and turns from one end of the lake to the other. These sharp bends in the river many times will have some high ground on the Inside Bend of the river where large hardwoods may be involved and the outside bend may have heavy brush. NOW let’s take a look at each one of them individually.
- Creek Channel Inside Bends: Use the research maps that are available to you as well as Google Earth Pro to look at Low Water Imaging to find the best Irregular Features on these shallow water creek bends. Even though your maps may be to shallow at 10 ft. to show good contours; all inside bends in a forked creek will have excellent contours to attract big fish during the spawn. Concentrate on bends that have just stepped up from deeper water to 10ft. Deep in the middle of the creek. These will be in the last third of the coves. The inside bend will shallow up fast as this is nothing but a shallow water point where two creeks forks down both sides of it. Or it could be a point with the creek channel swinging around it. These shallow inside bends must have good cover to produce, which would be; Grass, Bushes, Hardwoods and Rock. The bend must have at least one of these to be a good producer. This is the kind of area that you want to fish during BAD Weather condition: Thunder Storms, Fog, Sleet, Snow and High Pressure Systems. Bass stack up on them like a magnet during bad weather conditions.
- Creek Channel Forks: When a deep water creek forks in the back it also forms an Inside Bend Point. This is a great Summer time feeding area for quality fish. Look for any gouges on the side of the point. Start about 100 yards on one side or the other of the point and come out and around the point with the man in the front throwing search baits and the man in the back dragging the contour line. These inside bends are close to deeper water. If that point provides bushes during the spawn move into them for the larger fish.
- Deep Water Inside Bends.: Creeks that are extremely crooked form many inside bends that will hold fish all year. Each one provides a small inside flat that extends out to the channel. This is an example of those bends. They are as good as it gets for Summer time fish staging to feed on the slopes out to the lip of the channel. Even the Top Water Bite here will be excellent.
- River Channel S-Bends: These are the most difficult to find; but when you do, we are talking huge fish will be there. I have taken two 30 lb. Stringers off this S- Bend and the heavy brush on the outside of the bend. As a bonus this area has a Creek channel full of heavy brush for Spawning fish; that goes SW. out of the River Channel. When I am researching a lake this is the first thing that I look for. Then I go to the area and Graph every foot of it to find the cover that is in the right depth of water. Big Bass live in the river trees and only have to move a few yards to the lip of the channel.
