[Ouachita]

We are at a near record low pool here, so I'm devoting some fishing time to just looking for subtle bass habitat like ambush features. I just mapped two drain ditches emptying a flat into an old creek bed, what must have been a corn field above the creek. The furrows are still there, all parallel to the bottom contour lines. But here and there after the farmer abandoned the flooding field rain must have come to wash furrows downhill across the plowed furrows. Bass use those to enter and leave flats, the shortest route to deep water sanctuary. Using a handheld GPS I marked several spots a lure ought to go come spring. I have about 400 new targets marked I didn't know were down there, mostly massive stumps on ledges, and rock piles from landslides, and a bluff with small caves and ledge slabs like cave porches. Do the looking now before rain comes and fills your lake back up. Jim

 

[Jared]

I LOVE low water scouting! The areas you can find when the water is low can produce amazing results!

My first ever experience with low water scouting was about 24 or so years ago.

I lived in Bethel, Connecticut and not far from my house was a local reservoir, Eureka Reservoir, and across the street from that was a small quarry pond called Mount Pound. Well one summer for whatever reason both the reservoir and the pond dropped about 10 - 15 feet lower than usual pool level. We fished it every chance we could and then one day I got the bright idea to go up there with a notepad and pencil.

I went up there and made the best maps I could. I marked out all the ledges, all the drops, all the rocks, channels, every type of structure or large cover I could see exposed. Mind you now, these were only 20 - 50 acre ponds. I actually still have both maps to this day. I will scan them and post them sometime.

Anyway, the following spring, due to winter run off, the waters rose back up to normal pool level. With a photocopy of my maps I went back up to the ponds to do some fishing. From that point on, I tore em up! I can barely remember a trip where I didnt catch atleast one bass 4lbs +. As a matter of fact I had one night on Mount Pond, where i fished a drop off I had mapped, and I caught, in 2 hours, 4 bass that all went over 4lbs, 2 of them were over 5. What a night that was!

Ever since then, whenever a body of water drops low, I am there, with pad, pencil, colored pens and now a digital camera as well. Hopefully this spring I will have a hand held GPS so I can mark way points as well.

Low water scouting is definitely a way to find spots that no other anglers will have a clue about.

Tattered Thumbs n Bigguns, Jared

 

[fish4funinfl]

A good idea, Thanks Jim