Where To Fish For Bass (5 of 12)

Come on up, baby. Yeah. Sometimes, you have to go deep for a bass. Days like this you've got to go deep.

Virtually every large city in North America has ponds, lakes, or rivers that hold bass. The first thing you should know about bass in rivers and streams is that, generally, large mouth and small mouth will seek out different parts of moving water. Large mouth bass will usually be in the slower, weedier, deeper sections of a river, especially around logs, roots, fallen trees, and weed beds. Small mouth can tolerate faster moving water and will be right in the current or riffles. They like to hold behind and in front of boulders, rocks, long banks, and especially around rock ledges. They can also find cover around fallen trees and logs, but they like it to be a little bit closer to moving water.

Generally, it's easy to locate bass on small creeks and rivers. It'll be pretty apparent where they're living. On larger rivers, which are actually almost like lakes, it's a little bit tougher and you have to seek out the structure. I guess what I like about stream fishing for bass is that they're usually easy to locate. Find a riffle running into deeper water or some structure and you're bound to find small mouths. Small streams and most rivers are easy to fish from the bank or just by wearing waders and walking in the water. In larger, deeper rivers, you'll probably have to use a boat. Again, look for structure that will hold and attract bass, and put your fly as close to the cover as possible.

Searching for bass on lakes takes a little more thought and research. There's a lot of big water in most big lakes that will be empty of bass, so you have to determine where the structure is and where their food supply might be. On lakes, structure is key, especially if it's close to deep water. Bass like deep water because it provides security from their predators. Structures that you should cast to include docks, boathouses, rocky shorelines, shoals, fallen trees, weed beds, and any other kind of structure that will provide cover to the bass. You also need to consider what the bass might be eating.