In order to successfully fish a lake that is falling, it’s vital to know how fast the water is dropping. Gradual drawdowns and rapid drops in a lake’s level offer two entirely different scenarios, and both should be treated differently.
If it’s a slow drawdown, the fishing will be relatively unaffected. Bass will simply move down with the water. If it’s falling really fast, however, bass will typically pull off to deeper water before they get into a new routine. Rapid drawdowns are therefore the most difficult ones to fish.
John Crews, a budding pro from Jetersville, Va., took home a handsome check for third place after catching heavy bags of fish from Lake Murray during the 2003 Wal-Mart FLW Tour event last spring. The lake had been drawn down nearly 15 feet prior to the tournament so repairs could be made on the dam, but spring rains raised Murray by about 3 feet. Then, during the event, the water dropped steadily by about a foot a day.
The benefit of a reservoir well below its normal level, Crews quickly learned, is that it reduces the amount of cover available, and it simply concentrates all the bass in less water. However, it also gives anglers fewer places to fish. During a tournament, that can mean crowded conditions on community holes and fewer “secret” spots that other anglers can’t find. On the other hand, extremely low water can reveal cover and structure that would otherwise go undiscovered – cover that can be marked on a map or GPS and worked with a variety of lures when the water returns to its normal level.
Crews was able to stick with the same pattern that worked during the practice period, and he was unfazed by the fact that many of the places he caught bass from during the practice period were completely out of water.
“It was a slow, steady fall, so I didn’t worry about it at all,” he said.
Falling fast
Crews knows that in order to find bass during or immediately after a rapid drop in water level, one must back off and probe deeper structure.
“Fishing a rapid drop is definitely tougher than fishing a slow drawdown,” Crews said. “It confuses the fish and puts them off for a couple of days.”
After a couple of days, however, bass typically settle down and go back to the same places they want to be during a specific season. When the water is stable for a few days, bass generally return to their normal routines, and anglers can go back to fishing the same way they would if the lake was at its normal level. In other words, if it’s spring, then a typical spring pattern is likely to be productive. If it’s fall, a fall pattern would be a good bet, but only after the water stabilizes for a couple of days.
When bass pull off shallow cover, Crews searches for deeper cover – stumps, brush and rocks – on the edges of deeper structure (ledges and humps, for instance). Bass pull out of shallow cover to these areas before they adjust and move back shallow.
Falling slow
Of all the possible scenarios Wal-Mart FLW Tour pros face during a year on the circuit, a gradual drop in a lake is probably one of the least threatening. Whether it’s a seasonal drawdown, a daily drop in the water level due to hydropower generating or simply because the amount of water entering a reservoir is less than what goes out, bass take this change in their environment with little more than a yawn.
In fact, as Crews learned during the FLW Tour event on Lake Murray, a low lake can bring good things for those who know how to adjust. For Crews, it was simply a matter of learning the lake as it was during the practice period and sticking with the same pattern that worked prior to the first day.
“The lake was already way down when I first started practicing for the tournament, but it did come up by about 3 feet, and during the tournament itself, it fell about a foot a day,” he said. “Many of the places I caught fish from actually went dry as the tournament progressed, but I just stuck with the same pattern and caught fish from the same places I caught them before the water dropped. They just kind of fell as the water fell.”
Crews worked a Luhr Jensen Speed Trap and a Luhr Jensen Sugar Shad over shallow cover for the entire tournament and took home a check for $20,000. He admits that the low water did little to discourage him, adding that such a gradual drop does little to throw the fish off their normal routines.
Crews knows that the key to success during a gradual drawdown is simply to stick with the pattern that was hot prior to the drop in the lake level. The fish don’t change nearly as much as they do during a rapid drop, and they often can be found in the exact same spots as they were when the water was stable. Another key to finding active bass during a drawdown is to search for current where bass will position themselves in predictable ambush points.
Such places are generally easy to locate with the help of a quality topographic map. Choke points or bottlenecks where the flow of the water is constricted can be very productive. Bridges, often spanning a narrow gap between two points of land or built on long strips of riprap, serve as a prime place to target bass during a drawdown. The water has to speed up to pass through the narrow opening, creating more current than the surrounding water. Crews looks for long, shallow points that jut into the main lake. Points also force the water to speed up and create more current.
Finally, if you are struggling during a drawdown, just look for the baitfish, especially in the fall. The bass have to feed no matter what the lake is doing, so if you can locate bait, there’s a good chance bass will be close by.
Why draw down?
Lake levels fluctuate drastically in some regions for a wide variety of reasons. One of the most common is flood control. Resource managers slowly reduce lake levels throughout the late summer and autumn in anticipation of heavy winter and spring rains. Instead of dumping a sudden, massive influx of water from a major storm as it enters a reservoir, it can be held and released slowly, thus reducing the risk of flooding downstream.
Some lakes are dropped in the winter to expose the roots of aquatic vegetation to freezing temperatures, which kills the plants. Nuisance vegetation – hydrilla, for example – has to be controlled in order to prevent it from overtaking an entire lake system, and lowering a lake is a good alternative to herbicides.
On the other hand, lake managers can drop a reservoir to promote the growth of vegetation along the exposed shoreline. When the water is brought back up, that flooded plant life serves as excellent cover for both adult and young fish, and the rotting vegetation adds vital nutrients to the water.