Every year I start out and fish some of my favorite spots, I find that what happened last year or even last month can be extremely different. I spend all this time searching some of my favorite way points and all of a sudden the fish aren’t there. The question why does this happen and how can you affect it? 

The first thing we must understand is that the bottom structure changes every year, the wind the current all affect how the bottom structure lays every year. What may have been a hard bottom area one year may have very well silted in from current and become a softer bottom area this is why you cannot always rely on your way points. We find this is very evident in areas where lily pads grow; one year an area is full of lily pads and the next year you wonder why they are not growing. The answer is very clear the bottom has changed from a hard bottom area that the pads thrive in to a soft bottom and they do not grow. The thing about this is it occurs in deep water just like shallow water, your favorite deep spot hold fish one year the next the bottom structure changed and the bass may very well be somewhere else. There is no magic to the answer but there is ways you can figure out what happened. 

Record the bottom structure on your Lowrance unit and update your mapping; a point or sharp drop or hard bottom area could very well change over time and if your updating your Navionics chip through their community edits program you can see the changes to the bottom. It’s a very simple process any one can participate you simply record your trials to the GPX conversion software, export it to a SD card and dump it in to the Navionics system, give it a few days and take and update your Navionics chip on line through their community edits and the change in the bottom will change on your Navionics chip. What may have been a 5 ft contour one day may be an 8 ft, drop the next and you may very well find the fish you thought your way point marked 50 yards up river. Don’t let your way points control your fishing; self record the area and find where it has changed; anyone can do it!

To fish with Captain Mike Gerry on Lake Guntersville, AL visit; fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com