Time on the water has proven many things over the years I have been fishing; nothing has become more prevalent than the ability to catch fish on some very specific structure and a very specific spot. Many areas of your lake can qualify as hot spots the issue is finding these areas that become havens for fish to hang on and feed on.

The way to do this is to understand some very basic principles of locating bass. The first thing to look for is underwater points, today’s technology and the use of Navionics mapping, underwater points are very easily defined on your map. The next thing is to be aware that not all the area of a apparent hot spot area like a hard bottom, or shell bed holds fish; in fact the area holding bass can be as small as the size of your boat; it can easily be somewhere in the 10 by 20 feet in size. Meaning that when you do fish an apparent hot spot and you get a bite the area your fishing can narrow down to a very small window, and your job will be to stay on the small area to keep the fish biting. It’s also very possible that the area is very specific to the proper fishing angle so work the spot from many angles until a fishing direction produces the bite and use that angle as your approach to catch the next fish.

The bottom make up can also become an indicator of where the bass are holding, shell bottoms are one of the best fish holding bottom structures on any lake. Finding the structure is as important as anything you can do while searching for bass; bass are structure holding predators that need hiding places, so use the structure and visualize how bass would hold and how they would position to hide like any predator. Where would they hide, is very similar as where you might hide if you were using a tree to play hide and seek.

Hot spots are narrow, defined and specific, find them and you will find the fish! 

Fish with Captain Mike Gerry on Lake Guntersville, AL visit: fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com

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