My son and I have tried his for the last 3 years with basically no luck. I've read everything I can find on the subject but can't figure out how to catch them. What are some key things that you all look for on these East Tennessee lakes? Even when I locate what I think is bass relating to the bottom on SI we can't seem to catch them
2000 Champion 186
'98 Yamaha 150
I think the first thing to do is look for the most obvious places on the map where current would hit a place. The more current the more likely a group of fish will set up there.
When idling these places you are likely to see fish of some kind. Bass will be in more of a line right next to the bottom and often times evenly spaced out unless there is a crap ton of them and then they are all over each other... White bass will set up similar to bass but will tend to set up a little more vertical on each other with some fish being 4-5ft above the lowest fish... You can typically turn around and throw a crank bait and at least catch a white bass to understand what you saw vs what you caught... It takes time to dial in on what bass look like vs others... But once you know you know and you don't bother to make a cast unless you see what you want....
Bass don't typically set up vertical.. That's the best lesson for anyone looking offshore to learn in my humble opinion.
Immediatley after you idle over them, cast into the wake behind the boat.
"I think the first thing to do is look for the most obvious places on the map where current would hit a place. The more current the more likely a group of fish will set up there.
When idling these places you are likely to see fish of some kind. Bass will be in more of a line right next to the bottom and often times evenly spaced out unless there is a crap ton of them and then they are all over each other... White bass will set up similar to bass but will tend to set up a little more vertical on each other with some fish being 4-5ft above the lowest fish... You can typically turn around and throw a crank bait and at least catch a white bass to understand what you saw vs what you caught... It takes time to dial in on what bass look like vs others... But once you know you know and you don't bother to make a cast unless you see what you want....
Bass don't typically set up vertical.. That's the best lesson for anyone looking offshore to learn in my humble opinion."
Thanks...Ledgerman....I learned more with this one reply than reading and watching tapes for a couple of years.
Last edited by richg99; 06-13-2017 at 08:01 AM.
That was pretty good info. It may be different for others, but with my lowrance side imaging I get a different brightness on white bass than the ones we are after. White bass always show up really bright and are usually in massive schools. Someone once told me that crappie tend to stack on top of each other vertically and that has been pretty true for me.
As far as catching them, I am still learning as well. I had moderate success on KY lake a few weeks ago, still need to learn what they look like when "they're eating". The pro's say they can tell the school is gonna bite just by looking at them.
2021 Caymas CX21/Mercury 250 Pro XS
You referenced SI is what you were looking at while finding them... Make sure you run Down Scan or Down imaging with it.. Side Scan is difficult alone without some confirming shots from Down/Sonar.. In my humble opinion..
Here is a screen shot of a school on the TN river on Side Scan only. There was a ton of them down there... you see this and it's every cast for 20 minutes.... A lot of schools aren't like this.. hope this helps. Good luck
Great thread! I've struggled with this a long time. I've never really put the time into it, always seemed overwhelming knowing where to start. Biggest problem is I can't bring myself to leave my rods alone and go searching.
I guess the picture didn't post.. I'll try again.
Great info ledgeman. I really appreciate the time you put into the reply. I've been trying intersections where creek mouths meet river channels but it sounds like I need to expand my search. We did find a good school of whites on Watts Bar last Saturday and were able to catch a few. Not what we were looking for, but helps a little with confidence in reading and trusting the graph and marking the location. Now got to find the bass and figure out how to make them bite.
2000 Champion 186
'98 Yamaha 150
One more thought/question. How many different spots do you feel like you need to run in a day to be fairly successful? I don't tournament fish, but still like to do the best I can from a quality standpoint.
2000 Champion 186
'98 Yamaha 150
I dove head first into the ledge world in 09..... I would idle for 8-10 hours at a time and leave with one possibly 2 schools found the first year.... about 2011 the lightbulb started to get brighter and then I began finding 6-8 schools a day (depending on lake, and time of year etc)... It's a process for sure and you have to keep your head down and keep grinding to ever learn.... A lot of people find fish by finding people who have found fish. It's certainly a way to find schools of fish but when it comes to going to a new body of water and actually putting the pieces of the puzzle together those folks can't do it.
For a fun fishing day in June I sure like to have 8-10 schools to rotate through. That allows me to do a lot more catching than fishing for a day... You will learn how those fish act, when they feed better, what triggers them etc.... Hope that answers the question some more.
Awesome Youtube by Brandon Palanick on this subject. Lots of good info here.....
Success on Chickamauga offshore depends on 3 things...current...current...current. Prepare to spend a lot of time running and gunning. You will spend more time graphing than fishing. Depend on your electronics...if you graph an area with fish and they are suspended slightly off the bottom...mark them and move on cause they will not bite. When you find them locked to the bottom, thats where you want to spend your time fishing. When the conditions are right, wind, current, and of course bait...It can be very productive.
I'm sure that's part of my problem too. Seems like even when I can find what I think is bass I can't catch them. I've yet to see any big numbers that I thought were bass though. Another thing I am noticing from looking at maps is Chickamauga river ledges are shallower on average than say Watts Bar and way shallower than Fort Loudoun. Do you just basically use the river ledge as a starting point when you're looking for them regardless of depth or some other factor? This is a really good discussion guys. I really appreciate itOriginally Posted by Stratos21XL
2000 Champion 186
'98 Yamaha 150
In any river lake look at the river ledge and find cuts where current will be hitting the strongest. Those areas are where bass will set up because bait fish will be pushed directly to them. Depth is up to the fish. One day they'll lay in 15 the next 25. Just have to find a few schools to know what depth to target.
Chickamauga has to be approached differently because of the stupid high pressure it gets. If it's obvious to you on a map, it's obvious to everyone else. Everyone and their brother beats the fish in those areas to death and it makes them extremely hard to catch. Most of my offshore spots are small depressions that aren't on maps that I found by dumb luck or a extensive idling. These areas don't hold but 10-15 fish at most but they're usually not as pressured, easier to catch, and bigger than the other areas. Well, less pressured until someone watches me catch 10 in 10 casts and now there's someone always on it.
I've got a pretty good screen shot of one of the depressions with fish in it I'll post later
JB....."I've got a pretty good screen shot of one of the depressions with fish in it I'll post later"
Please include lat/long and maybe a LINK to the Google maps showing EXACTLY where this spot is...Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Just kidding, of course.
I caught 8 or 9 out of this school and lost a couple before they quit biting. I believe the shadows on the left are stray shad based on having several bass chase shad to the surface while I fished. Still figuring these birds out
JB, what lake was this on? That's a pretty good side return for being so shallow... Do you ever use the blue color on side in place of brown?
It's on the chick. I was running parallel to the ledge and the fish are off the side a bit in 13-14'
I use the blue pallette until the sun gets up. With glare on the screen I can't really see it so I switch to that color. I mostly used maps/si split that day so I never switched the palette on di
Gotcha.. Thanks for the response.
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