The Affects of Current on Bass

Unless you fish the tidal waters current generally comes from two types of water movement, the one we are most familiar with is the wind, the other is caused by the movement of water through the locks; that being power generating current. Both create oxygen and give bass some life in the dog days of summer when fishing is tough.

Wind current is generally water movement on the top at least the first foot or so, wind current cause the water to deflect the sun as well as create oxygen. It moves the bait fish to the turns and jetty抯 created by the natural points and rip rap in the water, as well as around the man-made obstructions like boat houses and docks alike. All these areas become ambush locations for bass to feed and react to baits and movement.

Current created by TVA pulling water generally moves the fish to the deeper locations in the heat of summer, like the deep points and structure in the 20 to 30 foot water. This type of current also moves the muscle beds out to the deep points and creates holding points for big fish. One of the reasons this year has been so tough to find the bigger summer time bass over the muscle beds is that TVA has not pulled much water because of low rain yields. The low current has not created the typical muscle beds areas and the bass won抰 hold long over the deep areas, as they do when they are pulling water.

The key to this type of fishing is boat position; the current being pulled down the river positions the bass into the current and around the deepest structure like stumps or rock on the bottom. If you are not positioned correctly you won抰 get a bite, so fish into the wind and let you bait drift to the bottom above the structure and hold your position for the best results.