Fishing Drop Offs

Every year as we move to the late winter early pre-spawn bass will move up and down; one day you will find them in 4 feet of water or less the next they will be gone. I know this is frustrating, because I feel it myself, you think you have got the pattern mastered then you can抰 find a bite. The difference is something changes like the barometric pressure and a high pressure moves in. Sometimes it is the number of fisherman on the lake increases so it pushes the fish back to the drops.

The important decision to remember is that when the fish feel threatened in the late winter the first thing they do is move to the drops next to the flats where you might have caught them the day before. The key is finding the adjacent drops near these flats that they move to in the pre spawn. I believe they will stage in 10 to20 feet of water and you can catch them with your favorite crank bait, or Carolina rig and or a ?oz. jig working slowly down the drops. It抯 also important to note that not all drops are created equal; meaning that not every drop holds staging fish; some days they like a sharp drop, the next it may be gradual! The good news is you should know quickly if you are on the correct drop or not, fan your bait out along that drop at 180 degrees and you should quickly know if they are there.

Another key is finding spawning flats, areas of the lake you know the bass will spawn in and then back off to the drops around the spawning beds. These areas have a couple of important concepts that make me believe the bass are there. Bass move close as a matter of fact to the areas they will spawn in year after year during this time frame. They also move in groups so when you find one you will find many.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service