Looking for the Bite: A Common Sense Approach to Locating Large Mouths

This past weekend the local fishing lake hosted an annual fishing contest for children to the age of sixteen. It’s called the Macy’s Annual Fishing Contest and it takes place every year mid July. I and every fisherman I know try to avoid Prospect Park lake during this time every year. Our common sense tells us to avoid the crowd. Where there are more fishing poles there will be less of a chance to hook into that dream fish. Well as I accidentally learned this past Saturday, fish take this commonsense approach to seeking comfort as well.

Stressed by the monotonous chores a Saturday morning could bring to any house hold, I decided to seek refuge on the shores of Prospect Park with my trusty fishing pole. I must have been really irritated and frustrated at home because when I arrived at the lake it was 10:00 am, the sun was beating almost every piece of shore line in view and the Macy’s Annual Fishing Contest attendees and their children were running around with bamboo poles. I came on, potentially, the worse day of the year, so without even dropping my line I decided to walk around the park. I saw the crowd by the boat house on the lake and went the other way. There was too much noise. I walked a little farther in the park and saw several spots to fish along the shore line that were empty, some with shade and others with out. Which of these areas do you think I chose? The sun was mighty that day and even with my hat and shades on I was still beading sweat. I chose the shade and not just any. I sought the darkest shade nearest the shore that was closest to the park’s exit point just in case those noisy kids decided to leave their party.

I walked under a very low hanging tree that I had to bow down to squeeze into and even bumped my head loudly upon a branch. The branch shook, and some small branches and tree trash fell into the lake. I didn’t think anything of it, but when I looked directly in front of me in the water I saw a very big bass swimming away. I was amazed, and I realized two very important lessons about shore fishing for bass. Firstly, quietly approach the area you plan on fishing, and lastly and most important, seek the common sense approach to locating large mouths. If the sun is very bright, and beaming thereby creating a hell like situation, what would you do? I would seek shade to cool off, and so do large mouth bass. If you are seeking relaxation, a place to cool off, would you seek noise and excitement? Neither would I. I would try to find the quietest place I could that had a great exit route. I bumped into that tree next to a piece of shore that had shallow water that quickly ran into deeper waters in a wider part of the lake. The bass had an exit point.

Of course as the weather and setting changes for the fisherman, the same situations change for the bass, so we would have to change our common sense approach to locating the fish for the changing scenario. However, on that day before I left I targeted really shady areas, under hanging trees, underneath lily pads, and even inside of bushes that half grew in the water, and as a result I picked up several bass by using this common sense approach to fishing. I also picked up my gear and left at 12:30 pm because my common sense told me that it was getting way too hot for my comfort level even in the shade, but I had a great time, and I’m sure the fish were still there in the cover cooling off when I left.