Creating a Profile
By Adam JohnsonI always enjoy reading about new techniques and lure offerings. Seeing a new lure design or a new twist on an old technique makes one realize that anglers are always coming up with new ways to fool fish and that means they're out there enjoying the sport. It's not uncommon to pick up a publication and find that a large percentage of the stories revolve around what lure to use when the fish are under a certain set of conditions. What you don't see a lot of is how to find the fish to utilize that technique. From my experience with competitive angling and just fishing in general I can say that there are a lot of anglers that could use some help when it comes to locating a school of a particular species. Most of the anglers out there today are well versed in how to present a crankbait or rig a plastic worm, but when it comes to locating the fish to achieve some success with a lure presentation things get a bit hazy.
My game plan for finding fish is what I call, "Setting Up the Profile," which consists of taking into consideration a number of factors to know where a particular species should be at any given time of year. The variables consist of the body of water I'm fishing, the cycle that the fish are presently in, the weather in the particular area I'm in as well as the forage base. I include other variables to fine tune the search, such as how other species might be affecting the movement of the species I'm after, the amount of recreational boat traffic on the body of water I'm fishing, and how much fishing pressure has the body of water - or even a particular location on that body of water - been receiving prior to when I got there.
I could write a book, and I may, on how to use these variables to find fish, but it might be easier to give you an example so you can see how I set up the profile for a specific situation.
Let's take a mid-summer situation on a reservoir in the central United States. I'm chasing largemouth bass and I've never been on this body of water before.
From my research I know that it's a big body of water with a lot of bays and there are a number of creek and river inlets. Water flow through the reservoir is minimal at this time and vegetation is limited due to the marginal water visibility. The backwater areas are stagnant and oxygen levels there are pretty low.
The largemouth bass are right in the middle of their summer routine which means they'll be loosely schooled around pods of baitfish, wherever those bass can find them.
The weather has been stable and if the weather forecast is correct a cold front should move through in a couple of days.
The bass are primarily feeding now on the schools of shad that are bunched up and roaming.
There is quite a bit of recreational boat traffic on the lake and the fishing pressure is high for all species.
So where do I start my search for bass?
I'm not going to touch any backwater regions, even though the cover in many of these places looks great. The oxygen levels in the backwaters are low so about all you'll find there are carp and bullheads rooting in the bottom for insects.
Since vegetation is not a big factor in the main basins in this reservoir I will key on drop-offs, old road beds and any man-made structure that's been placed here and there. I won't put too much emphasis on the man-made structure because I know that the local anglers have these spots well mapped out and they get hit pretty hard during the peak of the fishing season. I won't overlook one of these spots though if I stumble on it.
On the main basins I'll key on spots that are eight to 15 feet deep initially where the bottom fluctuates due to a drop-off or a hump. Sunken islands or reefs are very good spots at this time but fishing pressure may have a tendency to reduce the amount of fish you catch there.
I use the sonar to pinpoint the structure and a deep-diving crankbait to strain water and find fish. You must be efficient in your search so you use the lure that works best for this situation. Since the weather has been stable I know the fish will be biting if I can find them so a fast-moving, deep-diving crankbait will work best. If I was fishing on top of that cold front I would be using a quarter-ounce jig with a three-inch plastic grub trailer or a Carolina-rigged seven-inch plastic worm.
When I find a group of bass, and I am confident I will because I've set up the right profile, I will work that school because my profile also tells me there will be more than one fish in a zone. When the crankbait quits producing I'll switch to a finesse approach and catch all I can before moving to the next spot. My next spot will be very similar to the one I'm leaving because that's what my profile now tells me is the best place to look.
So you see, knowing how to present a lure is important, but only after you find the fish. Finding the fish means you need to set up a profile and that should be your first priority.
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