THERE ARE NOT many absolutes in bass fishing, but Stetson Blaylock has one about big-lake tributaries he has lived by for more than two decades. “In summer,” he says, “you need stained water to keep shallow.”
The Bassmaster Elite Series pro, who grew up fishing some of the clear, liquid-air Arkansas lakes like Ouachita and Greers Ferry, also emphasizes that wherever he goes he looks first for bass offshore in deeper, clearer water; however, he learned this important shallow-water lesson during a midsummer tournament a long time ago. He won’t name the lake or the event, but while he was thrashing around in deeper depths, the tournament was won in a foot of water far in the back of one of the lake’s tributaries. The key was shallow cover in stained water.
“That was a prime example of why tributaries are such an important part of bass fishing and why every bass fisherman needs to understand them,” Blaylock continues. “If you’ve never been on a particular reservoir before, or if you only have a limited amount of time to spend fishing, tributaries are among the very best places to start.
“The problem is that not every tributary on
