How to Bass Fish a River

By Carlton "Doc" Holliday

A How-To manual for fishing river systems. Looks at cover, structure, equipment, tackle, techniques, strategies and many useful tools and tips.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365549908

Book preview

How to Bass Fish a River

How to Bass Fish a River

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All Rights Reserved.  This Book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review of scholarly journal

First Printing December, 2016

ISBN# 978-1-365-54990-8

Carlton Doc Holliday

5277 HWY 270E Lot 3

Mount Ida, AR 71957

[e-mail]

Copyright © 2016 by Carlton Doc Holliday

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First, I want to thank You for Your interest in this e-book "How to Bass Fish a River" and Congratulations for taking a positive step towards becoming a more informed bass fisherman or lady.

The intent of this book is to provide You an overview of a river and what to look for as to cover, where to fish, what baits to use and what special circumstances to look for.

The ebook will provide education about many of the factors You need to understand Bass and their habits, some tools You can use to make better decisions about where, when and why to fish at certain times and places and how to identify the best cover and structure for the circumstances You are encountering.

There is also information on equipment, tackle and baits plus a discussion of bait colors to provide You enough information to make informed decisions and choices.

This e-book is intended to give You as much of the needed information available to make You a better river fisherman or lady.

Preface

You have been bass fishing for a few years or You are just getting started and You have been fishing lakes and reservoirs for most the time.  You have had satisfactory results and have become comfortable fishing these types of waters.  One of your fishing buddies suggests a bass fishing trip to a local river and You agree.

You fish the river only to discover that the baits and tactics You have been using on the lakes and reservoirs You have been fishing do not work on the river bass.  What has happened?  Why didn’t I catch any fish?

There are quite a few similarities between lakes, reservoirs and rivers such as cover (rocks, timber, weeds), water color in some instances and water temperature.

The biggest difference is current flow.  This difference is the one thing You need to understand and use to your advantage.

Another difference, in most cases, is bait colors.  Another fact You need to understand and use to your advantage.

I will provide You with enough information through this e-book to at least make the right decisions to fill your live wells and help You catch more bass.

Biography / Credentials

What gives me the right to offer or teach You anything about fishing rivers?  Here is a brief bio of my career as a Professional Bass Fisherman.

Carlton Doc Holliday began his competitive fishing career in Fort Smith, Arkansas in the mid-1960’s with the Fort Smith Bass Club.  At that time, Bill Norman was the best fisherman in the club and spending a lot of time working with REBEL Manufacturing to get it off the ground.  Bill and I became very good friends and fishing partners.  During this period, Bill and I became the fishermen to beat in the bass club by consistently finishing in the club Top 6 and going to the State Federation Tournaments for several years in a row.

Bill introduced me to Bill Dance by an accident.  Bill Dance was considering one of the new Rebel Boats as a sponsorship offer from Rebel.

This weekend, Bill Norman, Bill Dance and the prospective Rebel boat were on their way to Shoal Bay on Lake Dardanelle.  Somewhere along that road the Rebel boat wound up in the woods off the road.

Bill Norman knew I was at Shoal Bay camping and fishing with my family.  He continued to the campground and knocked on our trailer door.  He told me what had happened and introduced me to Bill Dance again.  He asked me if I would show Bill Dance all the good fishing areas close to Shoal Bay on Lake Dardanelle as Bill was practicing for a BASS Regional Federation tournament.

Bill Dance and I fished all the areas I would normally fish at Shoal Bay and we caught a lot of fish and provided Bill a number of options for the upcoming tournament.

Bill Dance, with some help from Bill Norman, tried and tried to talk me into turning Pro and joining him on the BASS circuit.  I had a wife and three children and a pretty good job and was not willing to gamble on the fishing circuit at that level yet.

Bill Dance did spark my interest in tournament fishing and I was committed to fishing bass week end tournaments while still working from then on.

In the 1970’s, I moved to Oklahoma and began fishing the Oklahoma Outdoors Tournament Trail.  During these bass tournaments, I was paired with Jimmy Houston a couple of times and became good friends with Jimmy and his wife, Chris.  Jimmy and I teamed up to fish buddy tournaments on Lake Tenkiller for a couple of years and won several of them.

Jimmy got the bug to go pro from Forrest Woods and joined BASS as a pro angler.  He introduced me to Forrest and both kept after me to join him.  I got to fish a couple of BASS tournaments at Jimmy’s insistence and Forrest Woods' help.

In the 1980’s, I moved to South Arkansas and really began tournament fishing in earnest.  I teamed with my Quality Supervisor and we both joined the Camden Bass Club and the El Dorado Bass Club.  We fished many open buddy tournaments together and won most them.  We were consistently the number 1 and 2 point leaders of both clubs for years.  We decided we were good and joined the US Bass Buddy Circuit.

We had won many open buddy tournaments and it. became very clear after joining US Bass and fishing one of their tournaments that we still had a way to go.  We discovered that fishing a national circuit was a whole lot different from fishing local buddy tournaments or bass club tournaments.  Obviously, a memory loss of my fishing the two BASS Tournaments a couple of years prior to this experience.

Eventually I branched out and began fishing circuits like Mr. Bass of Arkansas, Country Boy Arkansas Circuit, and the Redman Ozark and Arkie Division.

In 1987, my wife Darlene (Dee) retired from Wal-mart and decided she wanted to bass fish.  We bought a Bass Tracker 1800 fiberglass boat with a 150 HP Mercury motor and began fishing as a team.  She learned quickly and before long we were fishing the Arkansas Guys and Gals Circuit, Arkansas Team Bass, and Anglers Choice Team Circuits.

Carlton Doc Holliday and his wife, Darlene Dee Holliday only tournament fished together for 5 years.  In early 1991, Carlton and his wife were practicing for a bass tournament the following weekend on Lake Ouachita.  The wife got a call from home and promptly went home and when she got back that evening, informed Carlton that we had inherited and now had custody of our grandson.

Later that year, Carlton had a heart attack thus the early retirement ended along with the professional fishing career.

After the early retirement from bass tournaments, I did go back to work at a local college as a Teacher, Trainer and Consultant.  During this time, I discovered an opportunity in bass fishing that had always been a thorn in my side as a bass fisherman.  There is a lot of good useful information about bass fishing available if You know where to look but it is scattered all over the internet.

I set-up a series of websites pertaining to Lake Ouachita to centralize pertinent information about fishing the lake.  One of the websites offered a newsletter and I began writing articles for the newsletter about bass fishing.  Before I knew it, I was publishing articles on the internet and several bass article sites.  I started getting thank you letters for some of my articles and was encouraged to begin writing books about bass fishing.  After a couple of years, I started getting requests for guided fishing trips for several of my readers and did guide on Lake Ouachita for 4 years.

The thing I noticed the most on these guiding trips was the fact that most bass fishermen were not knowledgeable about the fine-tuning techniques and proper presentations of the bait to catch bass.  Thus, an author was born.

Everything told, both individually and as a team, Doc and Dee won over 30 bass tournaments and placed in the top 5 in over 70 bass tournaments.  The last 3 years of their career as professional bass fishermen were spent in 1990 with Doc qualifying and fishing in the Mr. Bass of Arkansas Championship on Lake Ouachita and finishing third, winning the Arkansas Guys and Gals Championship in 1991, Doc finishing seventh overall in the Arkie Division of the Redman Circuit in 1991 and becoming eligible to fish the Redman Regional Tournament in Columbus Mississippi where he finished in the top 20.  Doc also had a free chance to fish the Redman All American Tournament.

Career winnings resulted in a little over $85,000.00+, but remember, bass tournaments did not pay the big bucks back then that they pay now. 

Carlton Doc Holliday and his wife, Darlene Dee Holliday are both retired and live at Joplin, Arkansas three minutes from Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs, Arkansas. 

We still fish the lake at least two times per week year around.  We can be reached by email at [e-mail]   if You should happen to want or need info on the lake or ask a question about any of this material.

I believe these credentials do qualify me to offer information to You about bass fishing rivers.

S5030064

Carlton Doc Holliday

Chapter 1 – Anatomy of a River

The rivers I will discuss in this book are the larger, navigable rivers such as the Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Potomac, Ouachita and the Arkansas.

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McClellan-Kerr Waterway – Arkansas River

One thing these rivers have in common is the fact that each of them contain several lock and dams creating multiple pools within the river.

These types of rivers produce river-run lakes.  River-run lakes are typically narrower than most reservoirs, with more current flow.  The lower end is typically the widest point; the lake tapers into a river throughout much of its course.  River-run lakes offer fair to good bass fishing.

Spawning is difficult in these lakes since they are used primarily for flood control and navigation, not sport fishing, and water levels can fluctuate quickly and dramatically.

Current is a factor to contend with in these lakes.  Often cover is limited to shallow creek arms and the shoreline.  Large-mouth Bass will hold out of the current around structure such as rocks, fallen trees, wing dams, rock piles and boulders, riprap around the dam, river bars and drop-offs are especially important structures in these lakes.

Spotted Bass and Smallmouth Bass will tend to hold in main lake areas where there is current.

Look for active bass chasing baitfish onto the shallow ends of the points and bars and fish fast-moving baits that can work well around current, such as a lipless crankbait.

Anatomy of a Pool

Head

High percentage spots when river bass fishing is where riffles spill into pools, the head. Bass will be there most of the time.

Current at the head is distinctly faster than the surrounding areas of the pool.

A deep eddy pool will hold bass most of the year, especially in small streams, and feeding smallmouth will be at the head and in numbers.

Belly

Pools with structure like rocks, logs and brush located within their central area are great! Real bass attractors. This area is what has been long referred to by bass fishermen as the hole.

Bass will position themselves around these structural and cover features and wait for prey to swim or float by. The bass they attract are often the larger bass in the area who have staked out the area as theirs.

Tail

A pool's tail often has a structural feature that concentrates the water as it exits the pool. The result is an increase in current speed and a concentration of prey that has flowed through the larger pool area or is shaken loose by the increased current velocity. Bass relate to this and do not usually miss this opportunity for a meal.

Eddies

Another spot to look for when You are river bass fishing is an eddy. These are areas in rivers and streams where the water is slack or flowing against the normal current flow, doubling back on itself if You will. These are back eddies. They are mostly found behind something interrupting the current flow. Look for boulders, woody debris like fallen trees or even a point that juts into the river channel forcing water around its tip. The faster the current and the bigger the obstacle creating an eddy, the bigger the eddy and the more rapid its circular flow.

http://www.bassfishingandcatching.com/images/Rock-Eddy-and-Fish.jpg

Bass hold in eddies to stay out of the current, though not often in their centers which tend to be dead water. Instead You will find them along the usually narrow current seam.

Boulders from the size of oil drums to a small car attract smallmouth bass to the small eddies created behind them. Eddies are important to those of us who enjoy river bass fishing.

Bass hang out in small eddies just in the front of or behind a boulder. Or along the current seam, the dividing line between the fast water, as it flows past the boulder, from the slower within the eddy, are usually in an active feeding mode. The illustration above depicts where bass will hold then dash out to feed on food flowing by.

Current

One other thing the rivers have in common is current or lack of current.  Because of the current You must be very safety conscious.  ALWAYS wear your PDF (Personal Flotation Device) and make sure the kill switch is hooked up and operational.

I know of several accidents and even deaths of fishermen on rivers because they did not obey the safety rules.  You will encounter traffic (barges, pleasure boats and other fishermen) on these waterways.  It will surprise You how big a wave can be generated by a tugboat pushing several barges up stream and it will do a number on You and your boat if not treated with caution and respect.

Ever seen a bass swim backwards? I bet not. Because they can't. In rivers and streams bass must face upstream. Otherwise they would be swept downstream head over tail. However, they will not hold in swift current because to do so requires expending energy and burning calories. Living each day in swift stream and river current demands a high use of energy even without chasing prey. It is a continuous struggle against the current. Therefore, creek and small river smallmouth tend to be sleek and muscular.

Whenever possible, small river and creek bass spend most of their time in deeper, calmer water, or as close to it as possible to conserve energy. In river environs, there will always be some current flowing in many speeds and even directions across any section of the river. These variations exist in direct relation with structural or cover features and their interference with water flow.

Bass fishing in rivers with current depends on which species of bass You are targeting.  Current affects each species differently:

Largemouth Bass – for the most part will avoid current as much as possible.  They look for eddies out of the current and objects that break the current.  They may be close to current so they can charge from ambush to get a free meal.

Spotted or Kentucky Bass – will tolerate a moderate to slow current but will also look for eddies and current breaks.

Smallmouth Bass – live and enjoy current and will usually be in current when feeding.

River bass fishing success turns on finding objects that create current breaks. These current diverting obstacles include cover and structural features. River bass will use the slower water around them to lie in wait and attack prey as it is swept downstream, slowed by rocks, small islands and downed trees lodged against the bank or jammed on a shoal. The reduced flow of water around these features also provide holding spots for ambush and rest from the continuous, unrelenting current and water pressure.

One thing I have encountered fishing in the Arkansas River, the Tennessee river and the Mississippi River is the variations in current during a week.  This can be quite frustrating in many ways.

The Arkansas and Tennessee Rivers have become notorious for tournament fishermen preparing for tournaments.  You practice for the tournament during the week and You have current and higher water levels that have grass and small trees in the water and generally holding bass.  On the tournament day, You go to the tournament boat launch and discover that the current is gone and the water level has dropped by a foot or more.  Now what do You do?

My wife and I had a strict practice regimen when we were practicing for a tournament that required at least four days of practice during the week preceding the tournament.  This means all our practice time comes during the week and not on the weekends.

We were practicing for an Arkansas Guys and Gals tournament on the Arkansas River in the Clear Creek pool.  We had found 6 or 7 areas holding good numbers of bass and were ready for the tournament we thought.  We had even formulated a plan for fishing the areas.

Normally we would not fish on the day before the tournament but, for some reason, we decided to go to next pool up from the Clear Creek pool and see what the Barling Pool had to offer.  This pool I was very knowledgeable on.  I kept note of time and gasoline consumption so if we came up here we had some info on what we may need to do.  We fished several spots and did not find anything more promising than what we already planned on fishing.  We found a marina at Van Buren and stopped and got a sandwich and a drink and found out that they were open on the week end.

We get up and eat breakfast on tournament day and make our way down to the boat launch.  Once in the water we awaited take off.  We made our way out to the main river channel and lo and behold the water level had dropped 18 inches and no current was present.  Most discouraging to say the least.

We quickly formulated a new plan to fish some of the spots we found on the way up to the Barling Lock and Dam.  We fished our way up to the dam in about an hour without a bite or fish and made the decision to lock through.

Normally I would not even consider locking through because I had seen too many times when tournament fishermen had got caught by barges in the lock and been disqualified for being late to the weigh in.  We went through the lock and began fishing a small area above the dam that we found the day before.

We caught 3 keepers and at least were not going to be skunked.  At this point, thoughts of winning the tournament were out the window.  We moved on up the pool to series of wing dams outside of a creek inlet that always seemed to hold fish based on history.

We noticed that there was a bit of current in this pool and the water level was right at the top of the wing dams with a little flow over the wing dams.

We began fishing one wing dam and for about 20 minutes we were in bass heaven.  We caught 5 fish in that period including two five pounders, 1 four pound and three in the three-pound class.  We culled two of the previous caught bass and were happy.  At that time the legal limit was 7 twelve-inch bass.  The bass just quit biting and we moved up a creek and culled one more fish.  Coming back out of the creek, we stopped and fished the wing dam one last time and picked up two more resulting in another cull.

It was lunch time so we started heading back.  My boat only had a 24-gallon gas tank and the gas gauge was showing just a little less than half a tank.  We stopped at the marina and gassed up and headed for the lock and dam.  We ate lunch while we were waiting in the lock.  By the way in Arkansas small boats are not allowed to lock through with a barge.  On the Tennessee River, You can lock through with a barge if there is enough room in the lock.

To make a long story short, we made the weigh in on time and weighed in over 24 pounds of bass and had men’s big bass and lady’s big bass plus winning the tournament.

This was an example of what can happen when fishing river systems.  To make a possible bad day a good day You must be flexible enough to find alternative areas to fish and You may be surprised with the results.

I mentioned a few new structure terms in my story that we will discuss in detail later in this e-book.

Chapter 2 - The Quarry and the Environment

Part 1 - The Quarry

A - General

Make no mistake, the Largemouth, Smallmouth and Spotted Bass are just as intelligent as You are and You are at a disadvantage to begin with.  You must try and outsmart these wary creatures in their own environment and surroundings.  It just makes sense that to level the playing field for these contests You must learn as much as possible about these adversaries.  A discussion about the quarry is in order.

Micropterus Salmoides is the scientific name for the Largemouth Bass.  The common names for the largemouth bass include black bass, green bass, Florida bass, bigmouth, bucket mouth, line sides and green trout.

The largemouth bass is the largest member of the sunfish family.  It generally has light greenish to brownish sides with a dark lateral line which tends to break into blotches towards the tail.  Sometimes confused with the smallmouth and spotted bass, it is easily distinguished because the jaw extends beyond the rear edge of the eye.  Also, its first and second dorsal fins are almost separated by an obvious deep dip, and there are no scales on the soft-rayed second dorsal fin or on the anal fin.

There are two recognized subspecies:  the northern largemouth and the Florida largemouth.  The two look very much alike, but the Florida largemouth has 69 – 73 scales along the lateral line compared to the northern large mouth’s 59 – 65 scales.  Florida bass grow to trophy size more readily than northern largemouth in warm waters.

The range for largemouth bass includes virtually every state within the United States.  There have been many stockings in the South, Southeast, and Southwest part of the country of the Florida strain of largemouth bass.  Genetic mixing between the species has occurred.

The habitat preferred by largemouth bass is clear, non-flowing waters with aquatic vegetation where food and cover are available.  They occupy brackish to freshwater habitats, including upper estuaries, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and ponds.  They can tolerate a wide range of water clarities and bottom types, prefer water temperatures from 65 to 85 degrees, and are usually found at depths less than 20 feet.

The Senses of a Bass

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Vision

Bass have a keen sense of vision, which helps them find food, shelter, mates, and avoid predators.  A bass’s vision is on a par with our own vision.  Many largemouth bass can see colors and some can see extremely well in dim light.

A bass’s eye is different from ours.  The bass eye has a lens that is perfectly spherical, which enables them to see underwater.  They focus by moving the lens in and out instead of stretching it like we do.  The Largemouth bass possesses a special eye structure which amplifies the incoming light.

Smell

So how does a bass smell?  Bass have two nostrils on each side of their snout.  One is the anterior nostril and the other is the posterior nostril.  Water flows into the anterior nostril, over the olfactory nerves, and back out through the posterior nostril.  No link exists between the sets of nostrils and their throat.  As the water holding the scent molecules flows across the olfactory nerves, a message is sent to the brain, where the scent is classified as a positive or negative scent.  Bass then act on the sense by a conditioned response.

A lot of scientific research shows some fish are drawn to chemical sources from hundreds of yards away.  Other studies indicate fish can recognize aquatic plants and other fish in the same school by individual smell.  A fish’s ability to smell has been documented to be approximately 1,000 times better than a dog.  Fish Biologists also proved in some fish species that a fish’s system of smell can double and even triple as the fish age.

Let us look at the normal behavior of a bass.  Bass find their prey by sight or sound first.  The last sense activated is smell.  It still plays a critical role in a bass’s life.  When a bass hears, or feels the presence of bait he comes over to investigate the movement or sound.  As the bass moves closer to the bait, he is expecting the final stimulus, smell, to be coming from the bait.  As he strikes and crushes the bait, he is expecting the flavor of the prey to be confirmed by his sense of smell.  Smell is an important final stimulus.

Hearing and Touch

Have You ever seen a bass’s ear?  Probably not, but they do have them.  They are located within their bodies as well as the lateral line system that allows them to feel their surroundings.  Bass do not have external ears, but sound vibrations readily transmit from the water through the bass’s body to its internal ears.

Largemouth bass also has another sense that is a combination of hearing and touch.  The lateral line receives signals stimulated in sequence, and gives the bass much more information (feeling other fish around it for polarized schooling, and short-range prey detection, kind of a sense of distant touch).

Spawning habits include occurrence from December through May, but usually begins in February and March in most of the southern part of the country when water temperatures reach 58 to 65 degrees and continues as temperatures rise into the 70’s.

The male builds a saucer-shaped nest 20 to 30 inches in diameter by placing its lower jaw near the bottom and rotating around this central location.  Bass prefer to build nests in hard-bottom areas along shallow shorelines or in protected areas such as canals or coves.

Depending on her size, the female can lay up to 100,000 eggs, which are fertilized as they settle into the nest.  Distinguishing between male and female bass is very difficult.  Generally, the smaller of the two on a nest is the male.

After spawning is complete, usually 5 to 10