Of course, one of the keys to consistently boating fish is to determine a pattern when hitting the lake. Accomplishing that is a matter of covering enough water, accomplished tournament angler Terry Bates said.
“Whether I’m fishing laydown logs or cypress trees, I want to cover an area fast, but efficiently,” Bates said. “You’ve got to catch that first bass to see what’s happening on any particular day.
“Now, if you’ve never been to any oxbow before, you’ve got to know that it all looks good and all looks about the same, but every cypress doesn’t have a bass on it.
“If you’ve never fished Bee Lake before, cover a lot of water until you catch that first (fish). If you do catch a bass on a cypress tree, then fish every cypress tree or laydown within 100 yards of that one. Many times I’m just hitting the edge of the fish and when I start working the trees around it find that bass are using the area.
“If you don’t slow down and fish the area methodically you might miss the main concentration of bass. And while there is usually only one bass on a tree, there are sometimes bass on each side and on adjacent trees.”
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