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which of these options is Structure

Structure and Cover?

5K views 39 replies 21 participants last post by  spnplgr 
#1 ·
do you know what structure is?
 
#6 ·
Structure......as defined by the man that coined the term first, E. L. Buck Perry, is:

"the bottom of the lake, that has some unusual features that distinguish it from the surrounding bottom area".

Hence, a point, a hump, a ledge is considered structure.
All other things such as stumps, bushes, trees, wood, weedbeds, brushpiles, a boat sitting on the bottom, etc are what we call "breaks" ON the structure.
A quick drop in depth is considered a break if it occurs at one spot, unless the quick drop goes completely around the structure. Then it is called a "breakline".
The most noted structure situation is a "bar". There are actually 17 structure situations in total. Not every lake has them all, but some will. Natural lakes will only a 3 structure situations.
Of the 17, several of them are manmade. Dams, roadbeds, and causeways would be considered manmade structure.

All these terms and more are in Bucks book, Spoonplugging Your Guide To Lunker Catches, copyrighted 1965.
Buck was teaching this stuff all the way back in the 1940's.
I was trained by him and many of his instructors. He passed in 2005. One of his best students lives right there in Tempe.
FWIW
 
#39 ·
I totally agree with Buck Perry's definition of what "Structure" is. Thanks for bringing up his reference. He was a smart man, a North Carolina State physics professor (if I remember correctly) who loved to catch fish with his system.

He used to stand in front of a group of fishermen, to teach them, and he'd draw a jagged circle on the board to show the shoreline outline of Lake "X". Then he would turn and ask the "class" where the fish were in that lake. He'd get a lot of different answers. I used to love a couple of His answers: 1) "The fish are where you find them," and 2) "The fish are deep, shallow, or in-between." After the class was through laughing, it would finally sink in what he was saying to them and he would proceed with his talk. He was a great teacher.

I remember another time he sat in a local club meeting prior to their weekend tournament coming up. They were discussing the importance of lure scent and the use of certain scents on lures to get the fish to bite better. He asked if he could fish their tournament and they agreed. Then he told them he was going to soak his lures in gasoline prior to the tournament and then fish with those same lures. He had never fished their lake before but he wanted to prove a point to them about more important triggers than lure scent to get the fish to bite. Long story short, he easily won the tournament, catching a big stringer of bass, and proved a point to them that the Depth and Speed you worked your lures were more important than lure scent.
 
#11 ·
i saw a video : Jerk-it :Iconrotfl
 
#9 ·
Another statement from Buck......

"you can have structure without fish, but you will not have fish without structure".

"Structure that is void of "breaks" will also be void of fish".

So breaks, breaklines, go hand in hand with structure.

This is why some bars(points) never produce, while some do.

Buck was also the one who said "that 90% of the water in any lake contains no fish".

"we have to spend our time where we have the best chance to catch a fish"
 
#16 ·
The definition of structure is a change in bottom contour, (i.e. depth), which results in an irregular feature on the bottom of the lake. Now just about any quick change in depth results in some type of structure, a hump, point, ledge, or something. The biggest misunderstanding seems to be the definition of "quick". Quick is a relative term. In a traditional reservoir, this could be anything from a vertical drop to a gentle slope dropping 5 feet over a 30 yard distance. In a natural Florida lake, where it may normally take 1/4 mile to change depth by 1 foot, it may be a 6" deep channel running through a 5 foot deep flat, or a two foot drop over 30 yards. Where ever you find it, structure is another edge in the underwater world, and we all agree that fish just love edges.

Let's spend just a minute talking about what structure isn't. Structure isn't a weed bed on a flat, or an isolated stump, or a brush pile. All of these things are "cover". A weed bed may constitute a different type of edge, both of the weeds and of the bottom composition, but not structure. Wood, whether natural or man made, is just somplace to hide. Likewise, a feeding flat is a place, not a structure. We all have seen times when fish are on the flats and relating to cover. Even during those times, there will still be some fish around the surrounding structure. Even on days when the fish are straying away from structure, they generally won't go that far if they don't have to. Learn to recognize structure and it can narrow your search for fish dramatically.



http://www.bassdozer.com/articles/crawford/structure101.shtml
 
#17 ·
Weed beds, standing timber, etc can indicate where potential structure is. The outside edge of the weedline is a breakline, and any turn in that line or a protrusion will show you and I where we need to concentrate out efforts.
Same for treelines and brushlines.
To an observant person, it is not the brush /trees that lead the fish there, it is the bottom conditions. Those weeds/trees etc just show us what the bottom looks like is all.
A fish will not cross a flat......UNLESS.....it has some form of breaks on it.

I have fished many Florida dishpan lakes. You are correct about those tiny 6 inch breaklines. You can have a 6 inch dropoff at 8 feet and the next tiny breakline may very well be at 9 to 9 1/2 feet and 1/4 to 1/2 mile away! Another 1/4 mile will lead you to a 10 foot dropoff into a 12 foot deep slot that may run for several miles up and down the lake and that slot will be only 50 to 100 yards wide. But rest assured that is where you will find the fish 90% of the year except for spawning season.
Another trait of Florida lakes is they will have a muck line that the fish will use as a breakline as well. So yes......quick can be a relative term.
Generally, a quick/sharp dropoff in a sloping breakline will be the contact point on that structure, and can hold huge schools of fish. these are referred to as a 'sharper break" and are very important to finding and catching fish after fish on the cast.

The fish will not "stray away" from structure. It may look like it to us, but a 3-4 inch breakline/dropoff/ledge will look like a mountain to a fish. They can relate to these breaks and breaklines by either being directly over them or suspended out from them.

Here is a pic of some fish caught on a Florida trip: 6 fish weighing 56 pounds.


Here are a couple of 10's from one of those 6 inch breaklines


Here is another 2 person limit......smallest is just under 4 pounds.
all taken off breaks on a breakline.
 
#21 ·
"No wonder why Florida lakes have gone to shit "

No they havent. It is just that most of the fishermen dont know what structure looks like in a Florida lake. Each one of these pics were caught the last week of May,first week of June. None taken during the spawn.
I am going again this year the last week of May.
This time of year, we are out in the middle of the lake, working one of those deep water slots, and you have all those bass to yourself, all balled up in one little spot and saying "take me" , "take me"!!
Where is the average fisherman? He is still moving along the shoreline, casting the weedline in the shallows where he caught them back in Jan/Feb. You never see another fishermen out there with us. Been like that for 40 years. It is nothing to catch 50 to 150 a day, and most of them like those in the pics.
You and i have to use structure as our guide in every lake. Only way to put numbers of BIG fish in the boat.
 
#24 ·
"No wonder why Florida lakes have gone to shit "

No they havent. It is just that most of the fishermen dont know what structure looks like in a Florida lake. Each one of these pics were caught the last week of May,first week of June. None taken during the spawn.
I am going again this year the last week of May.
This time of year, we are out in the middle of the lake, working one of those deep water slots, and you have all those bass to yourself, all balled up in one little spot and saying "take me" , "take me"!!
Where is the average fisherman? He is still moving along the shoreline, casting the weedline in the shallows where he caught them back in Jan/Feb. You never see another fishermen out there with us. Been like that for 40 years. It is nothing to catch 50 to 150 a day, and most of them like those in the pics.
You and i have to use structure as our guide in every lake. Only way to put numbers of BIG fish in the boat.[/QU
 
#28 ·
"98 people are wrong. "

LOL.......I agree. Now you know why Buck said way back in the 40's that "10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish".
 
#29 ·
:Iconrotfl
 
#35 ·
Looks like the majority wins!!! Those 72 other people are wrong.

Lake Structures
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All of the above wins..



Points Weeds Bluffs Docks Feeder Creeks
Brush Trees Logs Flats Stumps Humps
 
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