Where To Find Aggressive Bass In Man-Made Reservoirs
Story and Photos By John Neporadny Jr.

Whether they live in the back of a cove or on the main lake, bass in man-made reservoirs feel the effects of current. Water flow throughout a reservoir activates bass by providing cooler, oxygenated water. In certain areas of the lake, heavy current positions bass on ambush points. When the water flow is constant, bass usually congregate along current breaks where they can pick off food being swept into their strike zone.

Any object in the water that diverts water flow serves as a current break.

"In the tailraces below our lakes, there will be broken rock banks and some jetties where you can see the boils and side eddies," says Jimmy Mason, a Pickwick Lake guide and Bassmaster tournament-trail competitor from Alabama.

Current breaks can be found on both the upper and lower ends of a man-made reservoir. Many of the breaks in the tailrace areas below dams on a chain of lakes or in the headwaters area are easy to distinguish, but obstacles breaking the current on the deep, lower end of a reservoir require some map reading and searching with electronics.

Here's a look at how two veteran reservoir anglers target current breaks on their home waters.

Headwaters & Tailraces

Since current is usually always present in these areas, Mason checks the water flow velocity to determine how he fishes the breaks.

"The more current you have definitely positions the fish more around the breaks," Mason says.

He notices in slower current the fish will be more on the front sides of the breaks and not holding as tight to the obstacle. The amount of flow also influences how many fish hold on breaks.

"There will be times when there will be an unbelievable number of fish holding in the same eddy (during heavy flow)," Mason advises. "It's almost like all the fish in that area are pulling into a few large eddies."

In medium or low current, Mason usually finds single fish holding along a series of rock outcroppings.

When water is rolling heavily from Truman Dam, Roger Fitzpatrick can easily pinpoint bass in the Lake of the Ozarks headwaters.

"There are a lot of fish living on the main channel, and when water is running hard, the fish will get right on the bank," says the Missouri tournament angler who catches these fish pitching a 1/2-ounce jig into eddies along the bank. "There will be some undercut root wads where the fishing will be awesome."

On the tailraces of the Tennessee River chain of lakes, Mason targets current breaks that extend above the water, like rock jetties or rockpiles, and underwater obstacles such as divergent dikes and stump rows.

"You can see that something under there is disrupting the current, but you can't see what it is," says Mason, who relies on a Lowrance X-26 depthfinder to define the underwater break.

Facing the nose of his boat into the current, Mason drifts backward with the water flow and uses his trolling motor to control the speed of his drift. He usually casts his lure upstream and lets the current wash it into the eddy of the current break.

The time of year and type of current break determine which lures Mason selects for tailrace fishing.

"I'll start out during the warm months with a topwater bait and then depending on how the fish react, I will go to the Yum Houdini Shad or even a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce Booyah double willow-leaf spinnerbait that I sweep into the eddy," Mason says.

These lures produce best for Mason when he targets the eddies of visible current breaks.

Current supplies a higher oxygen level than the surrounding waters in summer and fall, so bass tend to hold along breaks near the heaviest flow during these seasons. On his home waters, Mason finds the most active fish on the upstream side of the current breaks.

"If you think about what current does, it hits an object in the water head on, so there will be a dead spot that causes a boil or an eddy in front of the object as well as on the back side," Mason says. "Lots of times the most active fish will be sitting in that eddy in front of the break where they are getting the choice food washing into that eddy."

During colder months, Mason keys on underwater current breaks where he bumps a plastic grub or 3-inch Yum Tube along the bottom. He rigs his soft plastics on a 1/8- to 1/4-ounce jighead, depending on the current strength.

Bass are usually less aggressive in cold water, so Mason suggests keying on slack-water areas behind the current breaks. Since he wants his lure to stay in contact with the bottom, Mason usually anchors his boat, which allows him to keep his lure in the eddy longer.

"Once I get my first bite or two, I will anchor my boat so that I can cast upstream and let the current sweep my bait through the area I am trying to fish," says Mason. "That is the whole key. You want the current to make your bait fall naturally into the areas that hold fish."

Lower Lake Breaks

Although harder to detect with the naked eye, current is present on the lower end of a reservoir when water is being released through the dam. The action of your lures will let you know that the water is moving.

"There are times when you will take a jig or a worm with a 3/8-ounce weight, and if you throw it into 20 feet of water, by the time it gets to the bottom, your lure is not even close to the object to which you were casting," Fitzpatrick warns. "The current has taken it 10 or 15 yards to the right or left. You have to picture in your mind what is going on under the water."

Main-channel structure provides the best current breaks on the lower end, but secondary points also divert water flow for bass seeking good ambush spots.

"The current is everywhere on the lake if they are running water through the dam," says Fitzpatrick. "Some people think the current is just out on the main lake, but the fish feel it in 2 feet of water in the very back of a cove."

Bass on the lower end of a reservoir will congregate on deep or shallow current breaks, depending on water clarity. On turbid waters, Fitzpatrick has found bass holding behind seawalls or near the bank of a rocky point.

"The fish will nose up to it as tight as you can flip your bait to it," he says.

In clear-water reservoirs such as Lake of the Ozarks or Table Rock, Fitzpatrick looks for offshore current breaks where the old river channel bumps into a point. The Missouri tournament angler notices when current is present, bass move up out of the channel to the point and tuck in behind rocks or brushpiles to feed.

Some of the current breaks he fishes on the lower end of Lake of the Ozarks are 15 to 20 feet deep, so Fitzpatrick relies on a Humminbird 987 side-imaging unit to locate the structure and see how the fish are positioned on it.

"When you fish the upper lake, you can find shallow cover such as a rock or laydown and actually see what the fish tuck behind," says Fitzpatrick. "To be able to see that with a sonar unit in deeper water is a huge advantage."

The unit allows Fitzpatrick to find stumps, rock changes along a gravel point or a pile of busted rock, all prime offshore current breaks.

Since the fish will be facing into the current, Fitzpatrick casts uplake and retrieves his lures with the current toward the break. The Missouri angler suggests that if you don't know the exact location of the break, you should fan-cast the area until your lure bumps into the structure.

Bass on the lower end move away from breaks in light current and move tighter and shallower to the cover during periods of heavy flow.

"Current is like ringing the dinner bell," says Fitzpatrick. "There is water moving, and they are feeding. Rather than sitting out in the channel 25 to 30 feet, they are up actively chasing shad."

Fitzpatrick's favorite lures for working along current breaks on the lower lake are a Norman Lures DD22 crankbait and a 5/8- or 3/4-ounce Chompers skirted football jig tipped with a NetBait Paca Chunk. He runs his crankbait down to brushpiles in the 20-foot range along the points and hops the jig along ledges near the channel drops.

These tactics usually produce quality-sized fish rather than numbers of bass for Fitzpatrick from the post-spawn period through fall. He suggests calling a reservoir's powerhouse to find out peak generation periods, which are the best times for keying on current breaks for bass on either end of a lake.

Any time you find an object that's breaking current, make multiple presentations to that spot because it could be holding a bunch of hungry bass waiting for your lure to sweep onto their dinner table.