Bass On Breakwalls & Abutments
Story and Photos By Darl Black

When bass anglers confront an unfamiliar body of water, they look for places similar to those that have produced bass for them on other lakes, reservoirs and rivers. Breakwalls, retaining walls and abutments often are among those familiar feel-good places.

Made from rock, wood, concrete or metal, these structures re-direct water flow generated by either current or wind and become natural attractants for baitfish and bass.

But not all walls are equal, and not every lure presentation is productive. Like in any fishing situation, there are key elements that make or break a wall as a fish-catching spot.

Jimmy Mason, Joe Balog and Mark Burgess are experienced professional anglers with years of fishing Bassmaster and FLW tours under their belts. Each fisherman has utilized specifics learned about walls and abutments in his home region and applied them to other areas of the country. Their expertise on identifying appropriate vertical structures, recognizing the better times to target them, and knowing which lures to throw will help you create a pattern for success.

Navigable River/Reservoir Systems
Mason's training grounds have been the Tennessee River impoundments, particularly Pickwick, Wilson and Wheeler. He explains that walls and abutments may serve different purposes, but all attract prey and predators. River bridge abutments break the current flow, creating a slack-water area for fish to position themselves in order to attack baitfish or snatch other prey that is swept by. Even in a reservoir or lake, there will be a current flowing through the opening in an extended causeway, so any bridge abutment provides a situation similar to a river — although the current will likely be less.

Retaining walls, often associated with an industrial landing out of the main current, are typically covered with algae. Shad come to feed on the algae and bass follow. On chunk-rock breakwalls or diversion walls, there are lots of cracks and crevices for crayfish and small fish, creating a smorgasbord for bass.

"In a strong river current, a bridge abutment creates two dead slack areas for bass to hold," says Mason. "The eddy immediately downstream of the abutment is rather obvious. However, at the front of the abutment, a smaller area is formed at the base of the abutment by the diverted water. The downstream slack typically holds non-feeding fish. The slack pocket out in front of the abutment is where you find the most aggressive, feeding fish — usually smallmouth."

Mason may start off with Yum's 4-inch Houdini Worm on a drop-shot or shaky-head rig, targeting the downstream eddy behind the abutment. Then he'll work up the sides of the abutment, which may hold fish if the current isn't too strong, pitching the worm ahead of the boat.

"When I approach the front, I switch to a tube or grub because it's difficult to hit the slack-water pocket at the base of the abutment, especially if it is 15 to 25 feet deep," he adds. "You must pitch the bait upstream and let the current sweep it into the pocket."

Recently, Mason has enjoyed success catching larger bass on bridge columns with Yum's Sweet Cheeks swimbait. He uses the 4- or 5-inch model on a fairly heavy-action rod with 20-pound Silver Thread Fluorocarbon. Casts are made upstream so the retrieve is parallel to the sides of the abutment. He counts down each succeeding cast a little deeper so all depths are covered.

"In the early morning, I like to fish a buzzbait with the current, parallel to the abutment and as close as possible," Mason says. "Bumping the wall is a good thing. On bridge abutments in particular, I have noted the best topwater bite is early morning before the sun hits the water under the bridge. Once the sun rays creep under the bridge, the bite dies until the sun is high and shade is created under the bridge. Then I can switch to the worm and collect more fish off the abutment during midday."

Bass caught from river abutments may include smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass. But when Mason moves to retaining walls out of the current, the primary species will be largemouth bass.

"The retaining walls I fish are usually associated with some industry," notes Mason. "The presence of current is not critical, but depth is. If it's a slip or canal dug for barges, the water depth is sufficient."

His initial casts are intended to quickly search the extended wall for active fish that may be feeding on shad.

"If the water temperature is less than 65 degrees, I fish a spinnerbait or jerkbait," Mason says. "If the temperature is over 65 degrees, I use a topwater."

But if those fast-paced presentations do not produce, Mason may switch to a drop-shot rig to target specific underwater rubble piles where the wall has caved in or where water-logged debris has settled.

"When baitfish schools are not along the wall, these rubble piles are the sites to which bass often retreat," adds Mason.

However, it's chunk-rock breakwalls in current areas that Mason finds most productive during the cool-water period from October to late March.

"I catch much bigger fish on broken rock walls or jetties than a vertical steel wall," he says. "I fish these structures where the rock meets the bottom by slow-rolling a ½-ounce Booyah Colorado/Indiana blade spinnerbait with a Forked Tail Dinger as a trailer."

Tidal Rivers
Burgess has been fishing Eastern tidal rivers as long as he can remember. The Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware and Potomac have been his playground. In addition to tidal rivers, Burgess fishes breakwalls in one form or another on rivers like the Mississippi, as well as the Great Lakes and large wind-swept reservoirs.

"Breakwalls protect marina entrances and launch sites, retaining walls surround boat basins and industrial sites, stone jetties redirect current flow, and the list goes on," says Burgess. "In spring, walls in tidal waters are often the pathway for bass moving into backwaters to spawn, and they are a place to stop as they move back out for a summer of feeding. Walls inhibit or redirect water, therefore becoming a natural collection site for preyfish."

Burgess explains that in tidal situations, walls in harbors and around commercial enterprises play a critical role during incoming and outgoing tides, but their importance is lessened during high tide when bass are spread out. However, during low tides, he avoids all shoreline-associated walls, instead targeting bridge abutments in deeper water.

"During rising water, you want to be positioned on a pathway for incoming bass, and walls are the ideal situation," Burgess says. "It's the same on the outgoing tide. As water recedes, bass follow a pathway back out of the shallows."

According to Burgess, one of the hottest spots to be positioned during the outgoing tide is the protruding corner of two walls.

"You have bass from two different feeding areas meeting at the corner as they move to deeper water," he notes.

The above situation lends itself very nicely to one of Burgess's favorite wall presentations — tweaked crankbaits.

"Crankbaits are one of my mainstays for walls, riprap and bridge abutments," adds Burgess. "But one key is to have the crankbait bump into the rock, concrete or steel. I want a crankbait with a diving lip wider than the body, such as the lip on a Bomber Fat Free Shad. The wide lip helps deflect the bait from becoming snagged, especially on chunk-rock breakwalls. I bend the line-tie ever so slightly so the crankbait will turn into the wall. This technique works on any breakwall that I've fished, whether tidal water or not."

However, because of wind, tide flow and other concerns, it is impossible to always fish a wall from the same direction. Therefore, Burgess actually rigs two rods, one with a left-tuned crank and one with a right-tuned crank.

Burgess' backup bait will be either a Texas-rigged Yum tube or a Booyah Baby Boo Bug jig. He simply works parallel to the wall, pitching the bait in front of the boat and letting it fall straight down.

"When flipping or pitching to a wall, I'm looking for anything unusual, such as a sunken timber, barrel or broken wall area where debris slid into the water," he says. "These are the nooks and crannies that hold the less active bass."

Great Lakes
Balog's most memorable breakwall fishing has been on the Great Lakes.

"We've got some serious breakwalls on Erie that are intended to protect shoreline erosion and maintain shipping channels into ports, boat harbors and so forth," he says. "Under the right conditions, these breakwalls give up some astonishing catches of smallmouth in summer."

For Balog, it is all about current.

"When there is good current on the walls, the bass mysteriously appear ready to feed," he explains. "The times to fish these sites are when breakwalls are doing exactly what they are intended to do — break big waves and pounding surf. The best fishing on Great Lakes breakwalls is when conditions are the worst."

Under normal lake conditions, Balog has found that few bass will be found relating to the breakwalls. But when waves begin rolling onto the walls, that's when smallmouth move in. They will be positioned on the front windward side where the waves are hitting. However, the fish are not sitting high in the water amid the turmoil.

"The current break or slack where smallmouth hold actually forms at the bottom of the wall," Balog says. "It's a bubble of security from which bass can attack disoriented minnows or other prey being washed about. The deeper the water in front of the breakwall, the better the fishing will be. If you have a wall with 8 to 10 feet of depth, you can probably catch a few bass there in rough water. But if you have 15 to 20 feet, it's going to be better. And if it's one of the walls that runs way out into the lake with 25 to 30 feet, that is even better."

While the vast majority of Erie summer smallmouth are located offshore on deep structure, there are some resident fish in water close to the shore. Instinctively, when a big blow comes up, these fish apparently will travel considerable distance to take advantage of the feeding situation on a breakwall.

"During calm weather, you have trouble scraping out a fish or two," notes Balog. "But in really rough water, breakwalls become magnets for big smallmouth."

Recently during a tournament, Balog was fishing an east/west breakwall. A northeast wind had 5- to 6-foot waves smashing against the wall.

"I would sneak around the corner, taking waves over the bow, fire a couple of casts and maybe hook a smallie," he says. "Then I would duck back around the wall to land and unhook it. Then I pointed the boat back into the tempest for a few more casts. I ended up with four fish for 23 pounds."

Balog relies on only one bait to reach breakwall smallies — an ISG Dream Tube. His preferred colors are watermelon or green pumpkin. He inserts a ¼- or 3/8-ounce jighead in the tube, sometimes going to a 1/2-ounce jighead if the water is extremely rough. He also upgrades his usual 8-pound Vanish to 10-pound due to the higher risk of rubbing the line on rocks.

"In late spring when smallies are shallow for spawning, you can catch smallies holding around harbor walls under calm conditions, sometimes in very shallow water," says Balog. "And during summer, you can catch lots of largemouth on the leeward eddy of breakwalls in the Detroit River. But the wave-driven breakwall tactic on the main lake is the ticket to an entirely different game."