(Note: Following is the final part of a two-part series on learning natural lakes featuring Kansas pro Brent Chapman.)
4. Finding the Bait
It's no secret that bass often hang around schools of baitfish. But that seems to be more important in natural lakes than in reservoirs, says Brent Chapman.
"At St. Clair and other natural lakes, the structure a lot of times is very subtle so the bass don't really relate to it. They're more concerned with following big schools of bait around, and it seems like they relate to the bait more than anything else."
He notes that reservoir bass do the same thing, "but it seems like in reservoirs you always have fish in the backs of coves no matter what. It may be summer, and most of the fish are in the main lake, but you can go to the back of a cove or a shallow flat and you'll find fish. On a natural lake, it seems like (most) bass are following the patterns of the baitfish."
5. Do Your Homework
Reservoir-experienced anglers fishing natural lakes should make sure to do their homework, Chapman advises.
"It seems like it's more important for me to do my homework on a natural lake," he says. "On a natural lake it's really hard to pull out a map and say, 'I can catch fish here or there.' Do your homework, maybe talk to people who have knowledge of the lake -- that can really speed up your practice time."
He gave Florida's Lake Okeechobee as an example. "Okeechobee has five key areas. Someone telling you that can eliminate lot of dead water for you. In a man-made reservoir, the fish tend to be a little more spread out," he notes.
"Also make sure you have good maps. For a lot of natural lakes, getting the right map seems to be a big key. A lot of mass-produced maps aren't necessarily the best ones for natural lakes," Chapman says. "Older maps with little pieces of structure can reveal more."
On natural lakes, "key pieces of cover are hard to come by, so get several different maps and compare them. One map might show a hump or rockpile and another might not."
