I hear a lot of people complaining about the low water levels. Personally I like to make the best of it. It eliminates a lot of water. My favorite time to fish is winter but low water has to take second. Of course I’d hate to see low water during the spawn, but tournament season is over now for the most part and I’m enjoying seeing my home lake from a different perspective. Although I’ve been fishing the Coosa for 25 plus years I still find things I didn’t realize were there. A shallow tapering point that takes a sharp turn after going out thirty yards or so, or a point that faces one direction at full pool really goes at a ninety degree angle after it hits the normal waters edge. I’ve found fields of standing timber that the tops have long ago fallen away that seem to go non stop for a mile really have long forgotten boat lanes cut through them.

And of course there are the brush piles. I work hard setting out my brush piles during the winter, but I don’t object to benefiting from another mans labor should the dropping water leave his exposed. One little twig sticking up may show you the location of a huge pile. This is also a good time to do a little pruning on your own brush if you want to keep it to yourself. There are also lay downs that the stump end can’t be seen at full pool. The new information exposed is endless with humps, stumps, previously submerged vegetation, etc.

Like I said I like fishing low water. I’m not talking about falling water, but where the water has been dropped for a while. It doesn’t take the fish long to get used to the change. I know not all lakes fish the same, but at least here the fish that wanted to be shallow at normal levels still want to be shallow after it’s dropped, but they now have a lot less shoreline cover to choose from. Any wood or weeds still extending into the water is prime real estate. Although shad don’t require cover minnows and smaller bream do, and any little stretch of weeds or brush along the shoreline is likely to be packed with them, and the bass are just as likely to be close by. I can’t say one technique works better than any other. If bass are roaming the shallows this time of year it’s for one reason, food. Buzz baits, trick worms, and swimming jigs work early for me, and then I’ll back away and throw a rattle trap. Depending on the bite as the sun gets higher I’ll go to brush and lay downs or piers the rest of the day. The water level dropping just a few feet can really eliminate a lot of piers. The last piers in a creek that still have some depth can really pay off with multiple fish. If you decide to shy away during a draw down not only will you definitely miss out on increasing your knowledge of the lake but you may be missing out on some really great fishing.

Steve Masters Bringitbaits.com

SteveM