Inside Angles: Consolidated Fish Spur Great Fishing

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The saying that 10 percent of the water holds 90 percent of the fish likely emerged during the heyday of Fishing Facts magazine and Buck Perry’s teachings about fish behavior and movements—so the late 1960s into the early to mid-1970s. Bill Binkelman probably had his fingers in that mix, too; I’d have to spend a bit more time researching to know for sure.

The point remains solid today, although we’ve much refined that thinking to include trying to fish key spots on spots—thus, we start by understanding the nature of the fish species we’re targeting, factoring in seasonal information (water temperature, for sure), and considering the type of water (body of water classification), in order to form a plan to start fishing in general areas that should hold fish. Then the search is for key spots within those larger areas.

We’re trying to find consolidated fish, which much improves the chance that we’ll get some of them to bite, although that ultimately rests with our ability to choose the right lures or baits and present them well enough to trigger fish. It is, in essence, a rehash of the longstanding In-Fisherman formula F + L + P = Success, or Fish + Location + Presentation = Success.

In a recent walleye article, we mentioned the difficulties that shore anglers face in being able to get at consolidated fish. We say:

“Shore anglers are at the mercy of the waters they fish. They can only do so much to get at the fish. Many bodies of water don’t have areas close enough to shore that naturally attract walleyes so that we can get at them. We need a distinct point that sticks into the main body of water or into the main portion of a big bay. (We also need legal access, which has become more difficult in a lot of areas.) Meanwhile, the shallow bay patterns that once developed based on leopard frog migrations into natural lakes now often don’t happen.

“In some shallow natural lakes, emergent weededges like rush beds attract walleyes that we can get at. In rivers, we can reach walleyes that move into tailwater areas. Or we find downriver areas near deep rocky pools where walleyes gather to feed. Walleyes also move into rivers connected to the Great Lakes, where they mill past piers. The best locales often are associated with current, especially necked-down lake, river, and reservoir stretches, for all shore patterns depend on baitfish being funneled into specific spots. When shore anglers get it right, there’s no better way to catch big walleyes.”

That pretty much captures our quandary on any front this fall, no matter the fish species, no matter the body of water, only the details change. And, no surprise, it hints at how important forage is to the process of finding consolidated fish.

We’re shooting TV in Kentucky, fishing for stripers on Cumberland Reservoir in November. Given the dropping water temperatures, most of the alewives have moved into the deepest water about a mile above the dam.

Time to identify the depth at which most of the alewives are holding. We need to run some lures at that depth—plus, stripers often hold below that depth and feed up—so with downriggers, we have 4-inch paddletail swimbaits on jigheads running at 60 (the depth of the forage) and 90 feet, the depth of many of the bigger arcs on our electronics, suggesting the location of stripers.

Two rods go down, one slightly before the other. Double header. I’m fast to a good fish, while my partner is reeling in another. Oh. It isn’t “another.” We’re hooked up with the same fish, which has first taken the lure at 90 feet and then immediately charged up to take the other lure at 60 feet. The moment is memorable enough to recount more than 20 years later.

The point is the forage, though, which in this case is only generally consolidating our target fish, which are widely ranging through the lower part of the reservoir. Still, our trolling approach, covering plenty of water, but targeting fish at specific depths, is the best we can do and is just what the pharmacist ordered.

I’m sure, too, that at times it must be anticlimactic to watch us shoot TV as we fish for largemouth bass in the North Country during late fall. If it’s a natural lake or reservoir with clear enough water to support submergent vegetation, as water temperature drops and days shorten, marginal weedgrowth thins, and it’s the remaining weedgrowth along drop-off edges that eventually consolidates forage and the bass. As water temperatures continue to decline, the biggest bass tend to move the smaller bass away from the best cover.

Sometimes, a deep-running crankbait is the way to go, but more likely it’s time to pick up a skirted jig and dress it with a thumper softbait trailer like the classic Berkley PowerBait Chigger Craw. Eventually, near the end of it all just before ice up, we “consolidate” our lure offerings, too, trimming the skirt on the jig to just behind the hook shank and using a 3-inch trailer (or trimming trailers to about that length).

The last two seasons another hot trailer emerged, the Berkley PowerBait Max Scent Creature Hawg. This trailer, with two flowing legs, doesn’t have a lot of inherent action, but every rod-tip movement brings it to life—and each time the jig, with its trimmed skirt, bumps into a weed stalk the skirt flares, further enlivening the package. Plus, there’s scent for attraction and taste infusion to get them to hold on once they bite. Big bass don’t have a chance. And the package works the same way when we take it into North Texas, where bass often consolidate along channel edges with sunken timber.

Sometimes, too, a perfect storm of smallmouth activity transpires earlier in fall, usually in September in these parts, as crayfish move from shallower to deeper water, in both lakes and reservoirs. Fish consolidation isn’t such a sure thing, though, so we target high-percentage areas where sand, gravel, and scattered rocks predominate along drop-offs or on mid-depth humps near expansive shallow habitat.

On a lake like Mille Lacs, where fishing pressure can be heavy at times, sometimes the fish bite classic finesse presentations like hair jigs or Ned rigs. But I also always have a rod rigged with something a lot more aggressive, like a spoon or a lipless lure or a Berkley Snap Jig dressed with a softbait. With smallmouths, it’s an ongoing experiment. And, many days, it’s fish on this and then a fish on that.

Overlooked these days in the rush to ultra-finesse fishing are tubes dressed on a jighead with an exposed hook, like the Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Pro-V Shakey Head. Tests in the Berkley Lab in Spirt Lake, Iowa, have shown that nothing beats a presentation like a tube to trigger smallmouths looking for a tasty crayfish. Yes, the preferred softbait shape that emerged in lab testing was actually a shape like the tube, without claws.

We might finish with walleyes that often put on an awesome predatory display in some of our deeper natural lakes just before ice up. As water temperatures dip to about 42°F, big, fat, juicy ciscoes move in to spawn on shallow rock shoals and shorelines.

The heaviest spawning takes place after dark, but during the peak of it the fish are shallow as the sun peaks over the horizon in the morning. An epic bite often ensues for a couple hours—and on dark days the ciscoes may stay relatively shallow all day, prompting walleyes to do the same. Break out the 4- and 5-inch paddletail swimbaits rigged on half-ounce jigheads. Big fish will be mixed in, sometimes lots of them, all gulping swimbaits with abandon.

It’s as good as it gets with walleyes, if I do say so myself. But then I “do say so myself” for just about all the late-season fishing we have in front of us—all the better when we find the fish consolidated.

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