Ledge Fishing

So I'm really new to that method, and I'm learning............I also have a trip planned with Dave Stewart later this summer.....

In the meantime I have a cool story to share......

While "playing " with my electronics on a well known ledge on North KY, I had the following happen. I was motoring down the ledge, and found what I thought was the "magic spot", and I actually successfully marked that I thought was a good school of active fish. I've read a lot and researched a whole lot about using my "tools" effectively.

Well, I figured there would be more than one "spot" on that ledge, but I figured wrong, and after spending about 3-4 minutes looking at other spots on the ledge, when I turned around I noticed another boat, on the initial spot I had found. I was a little miffed, but not enough to be honked off or anything. I'm learning, and this was a perfect opportunity to "sniff" out some info.

If anyone knows me, you know I can talk to ANYONE on the water........ANYONE.

Tim and I started fishing this ledge in the "second" spots I thought might be good, but they were not. As I worked myself up the ledge, being mindful of the other boat, I told the other guy, don't worry, there won't be any boat bumping today, alluding to what happened in the FLW.........he snickered a little, and commented that I was "good". I still stayed way off of him and his guys, as the boated a few GOOD fish, including a 5.5 off that spot. Again, I didn't mind, as I was using this as an opportunity.

I chatted this guy up for about 5 minutes, and obviously this guy knew what was what, and WHY that exact spot was correct. He gave me some ideas, and when he left, he motored over to us, told me exactly on my map where to setup and how to fish it.

There were still fish there, and we managed to pound a big catfish, and had a few other good bites....., but only landed a few short fish.

I'm really looking forward to learning from Dave Stewart about ledges, and more so looking forward to maybe adding some summer ledge trips in the future.

Later,

Geo

About the only advice I can give you Geo is don’t put the trolling motor down until you’ve marked fish on your graph. The biggest mistake people make is just stop out on a ledge and start fishing and never even graphed it to see if fish were there. And when you don’t get bites, you lose confidence. If the fish aren’t there, you aren’t going to get bit. Period. Learn what to look for on your graphs and once you figure that part out, the rest is easy. The hardest part of ledge fishing is scanning several areas to find that school of fish you’re looking for. But the reward is well worth it once you do. Keep your head down and have patience. Not all ledges/drops are going to be hot. You have to find the right one. Good luck and keep us updated!

Do you realistically need side scan or can DI and/or traditional sonar work just as well for ledge fishing?

SI is VERY helpful when scanning ledges. You can scan out to 100ft on most units on either side of boat. You can cover water and either eliminate or add an area very quickly.

I was/am new to ledge fishing last year when I went to KY Lake for 3 days in June. I had just got my boat in the spring after not having a boat for 12 years. I put 2 HDS units on it and read everything I could. I had never used any of the new depthfinders before. I marked some spots I thought looked good at home but never caught a fish. Finally someone on the lake told me a ledge to try and I just started on one end and caught a 3 keepers in an hour. After another 2 hours of working my way down the ledge and not catching another fish I then decided to idle over the ledge and see if I could see fish. I found what looked like 5 or so bass so I mark the spot, shut down and troll back and second cast I caught a 5 pounder. Didn't catch anymore but Z-20 is correct it is best to mark fish on the depthfinder before dropping the TM.

[QUOTE=GeoFisher;568752]So I'm really new to that method, and I'm learning............I also have a trip planned with Dave Stewart later this summer.....

In the meantime I have a cool story to share......

While "playing " with my electronics on a well known ledge on North KY, I had the following happen. I was motoring down the ledge, and found what I thought was the "magic spot", and I actually successfully marked that I thought was a good school of active fish. I've read a lot and researched a whole lot about using my "tools" effectively.

Well, I figured there would be more than one "spot" on that ledge, but I figured wrong, and after spending about 3-4 minutes looking at other spots on the ledge, when I turned around I noticed another boat, on the initial spot I had found. I was a little miffed, but not enough to be honked off or anything. I'm learning, and this was a perfect opportunity to "sniff" out some info.

If anyone knows me, you know I can talk to ANYONE on the water........ANYONE.

Tim and I started fishing this ledge in the "second" spots I thought might be good, but they were not. As I worked myself up the ledge, being mindful of the other boat, I told the other guy, don't worry, there won't be any boat bumping today, alluding to what happened in the FLW.........he snickered a little, and commented that I was "good". I still stayed way off of him and his guys, as the boated a few GOOD fish, including a 5.5 off that spot. Again, I didn't mind, as I was using this as an opportunity.

I chatted this guy up for about 5 minutes, and obviously this guy knew what was what, and WHY that exact spot was correct. He gave me some ideas, and when he left, he motored over to us, told me exactly on my map where to setup and how to fish it.

There were still fish there, and we managed to pound a big catfish, and had a few other good bites....., but only landed a few short fish.

I'm really looking forward to learning from Dave Stewart about ledges, and more so looking forward to maybe adding some summer ledge trips in the future.

Later,

Geo[/QUOTE]

Structure such as the OLD TENNESSE River Bed are good. think humps and creek channels intersecting the old river channel.

Long before Dave learned how to fish the ledges I was trolling ledges on KY lake with a spoon plug and catching 5lb bass at creek and river intersections. I don't get to fish the big lake unless it's dead calm and only was there about 2 weeks each year in the 1960, 1970's, 1980's and stopped fishing KY lake when Patoka Lake opened up.

Any wood that's along the creek channels can hold fish. And sharp outside bends in the old river channel can hold fish too.

A really fast way to check out the ledges is to troll baits. When you get a bite throw out a marker buoy and use it to fish the area later.

My boat is not designed to fish big waters with waves as the front end of my boat lacks a V front to cut though the waves.

If I had a bigger boat I would have been out on the main lake more often than in the bays.

[QUOTE=Z-20;568754]About the only advice I can give you Geo is don’t put the trolling motor down until you’ve marked fish on your graph. The biggest mistake people make is just stop out on a ledge and start fishing and never even graphed it to see if fish were there. And when you don’t get bites, you lose confidence. If the fish aren’t there, you aren’t going to get bit. Period. Learn what to look for on your graphs and once you figure that part out, the rest is easy. The hardest part of ledge fishing is scanning several areas to find that school of fish you’re looking for. But the reward is well worth it once you do. Keep your head down and have patience. Not all ledges/drops are going to be hot. You have to find the right one. Good luck and keep us updated![/QUOTE]

Find out when the Corp of Engineers is letting water through the dam and when there is current flowing in the lakes. Some spots need a current before they are effective I've read. Bass being ambush predators need cover to hide in and ambush the shad prey fish. Fish fast into the current also. So the direction that you pull your baits into the fish makes a difference too. Remember that underwater obstructions can act as current breaks and help the fish stay near the current but not directly in the current. That way they can rush out into the current and attack prey fish that are stuck in the current.

Nowadays if you have side-scanning sonar you can actually see the fish and the shad schools if you have a big screen that can be seen even when the sunlight is shining on the screen. Fish are pretty small specs on some smaller screens and hard to see in the sunlight. My old SI unit is small and fish are hard to see when I'm out on the water. But when I record and take the unit back home at night and view the recordings I can see a lot more things on the screen. I use my 27" computer screen to view the recordings and it's a lot easier to see little fish on the screen on my home computer monitor.