Underwater Highways

[BaSsFiShEr20]

Underwater Highways By Charles Graves

In nearly every reservoir, in nearly every State, if you look for them, you can find them.
They will not always be obvious, but most of them will hold fish at one time or another throughout the year.
The best ones will hold bass all year long.
I call them underwater highways, because the best ones literally are used as travel corridors for bass in their different stages, from pre spawn all the way through winter.

If you were to make a list of all the bass holding structure in all the lakes across America, right at the top you should find these.

What am I talking about? Roadbeds.

Most of the roads that were flooded when the Reservoir was built, by now have deterierated to some degree.This is good, because the more the crumble, the better they become for bass.
The best roadbeds are the ones that run from a shallow cove all the way to deeper water, and especially if they have old bridge rubble in the deeper part. Provided the rubble is not below the thermocline.
Good 3D electronics are mandatory if you are going to successfully fish roadbeds, and the best roadbeds can be found useing both good electronics, and a good topomap.

Key bass holding features to look for, depending on the time of year are:
Weeds that grow along the shore right up to either edge of the roadbed.
Ditches that run parallel to the roadbed.
Potholes that are in the roadbed itself.
Bridge rubble along the roadbed.
Timber on either side of the roadbed.
Location where roadbed drops off into channel or deeper water than the bed itself.

A roadbed with even a single feature mentioned above may hold some bass and is worth fishing, but find one will all, or most, and you have a bass keg waiting to be tapped.The potential for a roadbed with all these features in unlimited.There are just many ways to attack these form of structure.

When to fish the roadbed hotspots.
I like to fish the weeds around the shore where they bump up against the roadbed from prespawn through the spawn, then again in the fall. I will flip these with a Fish Formula 3.5" Tube, A Retriever Jig, or parallel the edge of the weeds with a Retriever spinnerbait with double gold willowleaf blades or a texsposed Soft Jerkbait.
I like the Fish Formula 6" Lazy Shad.

The potholes, timber and ditchs can and often do hold bass at any time of the year.I crank the ditches, C-Rig a Fish Formula Ribbed Lizard or Crawtube on the Roadbed to hit the potholes, and will either use a spinnerbait or a flipping jig in the timber, depending on time of year.
Deep water dropoffs and bridge rubble will be used by bass in post spawn,late fall and winter. Throw a crankbait or drop shot these in post spawn, and deep jig these in winter.

When you find bass on roadbeds, you will more often than not, fine good concentrations of them.
The shallow weeds offer prime bass cover and give the bass a location from which to ambush thier prey.
Roadbeds usually offer good depth variation thoughout.
The potholes and ditches give the bass structure to feel safe around. Bass are structure oriented fish.

Next time you see a roadbed while you are zipping to a more obvious location, stop and take a look at these underwater highways.
I think you will be very pleasently surprised at this underutilized Bass magnet.

Charles

[Rob Mak]

great thread bb.
i found my best one last jan my favorite lake-badin- was drawn down 22 feet. this was not a visable road bed when the water was up.it has a ton of big stumps along it with a cement culvet -it is a gravel road bed-
another is in tuckertown newsome area-hint, hint-has a steel sluice in about 5 feet of water. it is a black topped road. i have only been able to catch fish during the early spring and late fall on it.
i use a lizard c-rigged or big worm t-rigged with heavy weight. and bounce it up and down on the black top or a c-rigged lizard and/or fluke on the one in badin.
another good place is an old railroad grade that is in 6-12 feet of water.

zooker

[singerloo]

dang, bb,

ur a walking encyclopedia ;D
ur the type of people that need to come to this site
to help the youth of the nation in Bassin...


seaphantom

[BaSsFiShEr20]

Thanks.
I am glad i can put my years of experiance on the water to good use.

charles

[fredhatch]

Will this also apply to old packed dirt roadways with ditches that were flooded? 8)

[Rich]

It sure will. If you can find a bridge or culvert you may just have found a gold mine.

[fredhatch]

Not sure about bridges, this was old farm land that was flooded back in early eighties(83-84). I know there is a east/west road and a north/south road that basically split the lake in half. Hoping that there are some trenches are culverts under there. 8)

[BaSsFiShEr20]

if the roads intersect, check it very thoroughly. Where they come together creates the very type of irregularity i was reffering to.

The ditches should be good to, especially if there is no other structure nearby.

Charles