Good Tactics for Bad Spotted Bass
 Locating
Spotted Bass
Editor’s Note: The spot likes clear water and
deep, rocky structure and loves to fight. He is delicious
to eat but tough to catch because he is the baddest
bass in the bassing business.
In the Deep South, the spot is found in most large
reservoirs as well as in streams since spots prefer
gravel bottoms and clear, spring-fed lakes. However
in the West, the spotted bass is primarily a stream
fish. Dr. John Ramsay, retired from the Alabama Cooperative
Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Auburn University,
explains, “The spotted bass has not been stocked
in that many western reservoirs. At other time s
and under other circumstances, the spotted bass would
be competing with the smallmouth bass for food. The
smallmouth may compete equally with the spot. If the
stream or the reservoir has a good smallmouth population,
they may out-compete the spot for food.”
When I asked Dr. Ramsay where an angler most likely
would find the highest concentrations of spotted bass
when fishing in a reservoir that contained both largemouth
and spotted bass, he answered, “You should look
for rocky structure. If the spotted bass is given a
choice, it will go to the rocks quicker than any other
type of structure in a lake. Of course a largemouth
m ay
be in the same place. But the spots prefer the rocks
to every other kind of structure. Another feature of
ideal spotted bass habitat besides rocks is current.
The spot seems to like current better than the largemouth
does. One of the best sites to find the spotted bass
is on an underwater ledge. If I locate a ledge on my
depth finder, I’ll work the entire vertical height
of the ledge for spotted bass. A type of structure that
is even harder to find but really provides ideal habitat
for the spotted bass is a flat, rocky ledge which is
usually very scarce in most reservoirs.”
In bass tournaments, many competition fishermen look
for honey holes that will home larg e
schools of bass. But the schooling characteristics of
the largemouth and the spotted bass seem to be quite
different according to Ramsay. “The spotted bass
may school when they are small, but the bigger spots
don’t seem to exhibit the same schooling characteristics
as largemouths. The spots may be localized on the same
structure, and several spots may be using the same structure.
But the fish will be there because the structure is
there, not because the other fish are. Spots don’t
travel together, but they do tend to hang around together.”
If you catch more than one spot in the same area, you
have not necessarily found a school of spotted bass.
However, what you have located is good structure that
tends to draw spotted bass to it.
Tomorrow: Catching Spotted
Bass
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