Even More Prespawn and Post Spawn Maps

[Bobby Saffel]

I've circles some spots that I think would be good spawning locations. I don't have a lot of history on the local lake but I know a lot of locals do. Most of the other maps have defined creek channels and everyone talk about bass follow creek channels, well this one as far as I know, has no creek channels in this pocket. How would everyone dissect this section of the lake? Would the absence of cheek channels change anything?

[jboswell]

I am relatively new at this stuff but, I think you have good areas picked. It will be a bottom composition thing to narrow it down from there. Less mucky bottom more pea gravel / sand.

But maybe im all wet.

[Bobby Saffel]

You find sand bottoms here but no pea gravel. Only rocks we got in Louisiana is the ones we put there 

[LoganB]

What lake is this?

[Bobby Saffel]

Cross Lake in Shreveport

[Mike Cork]

 

I recognized this lake instantly  And refuse to answer for fear of incriminating myself

Just kidding....

You have marked great ideas to start looking. This lake presents a problem that most won't realize and that is that it's covered in cypress trees. If this were a brand new lake to me The first thing I would do is go up under the two bridges and check out the water behind them. By looking at the map, the first think I notice is that the bridges are a very small part of what appears to be a damn. This tells me that even though the contour lines don't reflect it, there was a creek or at least deeper water at the point of the actual bridge. When build they were able to lay earth and rocks until that small section in which the bridged over it. So behind those bridges is going to be some sort of creek. (Because of my experience I know there is, but that doesn't change what I did the first time I saw it.)

Next, the very first time I fished this lake I was intrigued by the bay, the back of Ben Roberts Arm. Lots of flat water. I headed to that looking for cover. Bass will use large flats to spawn and use cover to help decide where to spawn. Obviously cover is not an issue on this lake. I found bass everywhere in that bay. My first spring stringer in that bay was 22 pounds.

If you could see a full map of this lake you'll quickly notice that it's all the same, what you see in this small snap shot is what the whole lake looks like. That said spawning grounds could be anywhere. The bass migrate because of wind moving the food, not creek channels that the food travels on. Spots 1, 2, and three are excellent main lake options that will have spawners in them. They will be your late spawners because they are closer to the main lake and the water won't warm as fast as say up behind the bridges where the water is wind protected.

[BuckNutz]

You brought up a good point Mike. We have a lot of cypress tree lakes in our area. I think what most people (people who don't fish cypress tree lake) don't understand is that many times bass on these lakes don't spawn in conventional spawning areas. Many of the fish will spawn on the root balls of the trees no mater how deep the the water is.

[Bobby Saffel]

I recognized this lake instantly  And refuse to answer for fear of incriminating myself

Just kidding....

You have marked great ideas to start looking. This lake presents a problem that most won't realize and that is that it's covered in cypress trees. If this were a brand new lake to me The first thing I would do is go up under the two bridges and check out the water behind them. By looking at the map, the first think I notice is that the bridges are a very small part of what appears to be a damn. This tells me that even though the contour lines don't reflect it, there was a creek or at least deeper water at the point of the actual bridge. When build they were able to lay earth and rocks until that small section in which the bridged over it. So behind those bridges is going to be some sort of creek. (Because of my experience I know there is, but that doesn't change what I did the first time I saw it.)

Next, the very first time I fished this lake I was intrigued by the bay, the back of Ben Roberts Arm. Lots of flat water. I headed to that looking for cover. Bass will use large flats to spawn and use cover to help decide where to spawn. Obviously cover is not an issue on this lake. I found bass everywhere in that bay. My first spring stringer in that bay was 22 pounds.

If you could see a full map of this lake you'll quickly notice that it's all the same, what you see in this small snap shot is what the whole lake looks like. That said spawning grounds could be anywhere. The bass migrate because of wind moving the food, not creek channels that the food travels on. Spots 1, 2, and three are excellent main lake options that will have spawners in them. They will be your late spawners because they are closer to the main lake and the water won't warm as fast as say up behind the bridges where the water is wind protected.

Mike I chose Cross Lake for one, it has one of the most defined maps on Navionics, and second I don't have a lot of history on it so anything I learn will be a plus. I have fished behind those bridges when those floats aren't up.

If you look at the entire lake on Navionics you notice that all the way around it, the bank slopes off at about the same angle. So with that said a spawning place could be around every dock, every cypress tree, every brushpile and reed bush. I will add a snap shot of the whole lake when I get home and show eveyone what I am talking about.

[Bobby Saffel]

Here is a map of cross lake. As you can tell most of the southern shore has the same angle to the bank. I have my map set up so the safety depth is 6' so the light blue is 6' or shallower.

[BassmanRudy]

Thanks for the post! I haven't ventured very far into that big arm up North but will have to give it a look! I have noticed the lake slopes off the same except where the dock owners have dug it out some.

[HunterFB]

Longer docks to me, tell me the water is shallower there than shorter docks. Just something I learned without cool navigation tools in the past.

Longer docks next to a shorter one are good places to start finding contour differences around the staging areas- the bass can get from deep to shallow water with some kind of structure to follow up.

I go towards the shorter docks and fish towards the longer ones- fishing from deep to shallow along the ridges.