One of my absolute favorite ways to catch fish is when they first move out to the ledges and a good deep water bite can be found. When I first started to learn ledge fishing, I had some good luck fishing around deep stumps and brush. And there is no doubt that areas like these hold fish and some good ones too.
But, as I gained experience and was able to begin using the Lowrance Structure Scan, I started to realize something on a local lake I fish. Some of the absolute best spots I ended up finding were areas that seemingly had nothing to offer. I remember the first of these spots I was able to located. There was a gradual taper from 12 to 17 feet and not a piece of cover on the whole spot. BUT, there were some fish on my graph. So, I put the trolling motor down and fired a cast out there. In the next 10 minutes, I had four fish over 3 lbs. in the boat.
From there, I found some similar spots and learned a very important rule about fishing offshore. When fish first move off the bank, they love to get on do nothing drop offs and roam around chasing shad. The key is the baitfish. If there isn’t bait, you probably don’t need to stop. These type of spots can be great schooling areas!
There are all kinds of types of ledges that hold fish but these can be some of the most overlooked spots on the lake. Next time you think the fish have moved offshore, look for some do something barren ledges and you might be surprised what you find!
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