THE PROS' TACTICS TO TAKING FLOOD WATER BASS
Bill Dance on Flood-Water Bass
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: Editor’s Note: Some people think that the
only time to have a good day of bass fishing is when
the lake is down and clear. Well, this is just not true
for the bass fishing pros with whom I’ve talked.
This week they’ll tell us why they love to fish
in flood waters from Florida all the way to Texas. Here
are some new tricks to find the big bass.
Another angler who fishes muddy water when the lakes
are on the rise is national TV personality Bill Dance
of Collierville, Tennessee. "When you choose to
fish muddy water, you consistently will catch more bass
when the sun is high in the sky, and the day is very
bright than you will on overcast days," Dance explains.
"Muddy water occurs during the fall, the winter
or the early spring when the water temperature is cold.
The muddy water causes the bass to move up shallow.
I believe that when the sun is high and bright and producing
a lot of heat, the water warms up quicker, the fish
feel more comfortable, and they feed more actively."
 Anytime
Dance locates clear, warm water under flood-water conditions,
he has found he can catch fish. "One of the best
areas to fish when a lake is rising is in the mouth
of a spring-fed creek," Dance mentions. "Because
a spring usually will have a more consistently warm
temperature in the fall and early spring and be clearer
than the water in a flooded reservoir, often the baitfish
and the bass will be congregated there. In these regions,
the lake will clear up the quickest and will be the
warmest. Generally bass in this section of the water
will be the most active. A shallow-running crankbait
and/or a spinner bait may be your best lures to try
in these places." Another area under flood-water
conditions that is a confidence zone for Dance to fish
is shallow flats off the current near deep water. "Once
the weather stabilizes and no more runoff water comes
into the lake, the shallow flats away from the current
will warm up first," Dance explains. "But
because bass know about falling water, if they're not
holding on the bushes, stumps and logs on the flats,
they'll be concentrated on the edge of the deepest water
closest to the flats. The floods usually come in the
spring when the weather is warming up and the bass are
thinking about spawning. Even under flood water conditions,
the fish will be looking for the warmest, most-shallow
water they can find with some type of cover."
 Dance
also will be searching for bass next to the shore once
the water stabilizes after a flood. The shoreline will
clear and warm up first. Since anglers know bass are
looking for clear, warm water, they should realize fish
must be up against the shore. One of the reasons anglers
hesitate to fish flood waters is because when a lake
or river drastically increases its size, the fish tend
to spread out, which anglers believe makes the bass
harder to find and catch. However, generally when a
lake or a river floods, most of the bass will be relatively
easy to pinpoint. Usually they will be holding close
to the shoreline in shallow water. Even though there
is more shoreline to fish, you can cover this region
quickly and spend most of your time in the most productive
bass waters. Another factor that many anglers fail to
realize when they look at a flooded lake or a river
is that there are variations in water color and clarity
throughout the lake.
"In most lakes, you will notice three different
color changes of water," Dance says. "If rain
water is still coming into the lake, the upper reaches
of the lake will be the most muddy. The middle area
of the lake will be less muddy than the upper part of
the lake, and the clearest water should be at the lower
end of the lake. When the rain water stops, the water
clears first in the upper end of creeks and remains
muddiest the longest in the main body of the lake. As
a fisherman looks at a flooded lake and sees how muddy
that lake is, he must understand that the whole lake
may not  be
as muddy as the section he sees. Wherever you find clearing,
warming water is where you often will locate the most
actively-feeding bass."
Basically two techniques will help you pinpoint the
best water to fish when a lake floods. The quickest
and most expensive way is to charter an airplane and
fly over the lake. From your aerial observations, you
can see where water color change occurs, which areas
have the clearest water and in what regions the water
is the most stained. You also can spot the edges of
the water. Then you will know how much timber you will
have to go through to get to the newly flooded land
where the bass like to feed.
TOMMORROW: MORE BILL DANCE
ON FLOOD-WATER BASS
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