How Important is Fishing Structure

For the past two weeks my buddy and I have been on water, but it was not for the fishing, but it was for the picture taking and marking. When I say marking I mean selecting the great spots for next years fishing spots and knowing the fish will show up for the taking. Ask any lake fisherman and they will tell you that the number thing they look for when fishing is structure. Structure that is marked and with a description is the very best. I have come up with some exceptional structured areas that I think will be hot in the spring. The places I was looking for were down trees with heavy limb structure 4 to 6 ft. high when under water. I don’t need a GPS to do this because all the spots can be marked with a bank reference. I have found that the best way to create a structure folder is to take a picture of the spot when it is exposed on the bank and label it as mark A or # 1 and so on in sequence. I like to type a brief description of the area as to the height of the structure and how far it is off the bank and at what depth the it will be when the lake is at full pool. Take your typed description and tape it on the back of the picture that way you know what it looks like and you also know a little about the area. You need to remember at full pool the lake is going to look completely different as opposed to 12 to 15 ft. below full pool. So all the information you can have at your finger tips when you start to fish in the spring is useful in making a slow trip into a superb trip. All of these marked areas will hold unbelievable amounts of prey fish not to mention the large amounts of feeding fish. This is where the big boys hang out for all their meals. I know that other fisherman may mark these same areas, but I have the advantage over most of those guys. I can go anytime and fish these areas while the other guys are working during the week and only have the weekends to fish. That is the advantage of being retire and free to fish any day of the week. And with 35 to 40 marked locations to fish, I know I am going to hit on at least half with those mean spots ready to kill that fly in the spring. The following pics can you get you some idea of what I look for in structure.

 Huge amount of fallen trees line this bank

excellent area

This tree can be seen when at full pool by the stump on the bank--still good area because of the high limbs

 Again this tree stump can be seen from the bank but it has the potential to produce some quaility fish in the spring

A bonanza here with this boat house completely under water, who know what can be found here---JAWS

I not only like the structure but the sand bars are really good in the spring and summer because of the spawning areas they can produce. These areas are the ones that the big gills seek out to bed on. Keep in mind that the majority of the these fish will come from depths of 10 to 12 ft. up to hit the fly--but in this lake that is not a problem, because you can see 10 to 12 ft. down. I would say that this lake is the clearest in the South.