Is Rip-rap Structure?
Many fishermen talk about finding “structure,” in big waters like Barkley and Kentucky lakes, when what they really mean is finding cover. Structure, as Buck Perry popularized it, has to do with the general topography of the underwater dips and rises and bluffs and breaks. Cover is the stuff such as brush and rocks and stumps and what-have-you that is scattered on structure.
The reason I point this out is to talk about rip rap, which usually isn’t considered in either of these categories, probably because it is totally man made, which, after it is there for a short time, doesn’t make any difference to the fish at all–only to the mind set of man.
Structure basically is the lay of the land that lies underwater, and cover is the irregular or broken features found upon it. So how does rip rap fit into this?
No one has ever told me, but it seems rip rap is both. Where it is found, and it is found in many places, a rip rap bank extends far enough along the bank and into the lake to be considered a permanent part of the topography, yet its surface is so irregular that it provides plenty of cover for little fish to hide in and for big fish to find them.
Class dismissed.
But before you rush out to much more interesting conversation about baits and equipment, let me tell you that the reason I went through all this is to stress the importance of rip rap as structure, or cover, or whatever you want to call it.
During the early fall, it can be the most productive cover or structure in the whole lake. OK, I’ll stop that. Let’s just call it structure.
When the lakes settles near winter pool and stay there for a while, one of the highest concentrations of baitfish and bass can be found scattered along the deeper rip rap banks.
Even though one of the first big bunches of bass I ever caught was along rip rap during the fall, for most of my boating years, I rarely thought to look there. I kept expecting electronics to point the way, but the fish were in areas so shallow that depth finders were useless.
Judging by the competition I see, most everyone else is overlooking rip rap, too. Maybe that’s because they can’t put it in a definitive category.
It is surprising how shallow even big bass will be in this broken, man-made structure. Even when the sun is high and bright, I’ve found them hiding amongst the rocks in water so thin it barely covered their backs. That’s especially the case early and late and on overcast days.
So it is important to keep your casts tight to the bank. This, of course, is an ideal situation for a bank bound bass fisherman who can simply stand near the water’s edge and cast parallel. Watch your step.
The best way to do this from a boat, and to keep the bait in the strike zone for the longest time, is to cast parallel to the bank by holding the boat just a few yards out. Make fairly long cast, sit down, and stay low. Fish that shallow are easily spooked. The casts are made almost straight out of the front of the boat to were the water meets the rocks and worked all the way back.
The rugged and broken structure of rip rap not only provides plenty of places for baitfish to hide and bass to ambush, it also contains hundreds of edges and crack to snag and hold our artificial lures, so I like to use relatively small baits that not only are extremely productive, but that don’t get hung up.
These include one-sixteenth ounce “Pro Series” Sliders with their five-inch “Bass Worms.” I reel them just fast enough to tick the top of the rocks, pausing momentarily to let them sink as the bait works through deeper water near the boat. If you can’t find these baits in stores, log onto www.sliderfishing.com, email slider@sliderfishing.com or call 800-762-4701.
Because rip rap also is the favorite home of crayfish, small jigs that represent them are great. My own Flair-Hair jigs in one-eight ounce are great, and I know of at least one man who is winning a lot of tournaments swimming them along rip rap. If you want to try these, contact flyback@mchsi.net. A Bittsy Bug in one-eight ounce works well, too. To keep them ticking the rocks without getting hung, you need to swim them a little faster than Sliders, but it’s still a pretty slow retrieve.
Early and late in the day, you can catch fish along rip rap with buzzbaits and other topwaters. Small, shallow diving crankbaits, fished slowly and erratically, work well sometimes. And sometimes you can rip a lipless crankbait along the edges for some smashing strikes.
In fact, when you get right down to it, you can catch a few bass along rip rap with just about anything, because my main point is, regardless of what you call it, rip rap holds a lot of fish, especially during September and October.
Ron Kruger has been an outdoor writer/photographer/editor for over 30 years.
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