All Things "channel"

[gwrightf150]

Okay, where to start with all the questions I have? I read this site daily and have picked up numerous tips, techniques and great to know information. I think i'm using the correct types of baits during the different seasons, however, I think what is keeping me from "catching" is location, location, location. Can you folks help educate me on the lake channel(s)? What is the lake channel? What is a channel swing? Is this basically a river under the lake and the swing is where it bends and moves? I have topo maps of T.R. and can identify where it runs. I just don't think I understand what it is, what effects it has on the fish, what areas to look for, etc. etc. I've read many of your reports talking about "I caught them off a channel swing next to a rocky bank". What does this all mean? Can you all help "educate" me? All information is greatly appreciated.

[Flippin]

Sometimes the lingo can little overwhelming if you are not used to it.

The channel is where the White River bed used to be before the land was flooded to form the lake. A swing could also be called a turn. Think of the channel as a road and when the road turns (swings) to the left or right that is a swing. Some turns (swings) are more dramtic that others. Chunk rock is around basketball size.

I hope that helps. I am sure there are many others that can give a better description than I did.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Not all channels are equal, I'm sure there are different opinions, but I think the fish don't follow the channel as much as the edge, and the more prominent the edge the better the channel. If you look at a creek or river you will see where there is virtually no bank and flats on both sides while others have very obvious banks, or quick changes in altitude. Swings are the same way, the outside of the swing generally has the most prominent bank.

[Sam]

Yes, and I often like to fish the inside of channel swings even better than the outside. If a flat drops gradually and gently off into the main channel, that's not so good. Lots of flats, though, drop from 15-18 feet right down to 40+ feet where they meet the channel - that's the old riverbank.

Such places let predator fish (bass, crappie, walleyes, and white bass) hunt baitfish and find water temps they like on the edge of the flat, and still have deep water to go to nearby. The steep underwater drop-off is the key, and fishing sudden drop-offs between flats and channels gets you out in the middle of the lake where there's less fishing pressure. Lots of fishermen just pound the banks.

[Bill Babler]

Just fantastic imput by all commenting on the Channels.

Don't know if you all had the opportunity to watch the Classic yesterday or this weekend, but the terms, Channel, Channel Swings, Transition and Structure, were not only mentioned but shown thru 3D time after time. Just an excellent reprensentation, of what we are talking about here.

KVD mentioned time after time he was catching his fish from a major channel swing in the back of Beeswax Creek. The 3D photography, showed the place time after time. The channel only 6 ft. deep running under the bridge took a severe turn to the right and right at the swing or bend a 200 yrd. coontail moss bed covered the entire area, on both sides of the channel.

The channel directly to the main lake, as he stated allowed the area to replenish everyday. The deep bend was a natural staging location, and the Coontail moss bed attracted bait. A natural location, that he had found in 2007. He said if the derby had been two weeks earlier in 07, he would have won that also, due to the number of fish that moved along the Beeswax Creek channel to their spawning locations. That derby the fish had already moved up and were not staging in the channel as they were this year. There were not huge concentrations of fish in one location as they were this year.

If you look at where Jeff Kriet was catching his and also Faircloth, they were also fishing the Coontail moss beds, but they did not have as good of a pinchdown or a staging location, ie channel swing, as KVD had. I believe their locations, and I'm not saying they were not super locations, but they as KVD said were not replenished as well as his location. Main fact were the other moss locations in the creek, were feeding locations, but as KVD said they were not staging locations.

[stock jockey]

Not to change the subject, but I noticed at the Classic there were MANY foul hooked fish. Why would so many fish have been foul hooked?

[podum]

cold water, short strikes.

[focused fishing]

All good answers, let me throw in my two cents:

A channel swing is any area on the main lake or in a creek arm where the old channel hits the existing bank. It can be anything from a bluff to just a few rocks to a deep cut bank depending on the composition of the rest bank(s) in the area. As Bill said KVD and the rest of the Classic anglers fishing in Bees Wax Creek over the w/e were targeting swings with coon tail moss. No rocks or other obvious structure, but the swing was still there. The next time you look at a creek or river notice the area on the outside bend of the stream, that area is the channel swing. Those same locations are on every lake in the area, the outside bend of the old creek or river is what we gennerally call a swing. On most Ozark lakes they can be identified by a steeper, usually rocky bank. The ends of a swing are gennerally better than the middle, these spots will usually transition from bigger to smaller rock and eventually gravel and attract more crawfish and other forage.

As far as chunk rock is concerned anything from fist size to basketball size rock will be called chunk rock.

Clear as mud?

EP

[techo]

Fantastic question with awesome answers.

On the foul hooked fish issue....I thought you weren't supposed to keep them. Might be a misunderstanding from my Alaska days as you can't keep foul hooked fish there.

[freelancer 11]

They are allowed to keep the foul hooked fish unless they are sight fishing. Then it must be in the mouth.