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River Bass Fishing question

brewer88

brewer88

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Joined
Oct 20, 2015
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I grew up fishing lakes, rivers are somewhat new to me. A buddy of mine said that you always want to throw up stream and have your bait presented to fish coming down the current. I find it easier to work things such as worms n spinner baits if I am throwing down stream and working against current to my boat. Do you really get more bites having the bait travel downstream vs. up??
 
What river are you fishing? I find it very difficult to present any lure against the current in natural, free-flowing systems as they tend to ride up in the water column.

In a free flowing system, the fish orient themselves to face into the current. If you position yourself directly upstream,they are usually facing you and you create a silt plume that washes to them. I prefer to position myself crosscurrent or down current of the areas I intend to fish and let the water push my lure along. The current acts as a conveyor belt, carryining food items downstream to fish that are laying in wait to ambush crawfish, minnows, etc that wash or dart by. These fish aren't super picky like heavily pressured lake fish can be, but they are tuned into their surroundings, and positioning yourself out of their line of sight, and presenting a lure naturally will get you more bites
 
thanks for the reply mick, I fish the Cumberland mostly near Clarksville. I don't usually position directly upstream from them, mostly crosscurrent I guess or at a 45angle upstream. I will keep that in mind though thanks
 
Take what I said with a grain of salt though- I don't fish dam-controlled rivers often. In my experience, fish are dang near impossible to find when the water's off, but in much more predictable spots when it's running, laying just out of the current.
 
I always prefer a downstream presentation (casting up, letting bait work back downstream).

My opinion is that river fish are tuned in to bait coming at them from upstream, and as previously mentioned, with many baits it's difficult to present them properly against the current (depending upon how strong it is).
 

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