While others try to avoid lakes with heavy bass fishing pressure, some savvy anglers thrive in crowds.

While waiting for their turn to fish certain spots in a highly pressured area, veteran anglers analyze what their competitors are doing.  You have to use everything to your advantage when fishing a spot like that. A lot of times that includes really paying close attention to how other anglers are fishing the water and then approach the same water not only with different techniques but at different angles.

Bass Fishing Pressure: Look For Cover

When fishing an area with heavy cover and deep water nearby, you should thoroughly cover the spot because it usually holds quality bass.  Some anglers fish these areas too fast and make the mistake of making one pass through the area and leave when they don’t catch anything.

Knowing these areas produce big fish, you should commit to the area and adjust your techniques and the angles you fish there especially when other anglers are present.

The process of trying different angles should start on your initial approach to a popular area. When you shut down your motor, ask yourself if this is how most everybody else sets up to fish the spot. Then try to figure out what you can do differently to generate a different presentation that bass have never seen.

Bass Fishing Pressure: Get In The Crowd

Since you will be fishing in a crowd, you have to slow down your approach and study your surroundings. Some subtleties you should look for when fishing a pressured area include intensity of sunlight, current, wind shifts, changes in water clarity and cloud conditions.  Key on these subtle variables that others overlook and then analyze how the subtleties affect bass.

Bass Fishing Pressure: Look For Current

Current from power generation in the summer often provides a subtle difference that can help you catch more bass from a pressured area.  Before power generation starts, bass will be scattered in the area, but when the current begins, the flow positions bass in specific spots. Pay close attention to spots where current creates eddies and position your boat at an angle where you can cast up current and bring your lure down to where it swims alongside any cover and drifts to the down-current side of the cover.

Multiple casts to the same cover is another trick to beat the crowds.  Try a series of casts to the same cover at multiple angles and with different lures before moving on to another target.