While this angler was dropping into a slack water pocket between the spillway wall and the roiling outflow stream, several other folks had scattered along the pedestrian-friendly structure to cast swimbaits, flukes and topwaters for the bass chasing bait in and around the tailrace. (This was one of those times when multiple user groups shared a resource with respectful casting distances.)

The lesson was clear: You can walk the bank and often pick off a couple of bass here and there, but a few factors will accelerate your opportunity like an area of concentrated current. From land-accessible spillways, to drain pipes, or small feeder creeks, the influx of food, oxygen and a different water color can yield slam dunk potential.

Over the top

Having spent a couple days on the Mississippi River following the season finale 2022 Bassmaster Elite in La Crosse, Wisc., Cook and I were fishing the Onalaska Spillway, where Lake Onalaska — a large body off the main river — dumps into the Black River, which links with the Mississippi. While we enjoyed the mobility advantage, this spot provided a front-row look at how easily land-bound anglers can access quality bass fishing opportunities.

A short walk from the spillway, a woman sat on an overturned 5-gallon bucket positioned on a gravel point as she drifted live bait along the opposite current seam. While most of the flurries occurred within a few boat lengths of the spillway, several bass busted bait 50 yards downstream. I’m sure a fluke, lipless bait or a topwater walker would work there too.

Earlier in the year, I fished the tailrace of a small dam in Madrid, N.Y., a charming hamlet near the St. Lawrence River. A pedestrian overlook provided a safe casting platform, from which I used a drop shot to entice several smallmouth, along with rock bass from current seams.

My biggest bite came when I bomb casted a 3-inch pearl swimbait right into the frothy tailrace and let it drift downstream until an opportunistic smallie blasted the bait behind a current breaking rock.

Lesson: Use the water’s natural force to carry your bait to the kill zone.

Drain on the brain

The network of stormwater pipes that manage rainfall accumulation often brings manmade choke points well within pedestrian reach. From personal experience, I can say a small neighborhood drain, culvert or a simple pipe can be pure gold for anglers on foot.

A bare pipe spewing water into a pond or lake brings plenty of drawing power, but your best spots will have cover or structure to keep fish in the same area year-round. Think riprap, docks and vegetation.

The latter proves particularly important, as it offers shelter, as well as food-rich habitat. Blow some water past a grass line or pad field and it’s showtime.

Generally, it takes a day or so for fish to predictably set up on the current edges. Right after a big rain, the water often blasts so heavily, they can’t effectively feed close to the outflow. Rather, they’ll sit 10 to 15 yards downstream, where the current softens and work their way progressively upstream as the flow moderates.

The main stormwater pipes are larger than the ones linking neighborhood ponds and catch basins, so it often takes a week to work a large volume of water through the system. You’ll start to see patterns develop as fish stake out key spots relevant to current speed.

Options are many, but I carry a hollow body frog and an unweighted Texas-rigged Senko. That one-two punch always delivers.

Even between rain events, the deeper current-carved furrows in front of these drains often hold fish that simply appreciate the subtle depth change. If your angle allows you to whip a bait into the pipe and then work it over the hole — money!

So how do you maximize your chances of catching every bass in that stretch? Let’s talk about making the most of your water when bank fishing, using a recent trip I made fishing along a canal in Florida as an example. I was fishing from a friend’s yard and only had about 200 feet to work with, but I could cast all the way across the canal. 

The cover across the canal looked extremely enticing, but starting there would have been a bad idea. Instead, it’s best to start with the water and cover closest to you when bank fishing. 

It’s always been kind of funny how I, and many others that I’ve observed, approach fishing from the bank versus fishing from a boat. When I was in a boat growing up, I almost always threw right up on the bank. But when I was on the bank, I usually threw as far out as possible. 

And this makes some sense when you think about the length of a cast covering a very large strike zone. But when really trying to maximize your water, you’re better off fishing the water and cover closest to you first. 

If you take the first approach of casting as far as possible, you may very well throw past a patch of grass right next to where you’re standing, only to get a bite at the end of your cast and then drag that fish right through the cover closest to you. If this happens, you’ve most likely eliminated any chance of catching a fish in that nearest patch of grass. So start close, and then work your way out farther and farther. 

There’s another added benefit to this approach — protecting your lure supply. Again, we’re typically operating with a very limited supply of tackle when fishing from the bank. So throwing into the furthest and thickest cover right off the bat could cost you your only lure and end your trip before it can even get started.

And it’s also a good idea to start with a finesse approach, as compared to power fishing. This rotation is contrary to what we usually do when fishing from a boat. Most anglers start with an aggressive bait like a spinnerbait, and then only back off to a worm when they don’t get bit for a while. But starting with a worm gives you the best chance to catch the most fish out of the area. 

You can pick several off starting out this way, and then throw a buzzbait, for example, before leaving. If you started off with the buzzbait, you may have drawn a fish to the surface that didn’t quite want to commit to the buzzbait, and then the fish could get spooked and not bite anything. 

If you prioritize cover and practice patience, you can certainly catch more fish from the bank than you would going right for the jugular. Patience is a big part of fishing, and it will be rewarded in time. And prioritizing the cover closest to you ensures that you get a fresh shot at every fish in the area.

If you implement these two tips on your next bank fishing trip, you’ll be sure to catch more fish.