Fall is my favorite time of the year to bass fish.

This is when the fish congregate in schools and many fish can be caught from one area. If schools of fish are feeding on the surface they are easy to find and easy to catch, but if they are not on top they may require more of an effort to locate.

The average fisherman feels comfortable fishing along the bank and casting to things that he can see. He will usually catch a few fish in the 4 to 10-foot water near shore, but most of the time he is fishing for only 10 percent of the fish in shallow water while 90 percent of the fish are on the other side of the boat in deeper water. They move away from the shore for four reasons: food, structure, cover and deeper water.

Structure refers to any bottom contour change. Some of the more common forms of structure are points, humps, creek channels, ditches, cuts, etc. any sharp change in depth can be considered structure. To a hunger structure would be the same as ridges, meadows, hills, gorges, etc.

While riding down the highway, look at the surrounding countryside. Imagine it covered with water. That would be structure.

Food would be any place where baitfish such as shad congregate. Bass will travel to these places sometimes during the day and feed heavily on the shad. Then they will return to their comfort zone.

Cover refers to any natural or man-made obstructions that bass or other aquatic creatures can use to hide in, around or under. Cover is used as an ambush point for bass. A hunter would use a briar patch, rock pile, pine thicket or brush top to explain cover.

Deep water offers a bass a place to hide, but even more it offers him a change in temperature and allows him to stay in his comfort zone. Bass can be found in any one of these four places, but a super fishing hole is the place where all three of these elements come together in the same place.

This is where they will spend most of their time. They may leave on short feeding sprees, but they will always return to this sanctuary.

These places can be located with a good chart recorder along with a little searching and some common sense. It may take a little while to find some really good spots, but once they are located, they can be marked on a GPS unit so you can return to them later with little or no searching.

Many of these spots will be good for many years. Because these prime spots are usually in open water, far from shore, it would take a while to relocate them with no electronic equipment. Drop a marker buoy near the spot, back off and fish it with soft plastic baits or deep diving crankbaits. Your efforts will be rewarded.

The exception to the location of these places would be the shad.

They are constantly roaming around searching for food and don’t have a specific holding place. Several weather changes can cause them to move a great distance.

That is one variable that makes it fishing instead of catching.