Finding New Honey Holes

By Billy Darby

Corridors, ditches, pinch points, funnels—whatever you name them, these descriptions relate to the terrain fish use to travel. These corridors carry fish to and from resting and feeding grounds and play a major role in social behaviors, including spawn-related activities.

A common denominator in these fish thoroughfares is the attractant source to both predator and prey, which is current flow.

Culverts that allowed small creeks to flow under road beds that were flooded on impoundment, deliberate cuts that were established to permit boat travel, blowouts in flooded dams, road support bridges across terrain gaps, the tip ends of underwater bars or short cut-throughs between land masses are all conducive to these marine life highways.

One such area is only a mile from my home on the banks of Lake Eufaula, which sits on the Georgia/Alabama border. The now underwater confluence of Dry Branch and Sandy Branch is only 50 yards east of where a concrete culvert passed under the old highway 39. The amount of bass and crappie I have caught in this one spot cannot be counted or measured, and the area is no larger than an average-size carport.

So stretch your imagination and come up with a figure that might represent the total pounds of fish that have been caught by all anglers visiting this exact spot in 54 years, the age of Lake Eufaula. I am going to declare this one spot to be nominated to the Bass Fishing Hall Of Fame.

As I sit here plinking on my computer writing this article, at least 10 such “honey holes” come to mind. No matter where you fish, careful study of your Lake Master Maps and Humminbird units will disclose multitudes of these fish-concentration magnets. When you find one that has not previously been discovered, you just might encounter Ol’ Mossy Back, a fish that has never before seen a fishing lure.

Arguably, no person dead or alive has more fishing hours on Lake Eufaula than yours truly. Having fished this lake for a portion of 150 days a year for 54 years equals a bunch of fun. So if I can find new “honey holes,” so can you… wherever you fish.

An old saying goes: the value of any land, whether above water or below, is determined by location, location, DETECTION.