Fall Riprap Banks: Fast Food Joints By Ron Kruger To tell you the truth, September used to be a puzzle to me. Even though one of the first big bass I caught decades ago was from the bank along riprap during the fall, for most of my boating and guiding years I never even thought to look there when the sumac turned brilliant shades of red. I kept expecting electronics to point the way to offshore honey holes. I sort of got stuck on the ledges during that period. The fact is, bass and other gamefish scatter during the stable lake and weather conditions of September. They’re not ganged up on ledges and drops like they were all summer. When lakes begin cooling during fall, fish move to the banks much like they did during spring, but this time they aren’t coming in for hanky-panky—they’re interested in putting on some winter weight. They’re looking primarily for tasty tidbits with fins, and one of the highest concentrations of baitfish can be found along the deeper riprap banks. At this time of year there may be schools  of shad roaming the open waters, but the minnows of nearly every other species will be hiding amongst shoreline cover, and riprap is one of their preferred shelters.
I suspect most anglers don’t consider riprap cover, like they might a fallen tree on the bank or a submerged stump field or brush pile on a slope or drop. To the casual observer, it looks too uniform to qualify as structure or cover. Besides, they are constructed by the Corps of Engineers to prevent erosion, and the Corps doesn’t give too much thought to fish or fishermen. But fish don’t reason with the preconceived notions and prejudices of humans. They don’t care whether God or man made it. To them it’s a large area of broken cover, with thousands of jutting rocks and crevices in which pray hide and predators prowl. They’re rocky shorelines, regardless their source, and during the fall they’re loaded with fish. It’s not that riprap appeals to bass as a place to hide and ambush. They prefer backing into a weed line or the tangled branches of brush for that. Rather than a homey spot where they can rest and wait between hunger pangs, riprap is like a fast food joint they visit when they’re feeling hungry and aggressive. Smaller bass roam riprap banks all the time, but the bigger bass come and go, the same way you might visit McDonald’s or Wendy’s. A big old bass may get a craving for a Big Mac most any time of the day or night, and many of them like a midnight snack. Sunrise and sunset, however, are like the lunch and dinner rush. There’s a lot on the menu. Besides the usual crawfish and snails, large aquatic insects, worms, leeches, bluegill and other delights, the craggy creases in riprap banks are loaded with finger-lickin’ good fingerlings. Like everything else, they find plenty of places to hide and smaller creatures to eat, so by fall these banks are an aquatic smorgasbord. On many large lakes, especially older lakes where the original cover has rotted, these rocky ways are possibly the most abundant shoreline cover, and they’re some of the best places on the entire lake to catch bass  throughout the fall and early winter. Yet most anglers pass them by. It’s not just that most don’t think to fish them. Most don’t like to fish them. That’s because the jagged and rugged cover fish like so well also grabs and holds the weighted offerings and treble hooks most anglers use. Fishing riprap with the standard gear can be frustrating and expensive, especially to the run-and-gun crowd. So these areas not only are loaded with fish, they don’t get bothered as much by anglers with lake maps, solunar equipment and lots of horsepower.To fish them, forget about your Texas rigs and heavy jigs. Lay your crankbaits aside, and don’t even think about a Carolina rig. The best way to tackle this relatively untapped resource is with lighter lures and a different approach than you might use for any other type of cover. First of all, don’t hang out in deeper water and cast toward the bank. Move your boat close to shore and cast parallel. Make fairly long casts, sit down, and stay low. Even the biggest bass are cautious of avian threats. Fan cast the width of the underwater rocks, starting tight to the bank and working your way out deeper with successive throws. By casting parallel, you keep your bait in the most likely strike zone throughout the entire retrieve. Actually, you don’t even need a boat. You can’t set up a lawn chair there, but riprap banks are ideal for bank bound bass anglers. The method is the same as from a boat. Fan cast the area ahead, and if you don’t connect, move down the bank about a cast length and repeat. Don’t just fish riprap around ramps and other easy accesses. Everyone fishes there. Work your way down a riprap bank by rock hopping. I started doing this years ago, and I’ve had almost no competition. Maybe that is because the footing can be treacherous. I used to dance around on them without a care, but at 61 years old, I find a sturdy landing net used like a walking stick adds considerable stability and comes in handy for bigger bass. Don’t actually rock hop. Step between the rocks, not on top, and if you must top one, test it for stability before applying your whole weight. At any rate, move cautiously, because I’m convinced the sound of tumbling or crunching rocks spook shallow bass. Large riprap causeways and breakwalls protecting marinas are great, mostly because of tournaments. Hundreds of good bass are released at the bigger boat ramps every weekend. Scientists have proven these bass tend to migrate away from release sites, searching for home, but they don’t just hightail it out of there. They migrate gradually toward the main lake, feeding as they go, and the highway they use most often is along  the jagged cover of riprap banks, filled like a strip mall with fast food joints. Whether fishing from bank or boat, my favorite riprap bait is a Mann’s Hard Nose worm fished weightless on spinning gear and 10- or 12-pound test line. I thread it onto a heavy-wire 3/0 or 4/0 worm hook like a Texas rig, except that I push the point of the hook farther through the head, so that when rigged weedless the hard nose of this bait covers the eye and the knot. Without any weight to sink the hook into crevices, this rig slides and glides over the roughest rocks with a natural ease, and with the knot protected by the worm head, there’s no abrasion or  wear on the knot. Riprap is where Sliders shine as well. Best is their 1/8-ounce Pro Series Sliders with five-inch Bass Worms. I reel them just fast enough to tick the top of the rocks, pausing momentarily to let them sink, as the bait works through deeper water. If you can’t find these baits in stores, log onto www.sliderfishing.com or call 800-762-4701. Soft craws are great, too, because one of the most popular things on a riprap menu is crawfish. I rig them the same way, but they don’t sink as well as a worm, so I often add a small, round split shot just above the head. Early and late in the day try topwater lures. Walkin’ the dog brings explosive strikes. Buzzbaits work too. Generally, however, I believe that surface baits that move slower, but create a lot of action in a small area, such as Spooks, poppers and chuggers, are better than bigger, noisier and faster lures along shallow riprap areas. Slower-moving baits give deeper bass time to come up, and shallow bass—especially bigger bass—are spooked easily. So take it easy with your chuggers, poppers and buzzbaits. Weedless, soft-bodied twitch baits sometimes work as well as weedless worms. Floating Rapalas and similar hard-bodied twitch baits jerked under a few inches and allowed to float back up, then jerked again as soon as they emerge can be productive. Just don’t jerk them under too far. Riprap is like a magnet to treble hooks. There are a lot of ways to fish riprap effectively, and certain areas of riprap hold a lot of bass. All you’ve got to do is approach them from a different angle and with baits that won’t catch more rocks than fish.