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Faircloth finds isolated magic

You’ve found them on every lake you’ve ever fished:  a lone boathouse away from a shoreline crowded with other docks; a grass bed hardly as big as your boat growing by itself 10 yards from a mile-long carpet of greenery; or one tall, seemingly barren tree trunk sticking out off the end of a point.
   
Do you take the time to aim a few casts around them?
   
“You should,” emphasizes Texas pro Todd Faircloth, who for the past two seasons has fished just such a “magic tree” in Lake Amistad that has produced enough big bass to propel him to 1st and 4th place finishes in Bassmaster Elite events.
   
“I found this tree during the 2007 tournament on Amistad, and caught a six-pounder on my first cast,” Faircloth recalled. “I caught fish on every cast there for a while, too, including one over 10 pounds.

   
“This past season, I had to try it again, and during the last hour of the tournament I caught seven- and nine-pounders on back-to-back casts, which is what gave me the win.”
   
Faircloth can’t explain why isolated cover attracts bass, especially on lakes like Amistad that not only have abundant cover like flooded timber, but other forms of cover, as well, including vegetation.
   
“You can’t say it’s ‘choice’ cover that one big fish claims, because I’ve caught lots of fish from a single tree or boathouse. In fact, I’d have to say isolated cover usually does hold more than one bass and after you catch several there, you can generally return later and catch more. I often wonder if bass move to isolated cover simply because that cover may not get fished as hard.
   
“We all recognize bass like something different from their surroundings, such as a cut or indention in a long line of milfoil or maybe a corner or even the end of a wall of riprap.  When you go along a shoreline, you often find bass where that shoreline composition changes from gravel to rock.
   
“Maybe isolated cover represents that same type of change to ‘something different’.”
   
The actual location of a lone piece cover may also provide clues to why bass gravitate toward it. Certainly, the “first cover” available along a migration route to or from shallow water becomes an obvious holding area, and Faircloth’s tree at Amistad isn’t far from deep water so bass can use it on vertical movements as well. 

   
“Isolated cover is especially important when it is located near depth changes, so as I am easing into casting range of a small, isolated grass bed or even an individual boathouse, I study my depthfinder very carefully. 
   
“Always keep in mind why grass beds have edges, for example. It’s usually because of either a depth change or a bottom change. When you get an isolated grass bed, the bottom or the depth has changed again to provide the right conditions for that grass to grow.  At the same time, a smaller grass bed means baitfish do not have as many places to hide, and maybe bass instinctively know this.”
   
In the case of lone boathouses, Faircloth thinks depth or the location may be the primary reason they’re often so effective. The first boathouse leading into a cove might provide deeper water, while a single dock in the far back of a cove may offer the best shallow water cover.
   
On lakes that do not have very much shoreline cover, isolated trees and brush, including man-made brush piles, are usually very good places to fish. When Faircloth has a tournament on such a lake, he usually spends at least part of his practice time searching specifically for isolated cover.
   
“Something else I have noticed is that even on lakes with abundant shallow shoreline cover like lay-downs, vegetation and even boat docks, deeper, isolated cover can be even more productive. And it may hold larger fish that don’t want to be in the shallows.
   
“I always look at lake maps before I start fishing, although I don’t think anyone studies them as closely as we used to because of today’s GPS cards. But sometimes you can find isolated humps or high spots that may be worth looking for. Even the smallest places out by themselves can turn out to be good.” 
   
How Faircloth actually fishes isolated cover depends a lot on the water depth, clarity and the type of cover itself. At Amistad, which is a true big-bass lake, he used a small swimbait, casting past the tree, letting it sink a couple of seconds, and then just reeling it past so it looked like a big shad. 
   
“I often fish a big plastic worm like a Yamamoto Senko or Kut-Tail, especially when the water is calm. Jigs work, and sometimes topwaters do too, but whatever lure you use, stay farther away from the target because the small size of the cover may make the bass more spooky.

   
“One added benefit of fishing isolated cover,” Faircloth concluded, “is that it usually makes you fish better. Your casts have to be more precise because your target is smaller, and at the same time, you’ll normally work the area more thoroughly and from different angles.”