Sometimes a ditch is as obvious as a void
through a grass mat, or a steep drop-off in the
middle of a reservoir creek. Other times, they’re
only subtle depressions.
these are also the ones he usually
finds by accident.
“Oftentimes, while running from
one spot to another, I’ll only go 40
mph,” says Faircloth. “I can get a bet-
ter reading on my graphs, and I’m
always watching them, especially
when crossing a flat. Then, if I see a
sudden dip and rise, I’ll swing the boat
around immediately to better under-
stand how it lays out to find the best
spot.”
Meanwhile, Cox has gotten really
good at using his eyes to locate darker
troughs of water up shallow, as that is
often his first clue. When he won the
FLW Tour event at Chickamauga last
year, he did so targeting spawning
bass in backwaters. Some of the bigger
bass were bedding where the water
appeared darker due to the depth.
These little troughs or depressions
have some of the same appeal as an
actual ditch. If his eyes can’t spot anything differ-
ent, Cox will use another tool that’s
about as simple as they come.
“In practice or on new lakes, you’ll
see me stick my rod in the water a lot,”
Cox explains. “I’ll just fish around, and
every so often I’ll check the depth
based on how many guides I can see
on my rod, especially after I catch a
fish. If I can see four guides, but then I
suddenly can only see one, I’ll perk up
because I may have found something
different.”
And if you can’t seem to find a ditch
by doing those techniques, just let the
fish tell you.
“Whenever I catch a fish up shallow,
I’ll always make another cast back to
the spot, because if that bass came
from a ditch, you’ll almost always catch
another one right away,” Cox says.
“Once that happens, I start really inves-
tigating and trying to figure out the
ditch, because I know it’s there.”
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FLWFISHING.COM 35
from one point to another, regardless
of the lake. Because of that fact, both
pros figure at least 60 percent of tour-
naments are won on or around ditches,
whether the anglers who won realized
it or not.
FIRST-DITCH EFFORT
You know ditches are prime, under-
realized structures. But how do you
find something that might be as narrow
as a yardage line on a flat the size of a
football field?
According to the pros, it takes a lot
of awareness and some trial and error.
Ditches coming out of deep water
or on deeper flats can be easier to find
thanks to modern electronics. Mapping
chips have gotten so precise that
some ditches actually appear right in
the contour lines if you zoom in
enough, but the ones that are usually
tournament-winners are the ditches
that are not marked. Faircloth admits