Sometimes bass fishing in a big lake can be overwhelming. Do you fish deep? Fish the banks? Are they out in open water? What?

This will depend on the lake, the time of year, the time of day and many other factors such as air and water temperature. There is no short answer; no hard and fast rule. But mostly, to put yourself on fish, you are going to be looking for cover and structure.

Cover is vegetation and things like that where bass can hide. Structure is things like drop offs, road beds, creeks, stumps and such.

There is a good way to combine these and that is to look for points on the lake; especially points near quick drop offs and creek channels.

Points are areas of the shore that come to a 'point' in the lake. Often these will be on the outside of, or the entrance to, coves, but not always. That's just to give you an idea of how one might look. It simply sticks out from the rest of the shoreline.

Quick drop offs are important because bass will hang around these points and depend on the drop offs as an escape route in case trouble comes calling. So if you see a point in just a few feet of water, and see that not too far from the point the water quickly gets deep, this point might be a good prospect for holding fish.

The point itself should be fished thoroughly, but you should also seek bass along the sides of points, especially if there is cover like grass, weeds, reeds, etc. If the point is off of a cove, very early morning or the evening might be a good time to fish the cove. But, as the day progresses hit the points.

If you don't find the bass on the point, try the deeper water next to the point. They may have retreated to it as the daylight and the heat came. Bass try to avoid sunlight because it hurts their eyes.

I prefer to use plastics on points; worms, crawfish and lizards. I like to Texas Rig these to be weedless. I also like to use a Carolina Rig which helps to keep the bait in the strike zone longer and gives it a little more action. You could also do well using a spinnerbait or crankbait.

So, very early in the morning hit the coves. As the bite slows, you will want to move out to the points where the fish have gone. Then, as that bite slows, try fishing plastics in the deeper waters next to the points. As evening comes on, you will reverse this process, heading back to the points, then into the coves.

It's important to understand the movement of the fish and keep up with them. Certainly, you will find a lone drifter now and then, but using this method you will be much more likely to be consistent in your catch.

After all, you are out there to catch bass, right? Good luck.