Dredging Shell Beds for 'Tons of Fish'

Watch a big bass tournament unfold – like Major League Fishing event – and it will quickly become apparent that the pros excel at finding those prime little spots that hold a concentration of fish. The kind of spots that a weekend warrior like myself will often tend to miss. Some of those spots can be found where a patch of higher bottom contour is covered with freshwater mussels, a spot that most pros call a shell bed.

"They hold tons of fish, just tons of fish," said MLF pro Shaw Grigsby. "There are different varieties of them and what they'll do is that they'll gang up on a particular flat or point and there are all of these clams down there. You drag your bait across them and you can (literally) feel them."

On some southern impoundments like those found in Florida or in Alabama, shell beds can sometimes be found in, relatively speaking, shallow water. Further north on the likes of Kentucky Lake or Lake Barkley, shell beds may be in considerably deeper water and offer a prime spot to fish for bass on a ledge.

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