When most people think of the western U.S., especially the desert southwest, they often visualize towering rock pinnacles, vast expanses of wind-blown sand and deep sinuous canyons.
As a matter of fact, many of us yet to travel to this part of this great nation, have only experienced the area and its relatively unique landscape via photos or videos.
Once the opportunity to visit this spectacular region becomes reality, the magnificence and grandeur of the scenery is more than breath-taking. The same reaction holds true for all of us non-native bass anglers when we first experience the nature of fishing canyon reservoirs.
A World of Rocks, Rocks and More Rocks!
Canyon reservoirs are characterized by deep, narrow, rock-rimmed valleys encased by steep rock walls and bluffs often reaching as high into the sky as they dive deep to the reservoir’s bottom.
Depending on the elevation of the water’s surface, many of the reservoir shorelines are merely the intersection of the water with the bluff rock walls. The nature of these shear rock walls can sometimes be a little more irregular providing a staircase of ledges at varying depths or piles of fallen rock debris that toppled from the canyon rim. Each of these situations provides different bass holding types of rock cover including rock piles, boulders on the ledges or overhangs where the bass hide underneath waiting in ambush.
In areas where less resistant rocks are found at the water’s edge, steeply sloping banks and points of weathered rock debris maybe present. Occasionally, these non-vertical banks also provide cover for the bass in the form of flooded brush or even a lonely cottonwood.
