The North VRS South Debate

            Recently a friend of mine, Rich Lindgren who is from Minnesota, had a couple of interviews on two different radio shows.  He sent a link to me a few days ago for to listen to and get my opinion on his performance. I thought he did a good job explaining and expressing himself.  During the interview it did spark a conversation between he and I about Northern lakes and fishermen and Southern lakes and fishermen.  Which region is best and which fishermen are best?  Who would be best at fishing different regions?  I think the topic is way too broad to come to a conclusion but it certainly makes for great conversation among fishermen.

Rich was born, raised and still lives in Minnesota and has been fishing for 20+ years.  He is familiar with many Minnesota, Wisconsin & Iowa lakes and river systems.   He has also fished some southern reservoirs such as Amistad, Lake Fork, West Point, and Norfork. He has also fish in several other states including Illinois, Missouri and Indiana, which are not really considered Southern. I was born and raised in Indiana and have fished 30+ years in many lakes and states. I started out in the old coal mine lakes of Indiana, Patoka, Monroe, Cataract, Eagle Creek, Raccoon and the Ohio River system. I have also had the luxury of fishing many other lakes and rivers in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida and big name lakes in Alabama which include, Guntersville, Eufaula and Pickwick.  We both have some knowledge of Northern lakes and Southern lakes.

Each state takes a different approach in conservation and dealing with lakes.  They have different views of lake facilities such as ramps, docks, marinas and other convenient items. They also have different views of controlling grasses such as milfoil, coon-tail, cabbage and other aquatic vegetation.  I won’t get into the details of each state. Instead I will review mine and other’s observations. For exact views of each state I would suggest either calling or going to that state’s appropriate websites. In my opinion I believe Indiana has the overall best ramps and overall launching facilities, with Georgia a close second.  Many of Indiana’s ramps you can launch as many as 8 boats or more in at one shot.  Cataract and Raccoon lakes can launch 8 or more boats at a time.  However, limited dock space to moor you boat can be an issue if you are launching by yourself.  I think this is due to the at times widely changing water levels.  I think Minnesota is somewhere in the middle.  Many of the ramps are very small only launching one or two boats at a time.  I think this is largely due to the shear number of lakes in Minnesota. Land of 10,000 lakes would pose a problem to any state.  I think the South overall wins this battle just because we have fewer lakes to build facilities on.

GRASS, where to begin?  Rich made a very good point on his radio show.  He talked about the differences in the definition of grass. In the south we tend to call any vegetation in the water, “grass”, whether it is milfoil, duckweed, coon-tail, or gator grass. Alabama and Florida tend to be more defined because they do have a few more selections of grass then folks in Tennessee.   People in the North such as Minnesota have a huge selection of grasses to fish.  They will define their grass by name when discussing location of bass.   They might pattern bass in the reeds with coon-tail mix or deep cabbage weed line holding fish.  Not all grasses hold fish at the same time. Generally, in the South, if there is grass then more then likely it will be holding fish. Most of the South grass is shallow, 5ft or less.  However there are a few lakes that have deep weed lines and a few types of grass, such as Dale Hollow.  I think the North wins the grass battle just because you can pattern fish in a specific type of grass and the state and fishermen alike embrace the grass. I do not think our Southern states value grass as something good. That is evident by large grass kills due to spraying or fluxuating water levels. I am sure they have good reason for doing this but for me and others please let the grass grow!

I think the South has a greater variety of fishing styles, habitat and structure to put to good use.  Sometimes too much variety can confuse a person when first attempting to fish a new lake in the South or even pre-fishing for a tournament.  First thing is the size of reservoirs of Southern lakes verses the size of, say, an average Minnesota lake. A Minnesota lake is usually 5,000 acres or smaller. Many of the best lakes are less than 1,000 acres. You can easily fish a 1,000-acre lake in a day or two. Southern lakes are much larger.  Many of the big name lakes are from 14,000 acres to 47,000+ acres. A single creek arm might be 2,000 acres.   Typically Northern lakes you search different grasses until you locate the fish, deep or shallow. A person can also look in the reeds or pads but more then likely deep off shore weed lines.  When I first fished Minnesota lakes I did struggle a bit because I was used to fishing chunk rock, points, ledges and stumps.  Those things can be hard to find in some Minnesota lakes.  If I am pre-fishing a Southern lake one of the first things I look at is seasonal patterns and water temperature.  I then will look at the weather pattern and decide where to go from that point. Once I determine the pattern of choice I will choose a creek and start running and gunning that creek until I find a small pattern.  The fish might be on main lake points, secondary points or buff points.  Once I determine a pattern I will run the lake fairly quickly looking for the same structure around the lake, such as the same style of point or chunk rock bank.  Ledge fishing can be a little more precise due to hidden brush piles that people often put out during the low waters of winter.  Find a ledge with brush piles in 15-20 ft of water and you could have a gold mine to yourself.  Also on Southern lakes many times you even have a choice of running up river and flipping wood. In Southern lakes unlike many Minnesota lakes we have another thing to deal with; current from hydo-electric generation.  Tournament fishermen at all times have to keep an eye on the generation schedule and the number of generators running at any given moment.  Many times this will influence where and how you fish your tournament. Many times I have seen a tournament won in a 30-minute window due to an extra generator turning on.  When this happens you better have a good point, ledge or off shore hump to fish.  I think the Southern lakes have the advantage just because of variety of fishing styles and structure you have available to fish.

I think the kicker for the South to win the battle is simply a person can catch a TEN plus pound bass at any time. The South puts out a tremendous amount of very big fish over ten pounds. It is not uncommon to hear of 13 to 16 lb bass come out of lakes like Amistad in Texas or Lake Fork.  If you have a 6lb bass in Minnesota you have a big fish and often times you will win big fish with a 4 or 5 pound bass. However I want to give credit where it is due.  Pound for pound and fish for fish I think Minnesota has a greater number of 4 plus pound bass available to catch.  Once on Prior Lake in MN I was culling 4 lb bass. Many times on those lakes like Marion, Pokegama, Minnetonka and many others you better come in with 18-20lbs just to place in the money.  If any of you Southern guys have never fished a MN lake then you are missing out big time.  I have caught more 15lb + sacks in MN then I have anywhere in the south.

This debate will go on and on for a lifetime.  I have just mentioned a very small portion of the North/South debate.   A person could write a rather large book about the differences and which is better.  I don’t even want to begin to say who is the better angler, a Northern Guy or a Southern Gent.  However, I will say this, I know a few Northern guys that struggled a lot on J. Percy Priest Lake, Tims Ford and Old Hickory.  I also know a Southern Guy that went to MN with 1 day pre-fishing and finished in the top 5, I think it was 3^rd but don’t want to gloat too much.