Here's How-To Makeover
Down 'n Out 
Bass Pond 

Complete video guide to
"Creating Great Small Waters"
reveals Ray Scott's winning ways
for trophy bass lakes…

PINTLALA, Alabama-Ray Scott may be best known as the builder of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.), the world's largest bass fishing organization, but the "Bass Boss" has a growing reputation as a bass lake builder.

"Creating a bass lake and building a pond are as different as night and day," says Scott, who shares his lake building know-how in a three-volume video series on "Complete Guide to Creating GREAT SMALL WATERS."

"A productive bass habitat (lake) needs structure," explains Scott. "Cover where bass can hide and ambush their prey."

Scott believes, "The mistake too many pond builders make is scooping out a big saucer-shaped bowl and putting nothing in it as bass habitat."

But, those "mistakes" can be corrected even in aging, structureless ponds if the pond owner will take a cue from Scott's experience.

"The secret to having a good bass lake," continues Scott, "is to have a balanced food chain. And, that starts with having some place for the little critters at the bottom of the food supply to hide and survive."

Scott points out, "By putting structure in a lake you provide a place for bass to
wait in ambush to attack. They're more efficient feeders from ambush. The largemouth bass, with its potbelly, isn't shaped for the long chase. Think of a pond with no hideouts as trying to catch a baitfish in a swimming pool."

By his own admission, Ray Scott learned about building a bass lake the hard way. After over 30 years of digging holes, building dams and designing small lakes and "making every mistake in the book," Scott figures he should share his hard-learned knowledge with other frustrated and disappointed pond makers.

Using the construction of a six-acre lake, near his home in Pintlala, Alabama, Scott gives a how-to video lesson on "Pond Building 101" for the interested landowner, either creating a new lake or wanting to renovate an old pond.

"Believe me," vows Scott, "anyone can have quality bass fishing waters, whether breaking ground for a new lake construction or rehabilitating a tired, old farm pond."

He says, "Use your imagination and a lot of easy-to obtain materials for structure
and you can create the bass lake of your dreams on as little as one acre."

Scott's three-volume video tape series has been heralded by fisheries biologists and fishermen, alike, for its information on designing, construction and managing a small lake.

In the over two hours of step-by-step coverage, Scott's "Great Small Waters" video package reveals how-to: (1) "Build World Class Fishing Ponds & Lakes," (2) "How-To Stock & Manage Small Waters for Trophy Bass," and (3) "Rehabilitate Old or Unproductive Waters."

In the case of typical farm ponds with bowl-shaped characteristics, Scott says, "There are many things that can be accomplished without draining and totally rebuilding a lake, like adding inexpensive structure and getting the food chain in balance."

In Scott's experience, cover and forage are the two most important things in managing a bass fishing lake. And, creating "vertical structure"-that's fishable-is more desirable than dumping a big brush pile on the lake bottom, where targeting the fish's location is more difficult.

Here's how Ray Scott suggests for the thinking basser to create low-cost structure, whether in an established body of water or prior to flooding a new pond.

"It's a simple to build, inexpensive structure that will be there for years and cost
only about $5.00," said Scott, who terms it "my pickle barrel habitat."

Using a five-gallon pickle container, a plastic bucket, picked up at a local restaurant, Scott builds a vertical structure out of limbs and quick-setting "sack concrete."

To start, make a hole in the bucket bottom, install a section of plastic PVC pipe into the hole and cement into the bucket along with hardwood limbs, like bois 'd arc tree, which resist rotting.

Drive a section of angle iron with a sledgehammer into the lake bottom. Position the pickle bucket structure into the PVC pipe hole and allow it to slide down to rest on the bottom.

Scott explains, "It's firmly anchored. You can't even push it over." Usually the pickle barrel is planted in five-to-six-foot deep water. "Believe me it works," said Scott. "I've put down this type structure in an old lake, and came back an hour later and caught fish off it."

In building a new lake, Scott will use the same structure-creating idea, but will incorporate its location on a ridge, built-up near deeper water and provide the ideal six-foot depth.

For the full story, Scott's three-volume VHS tape series-"GREAT SMALL WATERS" can be ordered by telephone at 1-800-518-7222 or writing to Ray Scott Outdoors, Inc., 238 Whitetail Trail, Pintlala, AL 36043.