Here's Complete Video Guide
To Creating Great Bass Waters

Creating a bass lake and building a pond are as different as night and day, according to Ray Scott of Pintlala, Alabama, the founder of the world's largest fishing organization, the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.).

"A bass lake needs structure," says Scott. "Cover where bass can hide and ambush their prey."

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

Known worldwide as "Mr. B.A.S.S.", Scott is best known for his cast-for cash professional Bassmaster Tournament Trail, but the "Bass Boss" is gaining a reputation as an expert on pond and small lake construction and maintenance.

Scott's three-volume video series on his "Complete Guide to Creating GREAT SMALL WATERS" is heralded by anglers and fisheries biologists for its information on designing, construction and managing a small lake.

By his own admission, Ray Scott learned about lake building the hard way. After over 30 years of building and designing small lakes and "making every mistake in the book," Scott shares his hard-learned knowledge in over two hours of video tape presentation.

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

"Believe me," says Scott, "anyone can have good fishing waters, whether breaking ground for a new lake or rehabilitating a tired old farm pond. Use your imagination and a lot of easy-to obtain materials for structure and you can create the bass fishing waters of your dream on as little as one acre."

The three-volume series includes: "How To Build World Class Fishing Ponds & Lakes", "How To Stock & Manage Small Waters for Trophy Bass", and "How To Rehabilitate Old or Unproductive Waters."

Scott explains, "There are many things that can be accomplished without
draining and totally rebuilding a lake, like adding inexpensive structure and getting the food chain back into balance."

In Ray Scott's experience, structure and forage are the two more important things in a bass fishing pond. Creating vertical structure, that's fishable, is more desirable than a big pile of brush on the lake bottom, where targeting the fish's location is more difficult.

Here's a tip for creating structure, whether in a new pond or established body of water. Scott calls it his "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". Make a hole in the bucket bottom, install a section of PVC pipe and cement into the bucket along with hardwood limbs, like bois 'd arc tree. Drive a section of angle iron into the lake bottom, position the pickle bucket structure into the PVC pipe and allow it to slide down to rest on the bottom.

Scott says, "You can't push it over. It's a simple, inexpensive ($5.00) structure that will be there for years."

The full three-volume video set for "GREAT SMALL WATERS" is available at a special price of $89.95 by telephone at 1-800-518-7222 from Ray Scott Outdoors, Inc., 238 Whitetail Trail, Pintlala, AL 36043.                                                                          

B.A.S.S. founder Ray Scott shows a bass taken from his fishing lake near Pintlala, Alabama. He shares methods for building, rehabilitating and managing small lakes and ponds in his video series, "Guide to Creating GREAT SMALL WATERS." According to Scott, by following his guidelines anyone can enjoy their own bassin' honey hole and produce bass like this.

Ray Scott's video series ? "Complete Guide to Creating GREAT SMALL WATERS" ? includes three volumes on building, managing and rehabilitating small lakes and ponds. Each tape is approximately 45 minutes long.

Here is a simple homemade structure that provides a comfort zone for bass as well as an ambush point. Ray Scott's "pickle barrel" structure is made with a 5 gallon plastic bucket, a bag of quick-drying "sack-concrete," PVC pipe, angle iron and hardwood tree limbs. It is one of numerous habitat-enhancing ideas included in Scott's video series ? "Guide to Creating GREAT SMALL WATERS."