Most of those smaller water are constructed by dredging a barrow ditch along the perimeter and using the soil to create a levee or dam. It provides shade and ambush points. And, particularly if the shallows hold a lot of aquatic vegetation, it has a good supply of dissolved oxygen. In other words, the shallows have everything a predator such as a largemouth bass needs. Comparable situations can be found even on big reservoirs.
Some coves sport steep sides and feature-less open water areas.
In those areas, most of the bass will be concentrated along the shorelines, particularly around vegetation, timber or other structure. Lake Livingston is a good example of such a situation. On Livingston, it's rare to find largemouths in water deeper than 6-8 feet even during the heart of summer. In such situations, plastic worms worked around shallow-water cover can be the most productive way to tempt those fish. It can be the most exciting, too.