your lake map

[river scum]

done this on some other sites with some great input. someone will post a picture of a lake(topo map) and the members give input as to where why and how they would fish it.

ill start off with an example for you all to pick apart.

this is hamilton lake indiana.

water- clear to very clear(6ft-15ft visability)

bottom- sand marl and silt

time of year- fall

water temp- 65*

vegitation- heavy (weed beds down to 20ft with some growth 12ft+ tall)

forage- gizzard shad



sorry i dont know how to make the picture bigger. if anyone could enlarge it it would be better. it mite be better viewed at the ->http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/i...hamscan001.jpg

so please tell us how you would attack this lake. hopefully we will teach some and learn some from this thread.

[CatFan]

I think I'd start at the flat area outside the north bank of what I think says Muskrat Bay. You have good drops to deeper water on both sides. Depending on the time of year, I'd start working the edges and then work into the bay.

[big minnow]

done this on some other sites with some great input.

Hello, river scum sounds like a great idea learning about dissecting a lake using a topo map. I would like to learn how it's done. I could then use the same strategies on my home lake topo. Do you have links to those post made on the other sites. Thanks. it's great idea I'm in !!

[slabinator]

This is a great idea, but I can't read the map well enough to tell the depth. What is the contour interval. That would help.

[Tater140]

I am curious to see what people suggest. I fished there for the first time ever about 2 weeks ago, as i've heard it was a good crappie lake. I only caught fish at location #1 on my map below, and I only caught about 6 or so 8-9"s. I was catching them on a 1/8 oz. road runner and LFT Live Baby Shad. I should also mention I tried spider rigging with not a single bite. I spider rigged the entire shore between 1 and 4 as well as the shore between 2 and 4. The fish I finally caught were before dark. I've always wandered whether people catch crappie spider rigging on natural lakes.

[yankee doodler]

work all the break lines w/ weed cover and good drops to deeper water. if you're catchin the small ones close, move out little by little for the bigguns.

[skiptomylu]

work all the break lines w/ weed cover and good drops to deeper water. If you're catchin the small ones close, move out little by little for the bigguns.

x2

[big minnow]

Are breaklines only depth lines that are close together?

[CrappiePappy]

Are breaklines only depth lines that are close together?

Technically speaking ... breaklines are : "A linear feature that describes a change in the smoothness or continuity of a surface".

In that regard ... all contour lines show "breaklines", wherever they are drawn on a map. Dropoffs, or "breaks" (as they are sometimes called), are the contour lines that are close together ... showing a drop or incline in the bottom elevation.

... cp

[rnvinc]

First I would try and determine which way the wind was coming from and start spider rigging the contour lines parallel with the bank into the wind....(Watching the outer fringes of my SI for baitballs...bait out deeper-I need to move the boat deeper....bait up shallower-I need to move the boat shallower... Bait nowhere-I need to not waste time and spider rig fairly fast until I can locate some bait)...

I'd pick a depth I think the fish would be in (probably starting on the 8ft contour) and stay on that contour line for several hundred yards....
If I didnt pick up any fish... I'd move the boat over 2ft deeper or shallower... And either backtrack my previous pass or continue on down the new contour line...

Once I determined what depth the fish seemed to be targeting... I'd stay on that contour line until the fish quit biting or until I want to move to a different area and start all over...

Spider riggin contour lines gives the benefit of setting the baits on the shallow side of the boat to a certain depth... And setting the baits on the deeper side of the boat to a certain depth and covering several hundred yards of water without constantly adjusting bait depths...

Rickie