Is there a system to locate fish on a lake you've never been on? Say it's spring time water temp 50° and stained, you're on a brand new lake armed with a topo map and a good depthfinder. Where do you start?
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Is there a system to locate fish on a lake you've never been on? Say it's spring time water temp 50° and stained, you're on a brand new lake armed with a topo map and a good depthfinder. Where do you start?
The system most use, successfully, is to break the lake down into sections and fish those sections that most closely resemble areas on familiar waters ... then fish it the same way you fished the familiar waters, when it was under the same conditions.Quote:
Originally Posted by STONETER
Biggest mistake made ... is to try and fish (cover) the whole lake in one trip. You need a game plan that spends the greatest amount of time on the water FISHING ... but, that plan needs to be devised BEFORE you get to the lake. You can tweak your plans, once there, if conditions are different enough to warrant those tweaks.
Now, as far as the "conditions you've presented" ... I'd probably "start" in the creeks/bays that look to have suitable spawning banks & cover, then work my way out to the mouth of those creeks/bays concentrating on the channel edges and shallow flats along the way. I'd probably cast jigs around the banks, but switch to spider rigging or pushing jigs across the flats & along the channel edges. One could also opt to longline troll on the flats & channel, as it is a bit faster method and covers water faster.
And, of course, you always look to see where the baitfish are ... because pre-spawn fish will be in close proximity, feeding up for the rigors of spawning.
... cp :kewl
Got to figure in type of cover in the lakes as well as average depth and water color .
start shallow as in 3 or 4 feet and work your way out fishing visible cover till u find them. it all depends on how cold it got the night before where you find them. may not be shallow at first light but as sun gets higher they move to shallows in the spring. murky water will warm up fast so it may be 50 degrees in the channel but 58 on the shallow flats or near the back of pockets.
Pick out a big creek that has lots of channel turns and points and BAIT. You can pick out some interesting creeks on your map and then spot check the creeks for bait. Treat that creek as the lake, don't worry about the whole body of water. Then use what you already know, like where that fish should be during that time of year. Whether it be on the main channel, mouths of the coves, or in the backs of the creek/coves. You'll be able to eliminate a lot of non productive water fast. Right now, in most of the Carolinas (sorry I don't know anything about Indiana), crappie should be starting to gather in the mouths of the creek channels. As the water warms, they will start moving toward the backs of creeks and coves. There will be a constant movement of fish going to toward the banks and then back to deeper water until early summer. You just have to follow them! Good Luck!
All great information but there is another resource to study and that is fishing reports on that particular lake.
Wow! Tons of usefull real world information. Thanks to all that replied.
Does heavy boat traffic push out crappie when they are in a little deeper water deep water? Let's say 15-20 fow?