The hardest part about fishing...is finding the fish. Especially for bank fishing. Do you know any background info on the waters you are fishing?
Before any trip to a new lake, I will try to bust out some topo maps for the water. Looking for any structure that may hold some fish, I'll mark them on a paper map, then I use Google Earth to see if there is any cover in the same area. I find it even more important in bank fishing since shoreline access can be pretty limited.
Even for lakes I frequent, if I land fish in a new area, then I will mark it and review it later to see if there was any structure/cover that the fish were holding on.
Once you find out where the fish are hanging out the rest will come easy.