Smallies In Hot Weather...no Depth Finder

[drew27c]

Hey Y'all

I fish smallies on a small lake. It becomes difficult when it is very hot in the middle of the day and I don't have a depth finder to find good deep water structure or bait fish.

Any tips?

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

The slope of the shoreline will extend into the water. Sheer banks typically lead to steeper drop offs. Dragging a C-rig around can help you map an area and find cover on the structure. Of course a lake map if available is a big help/

[Crestliner2008]

I didn't have a sonar 30+ years ago either when I started to fish smallies. Do you have a map of the lake? (If not, use a Google map of the lake.) Once you have a rough map, get yourself a 60' length of parachute cord. Tie a heavy nut & bolt (or anything else weighing at least 4 oz.) on one end. Then start putting a simple over hand knot, every 10' up from the weight. You can put a small piece of different colored ribbons through each knot to indicate the depths. This has now become your new "depth finder".

Using this simple device, I was able to map a large hill-land type reservoir and establish a quality "milk run" by noting the various depth changes I discovered as I "hand lined" this device in my travels. Found humps, recorded configurations of long dropping points, old river channels and road beds, etc.. It made me a better small mouth angler.

BTW, after checking my mapping records with first a Lowrance "Green Box" (first flasher on the market) and subsequently, several LCR units, I was pretty accurate when all was said and done. It could work for you just as well. One other thing that would have saved me a lot of time back then, is a handheld GPS (which I still use today). They are not that expensive and for that matter, neither is a decent LCR. Hope this is of some help.

[NBR]

Many if not most of the mapped lakles were done by the WPA or CCC during the depression and they only had hand lines. A little slower but still effective.