New Lake

[ostate_hayes]

Hey yall, I was wanderin what yall (especially tournament anglers) do when youre headed to a new lake for the first time. Just what you look at, the websites you find information on, books you get, stuff you look for when you get in the boat, etc. (If you don't want a lot of people to know just direct message me. Im 15 so I wont be competin against any of yall.) I have a lake maps book for Oklahoma and when I start the regional tourneys ill probably get a book for the states around. I usually look at that, look on youtube, old fishin reports, and other stuff like that to see what people had caught them on before.

[CDMeyer]

I am 17, so I know how you feel.  My first two tournaments were awful..... on lakes I had no clue.

This year I just relaxed and believed that I would catch fish.....

Here is what I would do..... Try and find areas that are my main strength and I will go from there (a tournament is not nay time to try something new) start with a reaction bait something that you can cover ground with, then once you find fish slow down and work these areas slower focus in on the key difference where your fish come from compared to where you are not getting bit.  This will lead you do a pattern.

My results from fishing lake/rivers I have never seen

2014 Wisconsin SAF High School State Champion

3rd place in club tourney last night

[smallieking]

when I head out on the lake for the first time and getting ready to have an event there im going to try to find  possible schools of bass.. im not big on map reading because eventually youll find everything looks good and youll spend more time trying different areas than trying to figure out the bass. so what I like to do is find a few good looking areas, somewhere that has a lot of contours, points and close to both deep water and shallow water bays or coves. Once you get to the lake go to these areas, turn on your electronics and see what it has to offer. up here in pa I find the best way for me to catch fish is to find deep grass that others might miss out in 8 to 25 feet of water. if its anywhere from postspawn til fall its the type of spot that should hold a bass. so I will work it over with my baits until I find a pattern. everytime you get bitt look at everything u can, how deep the water was where that fish was laying, if it was in grass how high was the grass, was there a contour line close to where that fish was. did it come off a point or hump. was there more than one type of cover there. I also have an underwater aqua camera that I use in practice just to see what fish are holding on. once you get a pattern in one or two areas you then can run around the entire lake looking to match that scenario. Its never a good idea to fish a tournament on a lake you never fished before. find some time get to the lake and figure out a little something and come tournament time expand on what you have learned.  I hope I helped you alil