How do you navigate lakes with stumps?

[Austin4life]

This past weekend I was on a lake that is basically all stumps. You're safe if you stay in the middle, but if you tried going in one of the creek arms, there was no clear path. I stopped well before where I thought the stumps might start and started idling. Sure enough, I hit a non-visible stump about 200 yards from the first visible ones. So I was wondering if anyone had any navigation tips? My lower unit would appreciate any help!

[scbassin]

Depending on the depth I trim way up OR shut the big engine off & trim it up out of the water . Then use the trolling motor & stand so I can see in the water & maneuver around all I can. I also carry a push pole & have my chartplotter mapping a trail so it is easier going out. I fish a couple of coves like this & once you a trail marked for that cove you just have to keep track of the water depth. It gets shallower it's back to the T/M.

[TnRiver46]

I’ve launched myself into the water hitting them with the trolling motor. I was standing up there looking over the edge for stumps! Haha. I’ve also wedged my boat on top of them where it took several minutes to spin off. The simple answer to your question is “very slowly and carefully.” 

[BigAngus752]

Almost all the lakes I fish are man made and every single cove (and sometimes the main body of water) have trees that either end just below the surface (in 20 feet of water) or they stick up ten feet above the water.  I have a Ranger RT188 (aluminum) and I just put on a good pair of polarized glasses and I idle my way through.  You'll find that if your going slow you will feel the stump and can turn the wheel slightly and slide off the side of it to miss your lower unit.  But bumping the lower unit isn't going to hurt it as long as you are truly just idling along.  Once I'm close to where I'm going to fish I will turn the Merc off, trim it all the way up, and spend the rest of my time in the cove on the TM.  A good pair of polarized glasses makes it pretty easy to avoid the trees.  I've also gotten pretty good at getting the boat off of them when I'm hung up and can't move.  I'll spend ten minutes jumping up and down at the stern rather then starting the big motor and trying to accelerate off of the stumps.  I've watched several people do that and slam their lower into the stump.  I watched two young guys in a pontoon rip their two stroke off the stern trying to get that boat off of a hang-up.  

[Fishes in trees]

I fish stumpy lakes a lot.  Go slow and run with your engine tilted up some.  If you have a hydraulic jack plate, use it to lift your motor up as far as possible.   When, not if,  you get hung up on a stump, most of the time you can back off, or spin off.  Powering over it is a last resort.   I've torn up enough transducers, that I installed a Vexilar Alumaducer - which can send a signal through an aluminum hull just like a fiberglass one.   I carry a push pole and 100' of rope.   I've never gotten so stuck that I had to try to use the rope to get someone else pull my off a stump, but I have pulled other guys off stumps, who were high centered and their trolling motor & oars couldn't get them of.  Point here is that it is better to have it and not need it than visa versa.

 

If I had got to do it all over again, I'd get an Express,  or some other boat where the reinforcement is placed on the inside of the hull, and the outside of the hull is smooth.  My Lowe has external strakes and while they help with steering, they also serve a stump catchers.  My buddy's Express slides off stumps much better than my boat does.

[Sam]

12 hours ago, scbassin said:

Depending on the depth I trim way up OR shut the big engine off & trim it up out of the water . Then use the trolling motor & stand so I can see in the water & maneuver around all I can. I also carry a push pole & have my chartplotter mapping a trail so it is easier going out. I fish a couple of coves like this & once you a trail marked for that cove you just have to keep track of the water depth. It gets shallower it's back to the T/M.

X2.

 

Get a push pole and use it. Will make a world of difference.

 

And go s-l-o-w. If you have any speed and run into a submerged tree trunk you can bend your trolling motor's shaft.

 

Motor MUST be out of the water.

 

And try to remember how you go in so you can get out. Easier said than done if I must say so myself.  

[J Francho]

35 minutes ago, Sam said:

And try to remember how you go in so you can get out.

This is what GPS is for.

[Bird]

We use the GPS, works fantastic. 

 

But we hit a stump yesterday do to low water, lake was down 3ft.

Sad part was....the water was clear, simply wasn't paying attention. 

[Catt]

2 hours ago, Fishes in trees said:

I fish stumpy lakes a lot.  Go slow and run with your engine tilted up some.  If you have a hydraulic jack plate, use it to lift your motor up as far as possible.   When, not if,  you get hung up on a stump, most of the time you can back off, or spin off.  Powering over it is a last resort.

 

Exactly what I do ?

 

Hitting stumps is a big part of bass fishing down here. It's a matter of how hard ya wanna hit em!

 

GPS is fine until the lake level changes, you'll be hitting stumps that wasn't there last trip.

 

I die laughing when I'm fishing with someone & when they hit a stump they kill the engine. I'll ask, what ya doing? They reply, we hit a stump! I ask, And?...is your engine running...then you're ok!

[Tennessee Boy]

14 hours ago, Austin4life said:

So I was wondering if anyone had any navigation tips?

Carry an extra prop.

[scbassin]

In Case I was misunderstood My Garmin unit has GPS & a Depth finder incorporated in it But is called a Chartplotter. My trolling motor has the break away feature to prevent bent shafts.

[Goldstar225]

I fish some lakes with LOTS of stumps (such as Lake Conway AR).  The bottom of my last boat was dented all to heck from stump jumping under OB power.  I'm trying to keep my new tin boat in good shape.  I ease through the field slowly with the TM.  Can't spot them all due to muddy water but when I hit one I can usually get off by increasing TM power and backing off.  I occasionally have to use the OB to back off.  So far it's worked.  The bottom of my hull has quite a few scuffs but no denting.

[Bankbeater]

When fishing stumpy, murky water, I fish when the sun is out.  It makes the stumps a little easier to see. 

Keep the boat as light as possible so if you do run up on a stump you can shift the weight around in the boat and hopefully lift off of the stump.

[Raul]

How do you navigate lakes with stumps

Carefully ?

[geo g]

I have fished the Stick Marsh several times and if you don't know where you're going, go idle speed.  While fishing we were hung up on underwater stumps many times.  But that day the bass loved hiding in that stuff!

[Jaderose]

Someone mentioned the most important thing...POLARIZED GLASSES.  You must have these.  My home lake is full of stumps.  Putting on my glasses is almost like a magic trick.  Where there was nothing is now FULL of stumps

 

[Ratherbfishing]

You've got me stumped.  (See what I did there?)

 

The last time I was on a stump filled lake, I slid onto a submerged stump and couldn't get off to save my life.  Fortunately, I had my bigger outboard on (wasn't supposed to use it) and had enough power with it to pull myself back off.  If I hadn't used it I believe I'd still be out there (this was years ago).

[Shimano_1]

One of the main lakes I tournament fish has some creeks and a river that are extremely dangerous.  Lots of tournaments are dominated up the river tho. I stayed away for years then finally picked a day and went. Caught a guy goin up the river that knew it well enough to run. I followed him as far as he went and saved the track on my Garmin's. Waited and followed someone else back out. Next time I idled most of it to make sure my track was good. Now I run it using my graph.  I take it slow as I can run and stay on pad

[813basstard]

Carefully..

Trim up.

Dont stand as far front as normal so when you hit one with the trolling motor it doesn’t launch you. 

Wear your PFD while fishing not just when on plane. 

Put your phone in the dry box and not in your pocket so in the event you do go in, you can still make a call.

[Kevinator1]

1st you buy a brand new Ranger 21 footer with a 300 HP Merc....then you put it in the lake and blast off until you reach 80 mph....you will know where the stumps are at some point. Just kidding....unfortunately i have to put in the just kidding because some of today's nutty people might just try that. 

[schplurg]

Seems like with all the fish finders and electronics that you should be able to see them coming at slow speeds. No?

 

Just turn on that underwater RADAR and start pingin'! Seriously though wouldn't something like this be easy to implement? We can see fish but not dangerous stumps? (I've never used a FF).

[moguy1973]

37 minutes ago, schplurg said:

Seems like with all the fish finders and electronics that you should be able to see them coming at slow speeds. No?

 

Just turn on that underwater RADAR and start pingin'! Seriously though wouldn't something like this be easy to implement? We can see fish but not dangerous stumps? (I've never used a FF).

Usually when you are at the steering wheel the transducer for the fish finder at the console is at the back of the boat.  So you are only getting things you have passed over.  There are some newer transducers/technology that views in real time what is in front of you but typically those are mounted on the trolling motor. 

[schplurg]

I guess I'm wondering now if there is an affordable way of having some kind of forward looking system specifically for detecting obstacles in the water that are well in front of the boat. It could be high end gear maybe for tournament fisherman since they go so fast.

 

Kinda just a random thought but is it feasible? Maybe it's stupid LOL I dunno. Probably wouldn't work well with floating logs. Would anyone even want it?

 

Maybe a such a system could be used for detecting possible vessel collisions too.