Need help locating Bass

[jbrill19]

Hello, I live in South/Central Wisconsin and primarily fish Lake Wisconsin. It is a reservoir of the Wisconsin River. I struggle locating Bass year round on this lake and I am hoping to get some advice on how to find some fish. 

 

I have purchased the Navionics app so I can read the contours of the lake but this doesn't seem to help me. The contours of this lake seem way different than the learning videos I watch on how to locate Bass. The videos point out nice areas to look, but it seems this lake does not have any of those areas. I am taking a friend out who doesn't really fish all that much and I would really like to get him on some fish.

 

Any guidance for locating Bass will be appreciated!

[Ratherbefishing75]

You could try a fish finder I picked one up for 100$ at bass pro last year and it has helped me locate them. The one that o got was. The Garmin Stryker 4 portable it’s not too expensive and still gets the job done

[Herbert Lorenzo]

2 hours ago, Ratherbefishing75 said:

You could try a fish finder I picked one up for 100$ at bass pro last year and it has helped me locate them. The one that o got was. The Garmin Stryker 4 portable it’s not too expensive and still gets the job done

The fishfinder will help you locate baitfish and bass will not be far from food sources. 

[Ratherbefishing75]

2 hours ago, Herbert Lorenzo said:

The fishfinder will help you locate baitfish and bass will not be far from food sources. 

That’s half the battle  the next thing is to figure out what thay want lol

[Sphynx]

Assuming you are in a boat looking for LMB (not much of an authority at all on SMB) you can usually get away with targetting the very obvious "high percentage" structure, docks and trees etc, I have found that for hard bottoms I prefer to toss a Texas rig or a jig into these areas, and I prefer a Carolina rig for softer bottoms, having done most of my fishing on muddy bottoms I find any presentation that gets your bait towards the bottom but keeps it out of the mud is more productive than dragging a worm through muck, or for areas where I can see the top of whatever vegetation I am fishing through I have had good luck trying to get the lure right around the tops of the vegetation, edges of grass lines and transitions from sun to shade middle of the day are also productive usually, if you cruise a grass line toss a jig or a soft plastic at anything that looks uneven, even small points can hold bass, I don't own a boat so I can't help you with reading electronics, but if you stick to targeting the low hanging fruit type areas that us bank anglers can't get to and you get there ahead of other boats you should have no real problems putting your friend on a few fish, possibly even a few really nice fish.

[RoLo]

 

Unless you create your own real-time contour map, you will always find areas where your contour map

deviates shamelessly from the real-world terrain. When Lakemaster first tried their hand at mapping

Florida lakes, their contour lines were so badly skewed, they had depth lines crisscrossing islands 

 

In normal progression: Terrain (structure) should be evaluated before Cover (weeds, wood, rock~),

Nonetheless, in cases of badly skewed communication between the chart and real-world terrain,

I might have to reverse the normal order. Instead, I'll begin by searching for the best cover

(By eye, above water | With sonar, underwater).  Then at each site with outstanding cover,

I'm scrutinizing the bottom for depth drop-offs (rapid depth change).

Once you create an onsite waypoint in this manner, it's yours for life.

 

Roger