Finding them without technology

[The Baron]

I've been able to start fishing a new lake (Weslemkoon Lake in Ontario) recently.  The lake is generally rocky (smooth rock, some boulders and steep slopes) and is known as a very good bass lake, but so far we've only caught a handful of small bass and a ton of rock bass on a dropshot setup.  I've since looked at a contour map and have identified a few steep slopes and saddles, so will try to target those next trip (I've attached a pic of the contour map - any general suggestions are welcome).

 

My Q. is... are there any tips on how to find (bigger) smallies in a new lake without any tech?  We have no fish finder, so contour maps will give me a general idea of but I won't know exactly where I am on the map and have no way to see fish or find details like boulders, etc.  I'm assuming I should be working the areas of steeper dropoff and humps?  Are there any particular baits or presentations we can use to search for fish in areas of steep dropoff?  I feel like Stevie Wonder, floating around in the boat and smiling in my sunglasses.  lol

[Dwight Hottle]

Easy solution start covering water with long lining jerk baits. You can use suspending jerk baits to cover water in the 10-15 depths. Use deep diving jerk baits for water 15-30 deep. Use 10lb braid with 15' mono leaders. Let the wind push your boat or use your trolling motor to cover ground from .5 to 2 mph with frequent long pauses mixed in. You can run your baits back 100 to 200 feet. Once you find some fish you can cast the area for them or make frequent passes over the area. Match up the areas you find fish to similar areas on your map. Mark up your map for productive areas to refresh your memory. This will work if you stick with the program. Change your depth based on the bite, time of year & water temps. The smallies will be shallower early & late in the season & probably also early & late in the day, low light. 

[Tennessee Boy]

If you have a smart phone,  you can get a mapping app that will show you were you are on the contour map.  You can also throw out a few marker buoys to give you a sense of where you are on structure as you move around.

 

I noticed your map has contour lines in meters.   I didn't think bass could even survive in a lake with depths in meters.  ?

[The Baron]

33 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I noticed your map has contour lines in meters.   I didn't think bass could even survive in a lake with depths in meters.  ?

Yeah, our Canadian bass are weird.  Crank bait packages are all marked in feet so they might not work at all up here.  LOL

[Tennessee Boy]

1 minute ago, The Baron said:

Yeah, our Canadian bass are weird.  Crank bait packages are all marked in feet so they might not work at all up here.  LOL

I've heard there's a metric subspecies of bass.  If you measure it and the length is in centimeters then it's one of those metric bass.

[TOXIC]

For me, the biggest hurdle would be not knowing water temp. Unless the fish are extremely shallow or extremely deep I use water temp a lot.  Weed lines with rocks are a favorite smallie hangout but how deep is dependent on water temp.  Isolated rock piles are another but you won’t know where they are without finders.  I would concentrate on bottom hugging plastics and work my way from shallow to deep.

[TnRiver46]

Drag a tube/grub along while the wind blows you around, it should end up in a smallmouth at some point ! I always like fishing rock cliffs when casting for smallmouth 

[Deephaven]

Bottom contact stuff with reasonable presentation speed is your friend.  There is a reason most walleye fisherman drag lindy rigs.  You can cover water and keep a live bait at the depth you expect fish.  For artificials a crankbait, Crig, slow rolled spinnerbait, allowing you to feel the bottom is where I would start.  Find the aberrations in the bottom on the likely locations: points, inside turns etc and then slow down when you find structure. 

[cyclops2]

If you take a person who never fished & never  caught some fish with other guys catching them. Then dumped him beside your lake. He will probably quit. Poor results means I quit.

 

I fished for 45 years from shore & row boats.  Did well enough.

A boat, motor & fishfinder has ruined me.  ?

 

The fish are mostly converted to active night feeding. We ate all the daylight ones.

[Michigander]

You could read up on Spoonplugging. That was a pre-sonar technique for such things.

[cyclops2]

My daytime way is to troll about150 ' of line.

[gim]

I would be way more worried about running my boat or lower unit into shallow water without knowing the depth than I would be trying to catch fish.  If I don't know how deep it is, my boat isn't going there.

[papajoe222]

There are two islands on the south end that have nice points. I’d start working them with crankbaits, either working deep to shallow, or shallow to deep. Cranks are excelent for finding both structure and cover and are great fish finders. 
once you find fish, keep at it until the bite dies, then switch to tubes before hitting the other point at that same depth. 

[Columbia Craw]

Get some binoculars.  Seriously, drag a Carolina rig with a half ounce egg sinker and a grub or small lizard with a 48 in leader to start. This and a crankbait that runs to 12-15 feet is a good way to search.  

[MGF]

I still do a lot of fishing without maps or electronics but most of that fishing is on shallow rivers or weedy lakes. I spent a good portion of my childhood laying over the bow calling out weeds to my dad driving the boat. We also used to bump the anchor around a lot. The anchor will tell you how deep and what kind of bottom.

 

There are a lot of offshore spots you just aren't going to find without map and/or electronics. Heck there's a lot of things that I probably won't find with the electronics that I have...no side scan or 360 scan and I sure don't have any livescope. But...you can find a lot of fish using what you see above water and the methods already mentioned.

[MassBass]

You need a diving crankbait box and a rattlebait box. With a diverse crankbait arsenal you can troll and cast and learn a lot about the water. This is power fishing/search fishing. I don't like either using electronics or the direction of electronics in the professional leagues.  

[TnRiver46]

12 hours ago, MassBass said:

You need a diving crankbait box and a rattlebait box. With a diverse crankbait arsenal you can troll and cast and learn a lot about the water. This is power fishing/search fishing. I don't like either using electronics or the direction of electronics in the professional leagues.  

I always watch electronics while trolling , a little bit of both I suppose. Granted I use a basic finder but you learn a lot constantly staring at it 

[Bankc]

Trolling is what I did before electronics.  That'll allow you this cover a lot of water, and you can drop anchor when you find fish and work it more slowly.  

 

I will still troll to find fish.  But with sonar, I can know ahead of time how deep to troll for them.  Without sonar, you just have to make a guess and try it out.  If it doesn't work, change it up.  

[ironbjorn]

Your GPS/map app on your phone will tell you where you are on the map/lake. Just keep it open and don't put a destination in. Your blue dot identifying your location will move as you move. Of course it's not perfect, but close enough and better than nothing. I use my Google maps when pleasure boating so we always know where we are.

[cyclops2]

How a lake / river changes AFTER we take out fish to eat.  Or just kill them. In cold winter regions with shorter fast growing seasons

[Spankey]

20 minutes ago, cyclops2 said:

How a lake / river changes AFTER we take out fish to eat.  Or just kill them. In cold winter regions with shorter fast growing seasons

Where is that happening? Don’t let me get in the way of anyone eating them if that’s your bag. I’m not at fish eater. But where are they killing them?

[Tatsu Dave]

On 7/9/2021 at 9:25 AM, gimruis said:

I would be way more worried about running my boat or lower unit into shallow water without knowing the depth than I would be trying to catch fish.  If I don't know how deep it is, my boat isn't going there.

That is a big danger in unknown bodies of water, the water temp concern by toxic is something I watch very closely as well and boat speed if I'm using crankbaits or plastics as search baits. Wow....rocks are not forgiving at all. Some things are worth protecting and a lower priced unit like a garmin clear view will do a basic job with GPS as a bonus.

[gim]

21 minutes ago, Tatsu Dave said:

That is a big danger in unknown bodies of water

I've only ever fished in a boat that had at least modern 2-D sonar and shortly thereafter we always had GPS in our family boat too.  So its basically just become a mandatory part of the watercraft for me.

 

I see a lot of recreational boats fly through shallow waters regularly.  Either they must not be equipped with sonar/GPS or they just don't give a crap but one of these times they are going to lose some equipment.  The risk is very high this season too because we are in a major drought and the water is down significantly everywhere.

[Tatsu Dave]

Up here the illegal stocking is rampant and live wells the method of transport. They are dumping Smallmouth and crappie in the cold water fisheries and trout-splake-salmon-and lake trout suffer and slowly go away. We were in one north of us yesterday and the fisherman mostly kill any bass they catch. When I told them I was there to catch SB they wanted to know if I released them or not. Hmmmm I told them no livewell and they seemed satisfied. Only fish I keep are humpbacked perch and crappie, they eat real good ?

4 hours ago, Spankey said:

Where is that happening? Don’t let me get in the way of anyone eating them if that’s your bag. I’m not at fish eater. But where are they killing them?

 

[Spankey]

31 minutes ago, Tatsu Dave said:

Up here the illegal stocking is rampant and live wells the method of transport. They are dumping Smallmouth and crappie in the cold water fisheries and trout-splake-salmon-and lake trout suffer and slowly go away. We were in one north of us yesterday and the fisherman mostly kill any bass they catch. When I told them I was there to catch SB they wanted to know if I released them or not. Hmmmm I told them no livewell and they seemed satisfied. Only fish I keep are humpbacked perch and crappie, they eat real good ?

 

I took note of that on a recent trip to Maine. ME fish commission had posted placards on that. I believe I took a pic of one. Shame. Not like there are no bass waters up there. 

 

4 hours ago, Spankey said:

Where is that happening? Don’t let me get in the way of anyone eating them if that’s your bag. I’m not at fish eater. But where are they killing them?

If I’m piecing this all together right of the post I responded to. That poster is seeing a decline or rapid decline of big Smallies for the dinner table and killed Bass coming off of results of tournament bass fishing. Less fish to eat. Shame I guess to have that happen.