On The Water Research

[papajoe222]

I hit a new lake a couple of weeks ago and I only had one day to fish it. I spent some time researching the day before and made some mental notes of areas I wanted to check out. Once on the water, I spent the better part of an hour checking them out with my electronics before I ever made a cast.  Although it was time well spent, I also feel that I wasted some precious fishing time in my search.

On average, how much on the water time do you spend scoping out a new body of water, vs. a lake you frequent?

[GaryH]

In your case I think you did the right amount since you only had a day to fish. I don’t believe you wasted your time. 
If I’m going to a new lake, depending on the size and whether I’m just there to fish or pre fish it. If fishing and I have a few days I may spend a hour or more to find areas. If pre fishing I may spend the day. 

[Mike L]

You didn’t waste any time.
You would have if you just junked fished for that hour and hoped for the best.

You found out what you needed to know. The next time you go, you’ll be glad you did. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Koz]

Funny you should ask. I've been thinking about taking a day and heading out on my kayak and just running the sidescan to mark underwater structure.

[Sphynx]

I do not own any electronics (thinking hard about one of the Deeper platforms, but haven't pulled the trigger yet) so for me, I have to do it the hard way, if I had a full day to fish and had electronics and a boat/kayak/canoe, I think I would spend enough time researching and or scanning to get a general idea of what patterns I can reliably recognize, I'm there for one day, it's very unlikely that I'm breaking the lake or state record on purpose that day, so I'm just looking for a reliable pattern of where the fish are, then it's time to start seeing what they will eat.

[Columbia Craw]

I can tell you one thing Joe, I don’t spend enough time.

[Biglittle8]

Doing as much research off the water as you can , will narrow it down a bit. I usually don't spend enough time on the water mapping a new body of water, the advice I've gotten is to leave your rods at home and do your mapping if it's somewhere you are planning on fishing a lot... That's tough for me to do. In your case, you did the right thing only having a day.

[A-Jay]

Hours & Hours ~

Structure I can find on a chart on the beach

but cover & bait I can not.

A-Jay

[padon]

19 hours ago, Koz said:

Funny you should ask. I've been thinking about taking a day and heading out on my kayak and just running the sidescan to mark underwater structure.

yeah ive started to approach fishing like i do hunting. i used to just find things as i cam upon them . now i actually set aside a couple hours a trip to look for things in areas i find on my map. sometimes i go to the lake for a couple hours after work just to look. dont even fish. just like scouting for bow hunting.

[Jigfishn10]

I would think you would try to do both, charting off the water and recon on the water, wouldn't you? 

[Catt]

4 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Hours & Hours ~

Structure I can find on a chart on the beach

but cover & bait I can not.

A-Jay

 

Exactly ?

 

Structure doesn't change 

Cover & baitfish do

 

[NoShoes]

I fish shallow so much I check things by fishing it. Probably why I don’t catch as much as these other guys on here. 

[NoShoes]

On 7/18/2021 at 11:46 AM, Koz said:

Funny you should ask. I've been thinking about taking a day and heading out on my kayak and just running the sidescan to mark underwater structure.

ive done this before, and found plenty of offshore logs and stumps that had fish on them, but can never seem

to be able to come back and hit them with a lure. Frustrating. 

[Koz]

2 hours ago, NoShoes said:

ive done this before, and found plenty of offshore logs and stumps that had fish on them, but can never seem

to be able to come back and hit them with a lure. Frustrating. 

I’ve been fishing flooded timber, lay downs, and humps with zero luck. Tons of baitfish everywhere, but no LMB. I have been catching hybrid bass about 40 feet off the causeways, but nothing more than a pound or so. 

 

I do have a few new target areas, but it’s about a 90 minute pedal on my kayak to get there.

[Benjamin Bunting]

If you enjoyed yourself, with or without catching fish, you did it just right.

[T-Billy]

I have 5 impoundments within a hour of me that I've been fishing my whole life. All between 1k -2k acres. All HEAVILY pressured. This year basically out of boredom, I started fishing areas of them I either hadn't fished before, or hadn't fished for years. It's really paying off.

 

I'm finding fish in areas that don't get beat to death, because there's no obvious structure or visible cover to attract anglers attention. I'm having a ball searching out new stuff on old familiar waters. It kinda makes these waters new to me again.

 

Sometimes I spend time graphing, sometimes I just go junk fishing. Some days I leave some gear home to force myself to work on the weaker areas of my game. It's all enjoyable, and I don't view any of it as wasted time. 

 

 

[WRB]

At the risk of ad nauseam I will replete search with sonar not lures. Lures are used to catch bass not to find them.

Your best search tool is sonar, it’s real time information. 

I fish a few lakes near me and know them very well but I don’t know where the bait are located or what depth to target, sonar tells me that information before leaving the marina area.

Study maps of lakes you don’t know well.

Several members over the+years on this site have posted lake maps asking “where” should I fish.? Structure elements are easy to locate and consistent everywhere. Baitfish and cover requires more detail. Wind direction and water clarity can be determined along with primary fish species, all help to solve the question “where should I start fishing”? Satellite over head images can help to locate cover along with low water images of structure. 

You can do a lot from your home before fishing. You can’t determine how deep to fish without being on the water.

Tom  

 

 

[desmobob]

2 minutes ago, WRB said:

At the risk of ad nudism I will replete search with sonar not lures.

 

Are you typing without your readers on, Tom?   ?

[WRB]

1 hour ago, desmobob said:

 

Are you typing without your readers on, Tom?   ?

Yep!

[NoShoes]

Can you really check for fish with sonar though if your fishing shallow?  Seems like going over them would only be a very narrow beam of sonar and probably spook them. 

[Spankey]

The lake or river I fish are pretty good size and length. Yes I cover and go back over productive spots that have yielded nice fish from one outing to the next. But not always back to back trips. 
 

A lot of time out, when I’m done fishing for that day, I take 30-45 min. Scoping spots for my next time out. Do a real slow drive by. Make some mental notes. Shore and bottom structure. Sort of starting my game plan for the next time out. Spots are really not new, have been on them before, just refresh my mind some. 
 

A lot of times if it looks like river Smallies should be on a spot. They generally are. Not to say you don’t need to work for them or they are in deeper water off a point. This seem to hold true in summer. Food source is generally there. 

[MassBass]

I will play devil's advocate and say he wasted time. Only a line in the water will answer your questions. If you catch a couple yellow perch for example, that could help answer the question of what the bait is, and what the heck all the readings on your graph are. Now you see where the bait is and you can search more, for example a nearby deep dock that may be an ambush point for a bass.

 

Fish, especially pressured bass can sense the sonar waves. Their guard fin goes up, they become wary, and they may not bite. That same fish, without any polluting vibrations like a motor or sonar, can have an inquisitive and aggressive response to the noise and vibration of a bait like a rattle trap.

[WRB]

The old saying 90% of the bass are in 10% of the water is close to the truth. 

By studying the lakes topography and using satellite over photos you can eliminate a lot of unproductive water.

Blindly fishing unproductive water hoping to stumble across active bass may or may not work that outing. 

We all have different concepts what fishing is, l like catching more then casting.

Tom  

[BassNJake]

On 7/19/2021 at 12:15 PM, NoShoes said:

I fish shallow so much I check things by fishing it. Probably why I don’t catch as much as these other guys on here. 

I fish shallow a lot in the summer but if I'm not seeing baitfish in the water or skipping across the top, no birds on the shore line, I'm not making too many casts until I find a section that does have this activity. 

 

They drop my lake 20 feet so almost everything I am fishing now was out of the water 4 months ago

I usually dont turn the electronics on most of the summer until I'm just catching dinks and have to move off shore 

[TnRiver46]

I’ve looked at the bottom contour/navionics so much of all the lakes and rivers near me, I can see the maps when I close my eyes and go to bed. I will be fishing up front with no depth finder and my buddy will be in the back watching the screen and say “how deep you think it is?” I’m usually within 2 feet without looking at the graph just from experience and map study