Lake Breakdown w/ no Electronics

[Kellss]

What are some general tips to breakdown a natural lake and find some fish without electronics? Obviously, some structure is visible and can be targeted and some free topographic maps can help with ledges/dropoffs/humps - but how would I go about matching my location to these locations when I'm on the water? 

[Mobasser]

Look for and fish visible areas. Look at the shoreline for small points, cuts or anything different from the surrounding areas.                     Cast to and fish the entire water column in these spots, then you can line up these areas with triangulation. It's an old technique but still works today.

[papajoe222]

There are a couple of 'tools' you can use other than your eyes to find both structure and cover.  You can use both of them in conjunction with a topography map, or without one.

The first is either a jig, or a Texas rigged worm (preferably with a pegged bullet weight). Cast it out and either close the bail on your spinning reel, or turn the handle on your baitcaster. Begin counting to yourself as soon as the lure hits the water and stop when the line goes slack. This will give you the approximate depth close to where you had cast. Now fan cast the area doing the same thing each time. Any difference in your 'count' is a difference in depth.

 

The second is a crank bait. You should know approximately how deep the bait runs. About 1/3 of the way back to you, it will reach its maximum diving depth. If you contact bottom quicker than that, the water is shallower than the maximum depth the crank can reach and if you don't contact it at all, the water is deeper.

The advantage of a crank over a jig, is that it will tell you more about the bottom composition and it will expose any cover in its path back to you. 

 

The third is a good pair of polarized sunglasses to help you see into the water better. 

[T-Billy]

Depending on water clarity, google earth can show you some shallower structure, areas with a lot of laydowns, weedbeds etc.

[Zippo Guy]

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

Depending on water clarity, google earth can show you some shallower structure, areas with a lot of laydowns, weedbeds etc.

Which Google Earth do you use for this type of information? 

[scaleface]

There use to be a link on this forum to navionics , I'm sure I misspelled that . but go to their website and you should find a topographical map of the lake you are referring too . 

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, scaleface said:

There use to be a link on this forum to navionics , I'm sure I misspelled that . but go to their website and you should find a topographical map of the lake you are referring too . 

Click on the Green button labeled Menu at the top-left, click on Tools in the pop-up, the link to Navionics is in that list.

[Zippo Guy]

That is a great feature.  Thank you,  found what I was looking for. 

[WRB]

First welcome to BR. It’s always helpful to know the region State you are fishing to help focus answers.

Natural lakes are very different the reservoirs and usually smaller depending on your location.

Northern LMB for example behave differently then Smallmouth bass or Florida strain LMB, type of bass you fish for helps.

I am old enough to learn to bass fish prior to electronics so there are techniques to determine your location on the water visually. Today you have smart phones with GPS that can indicate your location accurately, very helpful.

The old thinking that 90% of the bass are located in 10% of the water is still true, location is important.

glad to help as soon as I know a little more about your location and type of tackle you prefer to use.

Tom

[T-Billy]

6 hours ago, Zippo Guy said:

Which Google Earth do you use for this type of information? 

I just use the free app. I believe there is one where you can pull up pictures from different dates, and get pictures with different water clarity and lake levels if they fluctuate, but I've never messed with that. 

[Ole man Fazul]

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

I just use the free app. I believe there is one where you can pull up pictures from different dates, and get pictures with different water clarity and lake levels if they fluctuate, but I've never messed with that. 

In the free Google Earth, there should be a button under the View tab called Historical Imagery or something similar. Then a slider will appear to go back in time. 

[T-Billy]

37 minutes ago, Ole man Fazul said:

In the free Google Earth, there should be a button under the View tab called Historical Imagery or something similar. Then a slider will appear to go back in time. 

The version I have on my tablet doesn't have this feature. I'll have to look into it. They draw my local impoundments down 5'-8' in the winter for flood control. It'd be nice to look them over at winter level when the waters clear.

[Kellss]

5 hours ago, WRB said:

It’s always helpful to know the region State you are fishing to help focus answers.

I’m located in southern Ontario in Canada (specifically Pigeon Lake in Peterborough). I know the majority of this forum is in the USA, so I posted a specific lake information request in the International Bass Fishing forum. Any help would be much appreciated! 

[Kellss]

6 hours ago, WRB said:

Natural lakes are very different the reservoirs and usually smaller depending on your location.

Northern LMB for example behave differently then Smallmouth bass or Florida strain LMB, type of bass you fish for helps. 

glad to help as soon as I know a little more about your location and type of tackle you prefer to use.

From what I have gathered, the lake is equally dominated by Largemouth and Smallmouth and I have no preference on which one bites. In terms of tackle I primarily use jigs (finesse and football) and crankbaits (squarebills).

[TriCityBassin']

I have to chime in on this one LOL.

Assuming no maps, no electronics, no phone.
Look at your vegitation on the bank.  Different vegetation types will help you.  more Pine trees generally denotes the area being sandier.  Sandier will facilitate better spawning habitat for bream, bass, etc.  Gum trees in my area (Va) grow in boggy wet bottoms or lower areas.  If these are on the banks that area is more likely to be shallower close to the bank with a soft bottom.

Learn to read the vegetation in the water.  Thinner areas within an area of vegetation may mean a depth change and that area is deeper.  using this method in lilly pad fields help to identify deeper gullies used by beavers or where the old creek or spring is.  This works the same in Hydrilla but not as well since it can grow so deep.  Vegetation type is also a big thing.  Reeds, cattails, hydrilla, lilly pads, etc. all have a preferred bottom substrate.  Lilly pads love mud/muck,  Hydrilla likes everthing, Cattails like mud as well.  I am not super versed on this but the oracle would have that information.  Look for different colors in the vegetation or a change in type/mixed types.

When reading the topography look for features on the bank, they extend into the water.  If you see something (rock, point, etc) extended into the water, look across the lake for a matching feature.  If you see it, you just found a saddle or structure element that extends the distance between them.

that is all I have right now.  I fish a lot with my electronics off on purpose.  Keeping the old skills is important.

[Sphynx]

The presence of food is an enormous piece of the fish puzzle, doesn't matter if your fishing northern strains, Florida strain, spots, smallies, or any other variety of bass, if there is no baitfish or crawfish or gobies or whatever for them to eat in the area, your not going to find fish very often, also remember that just because there is bait doesn't necessarily mean there are fish, but it does help you eliminate unproductive water to know that an area that won't hold food is a waste of time for a bass fisherman, your eyes and ears will be your best tools for finding bait, you can see and hear them jumping/feeding on the surface or swimming around, see craws and gobies on rocks etc, once you find bait, you can start covering water, lots of great individual bait recommendations already in here for doing that, I imagine @WRB will be able to drop a few particularly valuable pearls of wisdom as usual once you provide the information he has requested too.

[Rich12]

Buy a fishing lake map with contours.  Any lake will do.  Study the map looking at the shore line and then whats in the water off some irregularity in the shore line.    Creek channels can be detected by large trees or lines of trees seemingly in the middle of the lake or bay.  Willow or cotton wood tree stumps tend to be on or very near the creek channel.  Then, of course, there are obvious cover such as weeds or trees or docks.

 

Then relate this knowledge to observations of what ever lake you want to fish.  If you are using lures like a worm and 1/4 oz sinker,  these can be an impromptu depth finder.  They tend to sink around 1foot per second.    10 seconds = 10 feet, etc.  Not perfect, but it works.