New Water

[papajoe222]

I make it a point to fish two or three new bodies of water a season and revisit a couple I haven't been to in a few years.  I get lazy with my search skills fishing the same three or four lakes on a regular basis and find that, not only does this keep me sharp, but it tests my ability as an angler to adjust to new water.  Did I mention that along with the challenge, I love the anticipation.

How many of you do the same? It doesn't have to be different lakes. Trying a pond you've never fished before, or testing your skills on rivers; just somewhere you've never gone before.

This ongoing experiment paid big dividends for me earlier this year when I caught possibly my biggest muskie on a lake only ten minutes from my favorite muskie haunt in Wisconsin. It was a spur of the moment thing, no research involved, which made it that much more gratifying.

[Black Hawk Basser]

I also like to do this, although I tend to try more new places for ice fishing than summer bass fishing.

[Tennessee Boy]

Very good topic for discussion.   I hope to expand the lakes I fish when I retire and have a little more time.  I do like to challenge myself to explore new area in the lakes I fish the most.  I'll select an area of the lake I'm not familiar with and only fish that area.  It forces me to look for spots that don't jump off the map at you. 

[WRB]

Since the Quagga mussel invasion into the SoCal reservoirs about 9 years ago we are limited to the lakes we can move our boats to. Fishing new water is extremely difficult today.

After fishing all over the country for decades fishing new water was always exciting and challenging experiences.

Tom

[gim]

I recently expanded my territory to a lake that I used to fish over a decade ago with some regularity and it has paid off big time the past couple seasons.  It used to be about 10 minutes from where I lived before, now its 45 minutes.  In fact, it has been the BEST largemouth lake for me the past two seasons now that I fish regularly.  Last Friday I went there and caught the biggest largemouth I've caught in almost 3 years, a 20 3/4 incher.  Its safe to say I will be going back there again soon.

 

I'm actually a little upset that I didn't fish this lake with more regularity before last year.

[BassNJake]

7 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Very good topic for discussion.   I hope to expand the lakes I fish when I retire and have a little more time.  I do like to challenge myself to explore new area in the lakes I fish the most.  I'll select an area of the lake I'm not familiar with and only fish that area.  It forces me to look for spots that don't jump off the map at you. 

I also do this a lot. Fish new/different areas of my home lake

 

They drop the water here and as it falls different parts of the lake become the new shoreline

This exposes many different opportunities

There is a large rocky flat area thats in about 12 feet of water when the lake is at full pool

Most of the time when its at full pool you might catch a fish here or there on it

When the water falls and there is 5 ft of water or less on it, the crawfish have to move deeper

Then it can become a smallie smash fest, if you time it right

[813basstard]

Well, hell yeah! 
 

Getting shutout on a new lake sometimes is better than catching the same fish at the same spot with the same bait at the same time of day 

[Spankey]

Great post man, great post. 

[DaubsNU1]

Depends on how much time I have to fish....if it's a limited amount of time, I hit my "home lake," it's just 15 minutes away.

 

If I have more time, I do like to venture out and fish new lakes.

[Spankey]

Ramps I put in at on the river are only 15, 25 and 40 minutes rides from the house. Bout 35  minutes to the lake ramp I want to use. It’s kind of easy to be a homebody. But I do like a road trip a few times a year. When I’m down in MD there are snakeheads in these bass fishing areas but I have yet to ever catch one. Can’t say I’ve even saw one caught or laying dead. I don’t hear much talk these day of them. Would like to catch one and kill it if that is still required. 

[MN Fisher]

Past few years it's been difficult as I had a slim time limit.

 

Next year, not only with the 'new' boat, but also having a PCA for the wife (cross your fingers that the State certifies her (the PCA, not the wife)), I'll have more time...so plan on hitting some lakes other than the three currently in  my profile.

[MIbassyaker]

4 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

I make it a point to fish two or three new bodies of water a season and revisit a couple I haven't been to in a few years.  I get lazy with my search skills fishing the same three or four lakes on a regular basis and find that, not only does this keep me sharp, but it tests my ability as an angler to adjust to new water.  Did I mention that along with the challenge, I love the anticipation.

How many of you do the same? It doesn't have to be different lakes. Trying a pond you've never fished before, or testing your skills on rivers; just somewhere you've never gone before.

This ongoing experiment paid big dividends for me earlier this year when I caught possibly my biggest muskie on a lake only ten minutes from my favorite muskie haunt in Wisconsin. It was a spur of the moment thing, no research involved, which made it that much more gratifying.

 

 

Yes, absolutely, I love doing this. I find 3-4 new places to try every year and have to date fished a little over 40 individual bodies of water within an hour of my house (I have lived in MI 13 years). There are about 15 places I end up visiting every year without fail, and a couple dozen more I that rotate in and out occasionally.   

 

Over the last 5-6 years, i have also rarely fished the same body of water more than about 3 times per year, and most of them no more than once per year.

 

For instance, since April this year I have been to 24 bodies of water in my area: 16 Natural Lakes, 3 distinct river stretches, 2 river bayous, 2 impoundments, and one gravel pit.  Three of them were new to me, and none of them have gotten more than 2 visits from me this year.

 

However, this is much easier to do if you have lots of smaller waterbodies around you instead of one or a few much larger ones.  Fishing different coves or other regions of a big lake may be roughly equivalent to fishing distinct smaller lakes.

[T-Billy]

I've spent considerable time this year searching out "new to me" areas of my local lakes. Either fishing areas that I never bothered with before because they didn't look good when cruising by, or places I hadn't fished in years because they didn't produce for me way back when. It's paid off well, not only with some good catches this year, but also some spots I think will be good come next springs prespawn/spawn.

I now have several good spots that I don't see anyone else fishing because there's nothing obvious there to draw people to them. 

I've also been working on the weaker aspects of my game, fishing heavy grass, and offshore stuff. It's been a rewarding year.

[Bluebasser86]

I'm always on the hunt for new water. 

 

[Columbia Craw]

Expand your horizons and seek to be versatile.  

[Fishin Dad]

Love fishing new waters.  I love the adventure, the new scenery, and finding a hidden gem.   This happens both as planned trips as well as finding an access too crowded and just finding another lake because you have to.  Both ways have paid off.  They have also busted.  This reminds me, I had a lake in mind while looking over the winter.  Think I will hit that this weekend.  

[Mike L]

When I first started traveling around the SE on tournament trail’s it was all new water and nerve racking to say the least. If I started earlier instead of waiting until I retired maybe it wouldn’t have been. 

Florida is full of lakes, more than you might think. But now that I started to stay closer to home for the most part, I tend to hit the same lakes all within a 2-3 hr drive from home. 
 

They’re challenging enough. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[papajoe222]

14 hours ago, T-Billy said:

I've spent considerable time this year searching out "new to me" areas of my local lakes.

As I fish mostly smaller, natural lakes up north this never crossed my mind when I mentioned 'new water.' A creek arm, or the upper or lower reaches of a reservoir can be new water to those that don't have nearby access to different lakes.  Thanks

[throttleplate]

going to check out some new waters of off I -94 highway in minn. Waders allow me to expand the new waters away from the usual bank occupiers.

 

[Big Hands]

On 8/24/2021 at 10:25 AM, WRB said:

Since the Quagga mussel invasion into the SoCal reservoirs about 9 years ago we are limited to the lakes we can move our boats to. Fishing new water is extremely difficult today.

This is my current situation as well. I have to wait ten days after I put my boat in anywhere else to fish the lake that I can see from my backyard. And, that isn't counting the time I would have to quarantine from the time I have last fished my home water until the other lake will let me launch my boat.

 

The other local lake I would like to fish most has a 35 quarantine period before you can fish there AFTER they have inspected and tagged your boat. That means that for me to fish there I would have to wait at least 35 days after inspection, and then another ten days after that to fish my home lake. That would be one day of fishing with at least 45 days of quarantine any time soon. . . .

 

Yeah, naw. That's not happening. 

 

I know of more than one person that now has AT LEAST two boats so they can fish more than one lake.

 

They have now recently started inspecting livewells and making us lower the motor briefly before they install the quarantine tag on our way out of the lake. I get the livewell inspection, but not so much the brief lowering of the motor. It gets lowered just for a second, and then they tell me I can put it back up (still dripping water) and I'm good to go.

 

I'm not really sure what this accomplishes. The answer I got was that they were not sure why, but they were told to do it, so they follow orders as they need to in order to keep their job (which is understandable). That's the way we roll here in 2021.

[king fisher]

When I lived in Alaska I  was constantly looking for new places to fish.  I always carried flagging tape with me.  I would check out an area where I thought I could land, go in light no gear minimum fuel.  Once safely on the ground I would clear what ever I could to make the runway longer and mark the best approach with the flagging tape.  I stranded myself more than once having to wait a day or two for the wind to change in order to take off again.  I always made it back and have great memories of fishing places never fished before.  A good friend or mine found a great  place and we were worried other pilots would see our tracks and start fishing there.  We got the bright idea to place driftwood in strategic places that made it very difficult to land but possible and safe if you new exactly how to do it.  Worked great for years as long as we were flying Cubs.  One day may friend tried it with a Cesna 180 and hit one of the logs he  put there to deter others.  We dessasembled the plane and managed to fly all the parts out with bigger pieces duck taped to the fussulage of out Cubs.  It took many trips and we had to stash gas at gravel bars along the route but eventually managed to fly all the pieces out and not even the Wildlife refuge manager ever found out about the crash.   

      I miss those days when there were still unexplored streams and I was young and fearless.  Now I spend my spare time exploring unknown lakes in Mexico that have D.D. bass.  I have located two that receive 0 sport fishing pressure, and a couple more that do get fished, but no lodges or guides.  I just got a lead on another one where a local commercial fisherman caught a bass that was 6.3 kilos.  I plan on fishing that lake as soon as I am able.  The summer is my slow season for work, and I had planned on exploring a dozen unknown lakes, but I injured my shoulder and haven't been able to fish for over a month.  Looks like I wont be able to bass fish for two more months, then I will be busy with work.  I guess the best thing I can hope for is the bass will only be bigger by the time I get to give the lakes a try next year.

      I guess  I could have used way less words and said exploring new fishing and hunting spots is my favorite thing to do.

[WRB]

^^^good story^^^

My father in law had a Cessna 170, then 180 on floats in summer, skies in the winter up in Ontario Canada exploring hundreds of lakes. He was cautious and never had a accident.

Wilderness bush pilots are amazing and enjoyed flying into lakes with my father in law, later years he hired Beaver and continued the fly in trips to remote lakes, great memories.

Tom

[T-Billy]

7 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

As I fish mostly smaller, natural lakes up north this never crossed my mind when I mentioned 'new water.' A creek arm, or the upper or lower reaches of a reservoir can be new water to those that don't have nearby access to different lakes.  Thanks

You're welcome.

I have 5 impoundments within 45 min. of me. All between 1K and 2K acres. MWCD lakes. I've been fishing them since the late 80's. I basically just started looking around this year out of boredom with fishing the same ol spots. It's been an eye opening experience. Some nothing looking shore areas have some great structure and or cover under the waves, and that stuff sees way less pressure than the obvious stuff. I intend to do a LOT more graphing early next spring. 

 

I'll share something else I figured out a few years ago, that made a BIG difference in my fishing.

We all watch the pro's fishing big waters, talking about seasonal fish movements, creek arms, secondary points, flats etc. Those big impoundments have bays bigger than my lakes. So... One spring day a few years ago I thought, what if I looked at my lakes like they were just a bay? Look at the smaller bays without a good size creek as just little cuts, and focus on the main lake areas, and the few larger bays they have. 

BINGO!!! I quit searching the bays looking for those prespawn fish to move into them, and started focusing main lake structure and cover. Numbers and average size went WAY up. Turns out most of the fish in these little lakes spawn in the main basin. In fact that's where most of them are year round. So, by treating treating my little lakes as big bays and focusing on the main basin, I do much better than when I looked at them the way big lake guys look at their lakes. The best action can be in the upper, middle, or lower section, but it's happening in the main lake the vast majority of the time.

 This might be a simple way to explain my thinking. Think of the dam or deepest end as the mouth of the bay, and the shallow end as the main creek. Everything between is secondary points and cuts, bays, flats etc. 

I hope this makes sense to y'all. I know it's kinda ramblin.

[throttleplate]

10 hours ago, Big Hands said:

This is my current situation as well. I have to wait ten days after I put my boat in anywhere else to fish the lake that I can see from my backyard. And, that isn't counting the time I would have to quarantine from the time I have last fished my home water until the other lake will let me launch my boat.

 

The other local lake I would like to fish most has a 35 quarantine period before you can fish there AFTER they have inspected and tagged your boat. That means that for me to fish there I would have to wait at least 35 days after inspection, and then another ten days after that to fish my home lake. That would be one day of fishing with at least 45 days of quarantine any time soon. . . .

 

Yeah, naw. That's not happening. 

 

I know of more than one person that now has AT LEAST two boats so they can fish more than one lake.

 

They have now recently started inspecting livewells and making us lower the motor briefly before they install the quarantine tag on our way out of the lake. I get the livewell inspection, but not so much the brief lowering of the motor. It gets lowered just for a second, and then they tell me I can put it back up (still dripping water) and I'm good to go.

 

I'm not really sure what this accomplishes. The answer I got was that they were not sure why, but they were told to do it, so they follow orders as they need to in order to keep their job (which is understandable). That's the way we roll here in 2021.

Back in the year 2000 i moved from las vegas to san francisco  because my gf at the time got a new top dollar job offer and i also had a job offer that paid big bucks as a mechanic

 

I brought along my glasstron carlson jet boat and we went to a resouvior to go boating and the rules were i had to run boat in a clockwise direction, not allowed to exceed 25 mph and no swimming.

 

The killer was i had to present to the officer at the entry shack a gas reciept showing i had purchased gas containing mtbe in its formula. I didnt have a receipt and i never got on the lake.

 

 

[Biglittle8]

I especially like fishing new ponds that have had limited pressure, there is always a chance of a big fish. Lakes are fun too, but can be a challenge without proper planning the first time out. I remember a trip to the Thunder Bay, Ontario area when I was a young lad to go Northern Pike fishing. I was in awe when I saw how beautiful it was there. A friend of mine had a cabin on an island there. The boat ride out was fantastic. I couldn't believe how clear the water was. The fishing wasn't bad either ?