Arriving to lake game plan

[GoneFishingLTN]

let’s say you have 4 hours to fish at a lake you don’t know to much about but you know some areas. Do you graph even when it’s a short amount of time?
Here’s how it went for me I graphed and find baitfish.  Used a kietech combined with a drop shot and had no luck. Repeat this a few times and I tried a c-rig also same thing. Was it just because I wasn’t directly hitting brush piles or what could it be or do you recommend?

[Choporoz]

24 minutes ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

 Was it just because I wasn’t directly hitting brush piles or....

Yes.  It was not hitting brush... or something else.

 

I will let the guys who have not gone four hours without a fish answer more explicitly. 

 

 

[Tennessee Boy]

I haven’t gone 4 hours without catching a fish since…yesterday.

[NittyGrittyBoy]

4hrs? Yeah I'm gonna be beating some banks looking for some juicy bank lines with lots of cover.

 

I think it's a loaded question without more info. Seems you had a type of fishing in mind you wanted to do before you left the ramp. 

[GoneFishingLTN]

9 minutes ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

4hrs? Yeah I'm gonna be beating some banks looking for some juicy bank lines with lots of cover.

 

I think it's a loaded question without more info. Seems you had a type of fishing in mind you wanted to do before you left the ramp. 

No exactly had everything packed to do whatever. Just on a windy raining day I thought a moving kietech and a finesse drop shot to pick up anything the kietech didn’t was a good start. 
 

4 hours on a lake I don’t know every area.  Looking back I’m thinking maybe I just shouldn’t have fished and graphed but the rain was beating down 

[NittyGrittyBoy]

I think it's a confidence thing, if your a shallow water angler your gonna go there vice versa if your a deep water angler. 

 

4hrs and unfamiliar with the lake, I'm looking to find the place I'm most comfortable fishing, with the baits I'm most confident with. 

 

If graphing is your thing it was time well spent finding bait. ? The biggest thing is going fishing and enjoying your time spent on the water. Always learning 

[gim]

7 minutes ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

4hrs and unfamiliar with the lake, I'm looking to find the place I'm most comfortable fishing, with the baits I'm most confident with. 

This is probably how I would approach it too.  Normally I don't fish a completely new, unknown lake though, as its been a while.  I've got a routine of about a dozen lakes/rivers that I regularly fish throughout the season so there aren't as many unknowns.

[casts_by_fly]

39 minutes ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

I think it's a confidence thing, if your a shallow water angler your gonna go there vice versa if your a deep water angler. 

 

4hrs and unfamiliar with the lake, I'm looking to find the place I'm most comfortable fishing, with the baits I'm most confident with. 

 

If graphing is your thing it was time well spent finding bait. ? The biggest thing is going fishing and enjoying your time spent on the water. Always learning 

 

31 minutes ago, gimruis said:

This is probably how I would approach it too.  Normally I don't fish a completely new, unknown lake though, as its been a while.  I've got a routine of about a dozen lakes/rivers that I regularly fish throughout the season so there aren't as many unknowns.

 

same for me.  I'm still fishing new lakes in this area so go through the initial 'how do you approach it' process.  I try to do recon via navionics or other maps ahead of time and make a short list of things to try and places to check depending on time of year.  But absent that and I'm just driven to a new lake after work by a buddy?  This time of year the water is warming up and the fish are either spawning or post spawn up here.  Temps are getting to where shallow water is still the ticket.  The shad spawn and bluegill spawn are imminent or happening.  Windy and raining?  I'm throwing a spinnerbait and covering water throwing to any piece of cover I can see.  Use the wind to your advantage and fish the banks that are getting peppered with it.  Wind blows food and baitfish follow food.

[Mike L]

To me 4 hrs is a long time.
if I know the lake or not, experience tells me to start at the obvious places that lends itself to my style and confidence level.
To graph or not depends on the size, features, conditions etc. 

 

If there is an area of shallow water with mixed emergent vegetation with access to deep water or not that’s where I’m going. 
If it’s a large area, it would probably take that long to pick it apart enough to hopefully getting a bite or 2 that I can pattern. 

I’m not junk fishing. 
I’ll use my normal rotation of baits and retrieves. 
If after all that and I’m confident there’s nobody home only then will I move deeper. 
But by that time the 4 hrs was up a long time ago. 
 

 

 

Mike

[LrgmouthShad]

1 hour ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

Seems you had a type of fishing in mind you wanted to do before you left the ramp

Don’t we all do that though? We all at least have some idea of where we want to start, although sometimes, maybe often, we have to change. 

[Bankc]

Instead of graphing a lake, I would try to look up depth charts online for the lake before heading out.  Use that as a means to find some places you'd like to try.  Then use your sonar to further narrow it down once on the water.  It would be a waste of time, in my opinion, to try to graph the lake yourself, unless you were prefishing for a tournament there.  But, I would still keep an eye on the sonar to look for places to fish once there on the water.  I just wouldn't waste my time trying to figure out all of my options, and instead take the first good option I find.  And if it doesn't produce, look for a second good option, or a third.  

 

When fishing new waters, I too like to stick with what I'm good at.  But, if it isn't working, I'm quick to switch it up.  Maybe give a bait 30 minutes, and if you don't get any bites, switch it up.  And I'd probably only give each area maybe 10 casts or so.  On unfamiliar water, I try to cover a lot of water rather than focus on specific areas or techniques until I find something that's working.  

[king fisher]

Depends on water temp. and clarity.  The clearer the water the more time I spend on my electronics.  If the water is less than 1.5 foot of visibility and I was limited on time, I would pound the banks.  If more than 1.5 foot of vis. I would spend at least some time looking for structure, bait, and bass on my fish finder.  

      When fishing the banks, time of year and water temp. would determine if I start back in a bay, or out on a point.  Four hours is not much time.  It took me 14 hours before I found fish last weekend, and I was on a familiar lake.

[LrgmouthShad]

2 minutes ago, king fisher said:

If the water is less than 1.5 foot of visibility and I was limited on time, I would pound the banks

Muddy/stained water is great. Cuz yeah,

Im doing the same thing. I just look at some ol laydown and think

 

 

[TnRiver46]

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

 

I rarely know where I’m going fishing or which boat I’m taking until about 30 minutes before departure so I don’t have all night to fiddle around with my stuff and have 17 poles ready to go with fresh line on them. I just grab some stuff and go by ear

 

to the OP: I like what you did, sounds like maybe some bad luck, maybe you were there during a 4 hour lull

[Mike L]

39 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

 

One of the best quotes ever said!

?

 

(and he is exactly right)

 

 

 

Mike

[Darth-Baiter]

I look around the lake and see where everyone else is fishing and then I slide in next to them.  

 

I JOKE!!  I JOKE.

 

I honestly fall back on what I do at all lakes.  hit the shorelines, cast to cover and structure, look for underwater islands, etc.    I have an odd success rate at new lakes.  4 hours I can at least get the skunk out of the kayak. 

[WRB]

My launching plan was always the same routine regardless of the lake I am fishing.

Launch, look under the dock for fish, fire up the OB and let it warm up while surveying the launch ramp area with sonar to determine water temps, any baitfish or bass and how deep they are. I do this to confirm what the seasonal period is and how deep the life zone is. After my survey I then get out out a few rods and tie on lures that should work under the current conditions, temps, wind, clear or cloudy sky etc.

I always study lake maps on any lake that I haven’t fished or haven’t fished for some. When arriving at the lake I look closely at the level and aquatic plants growth to help determine where to start.

My average time on the water was about 4 to 5 hours unless fishing with a partner who wanted to spend longer time fishing.

Seasonal periods determine my starting areas in a lake.

Example the spawn cycle we all know the bass are moving up to spawn so staging areas and bed areas would be the locations to start. Summer period the bass are scattered and feeding primarily on baitfish early in the morning and everything during the day. Night the bass are targeting crawdads and other nocturnal critters.

Fall and winter require different locations and lures, seasonal periods are important and depth of the life zone is critical to my thinking.

That is why my launch routine is so important and determines my starting area and lure selection.

Tom

 

[Trox]

When I am heading to a new or unfamiliar lake (especially with only 4 hours to fish it), i'm starting with lake map study and immediately limiting myself to searching a specific area of the lake that seems prodocutive or that I have read about from some brief online study...

For example, let's say I'm going to Sam Rayburn... I would have read about places like Harvey Creek, 5 Fingers, etc... So the first thing I'm going to do is limit myself to one of those areas because they are known to house fish or have good fish habitat, and in doing so, I've eliminated 90% of the lake before even hitting the water... I now have a starting point and a place to focus with great potential to hold fish... The rest is very seasonal and I would go re-read what @WRB just posted for the juice on that...

[JHTR20]

I can't count the times I've rigged up before a trip to find out what I thought was going to be the deal wasn't.  If what you've done for for hours isn't producing go the opposite.  From deep to shallow, fast to slow or vice versa.  I typically wouldn't fish 4 hours without changing, fail fast and move on to something else.

[scaleface]

There are numerous  lakes within 70 miles of me that I havent fished . I know what to expect though . Stained to muddy water . I will look for points . I love fishing points and if there are obvious ones , they will get fished . Otherwise I'm beating visible cover or going down the bank . Four hours isnt much  time. 

[Catt]

4 hrs huh ?

 

You mentioned brush plies?

 

Texas Rigs & Jig-n-Craws (of course), fish em more vertically in the brush pile.

 

Yeah I'm be graphing points & creek channels. 

[T-Billy]

I'd start out pitching a Trig to shallow cover. If that doesn't produce, I'll probably spend the rest of my time pitching a Trig to shallow cover. ?

[Bird]

The lakes I fish are small enough to cover in 4 hrs but occasionally have to go around twice to prevent a skunk. Lol

 

A new lake and you want a fish ? Keep it simple and look for cover.