How did you find your “spots”

[Susky River Rat]

I know with maps, google earth, FFS side scan, down scan all help in finding fish and structure to develop repeatable patterns. How have you found some of your milk run spots? Was it using technology? Word of mouth? Electronics? Nature?

I was an exclusive musky fishermen before I started bass fishing.  A majority of where I bass fish now came from musky fishing. Not that I ever caught a ton of bass musky fishing but, I made notes of everything mental and written down. I use mainly nature and reading water in my river. Electronics help make some of the areas repeatable and everyone talks. I just found it interesting how I used a completely different species to find the bass I catch now. 

[GRiver]

I don’t have any electronics to speak of, a 10+ year old hummingbird, I mostly try and read the area around me. Watch the waters surface for a roll or eddy, try and read the banks edge, look exposed roots, an overhang, even shadows cast on the water, anything that could give the bass an advantage to pounce on it’s food ( my bait).

To me that’s part of the fun when fishing. Looking  where you’re gonna cast next. “Yep right there is where I’d be if I were a bass”

[Jar11591]

Aside from spots along the bank that are visible to the eye, I use my rudimentary electronics to find off shore spots. 

[scaleface]

I use out dated 2D sonar . Bass like to use points, humps channel drops and those can be easily seen on any sonar. Brush piles ,cover and fish arches  are easy to identify too. Bad part is, all those classic offshore spots get hammered.    

[Pat Brown]

My favorite spots all start with some casts.  Usually I catch a fish on a cast and then maybe it happens again and then maybe even on another trip again.....well that there is a spot now.

[TOXIC]

Sad to say at my age, when I first started fishing, you had to learn how to read water.  Sonar units were more for making sure you didn’t run aground.  I learned how to read what I saw above the water to know what was going on under the water.  Sure I missed some hidden gems but for the most part I was able to read the water.  Modern electronics have provided a shortcut to that skill and exposed the hidden spots.  I also fish tidal water and that brings a whole new set of considerations but a creek mouth, is still a creek mouth and I don’t need my electronics to tell me that. 😂

[Catt]

Completely by accident 😉

 

[A-Jay]

How did / do you find your “spots”

I go fishing.

 

A-jay

[Mobasser]

Trial and error...

[Catt]

Even with all the map study & electronics, you still gonna have put a bait on it.

[Mike L]

53 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Sad to say at my age, when I first started fishing, you had to learn how to read water.  😂

 

9 minutes ago, Catt said:

Even with all the map study & electronics, you still gonna have put a bait on it.

As being strictly a co angler who most times is fishing used water, the ability to read the water, wind, boat position, cover etc. is the only way to counteract the obvious limitations.
Folks like me have to put it all together each cast to maximize our time and efficiency. 
 

From the back it is imperative to use everything you got including your mind about what to put where and how to use. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[WRB]

There are some similarities hunting the prime predators be it big musky or LMB.

Both predators dominate the best areas but in limited experience with musky they are single fish that own one spot while bass tend to share a prime feeding area with other big bass.

My musky fishing is isolated to lake of the Woods, Crow lake and Kiskatins ) height of land) in Ontario. 
My LMB experience is far broader coast to coast Mexico to Canada.

Tom

 

[Tennessee Boy]

My best spots were found with dumb luck.  I have found some good spots using a map but those spots tend to be very popular. 

[LrgmouthShad]

It's a little bit of everything.

That said, I use my electronics (sidescan, downscan, 2D, mapping) heavily. 

I'm a younger guy than many of you. I grew up around tech and feel very comfortable interpreting a screen.

Others are correct; unfortunately, today, if you find something 'classic' offshore, there's a high chance everyone and their mother knows about it.

[volzfan59]

How do I find my spots? Purely by dumb luck! I'm a "bank beater", drop the T/M on a bank with docks, rocks, stumps, etc and have at it.

[king fisher]

Casting a spinnerbait

[AlabamaSpothunter]

I'm not a huge believer in 90% of the fish live in 10% of the lake.    

 

At dawn I ran weed lines with a Choppo 105 in 5fow or less......targeting fry guarders and shad spawn eaters, then ended the morning strolling a jighead minnow in 25+fow once the fish backed off the banks to follow the shad who stopped spawning on the water willow.       The spot was where the bait was, and Threadfin never stay in the same place very long.   For the fry guarders, the spot was areas I knew had nearby beds.        

 

I do believe the biggest fish typically have "spots", but FFS has shown us that monsters are also just out in the abyss roaming around chasing bait.   There isn't a "spot" for those fish.....the spot is wherever the bait is.     

 

Which comes first, finding the fish, or finding the spot?   Personally, I'm more concerned with finding the fish.    By doing so I'm not relying as heavily on "fishing history" which is a very sharp double edge sword.   

 

If you target forage, you'll find your spot.   

 

 

[Jleebesaw]

I mix of everything for me. I started fishing when 2d sonar was the pinnacle of fishing tech! So plenty of my spots I learned from other fisherman. Back in the day I did a lot of bank beating and fishing obvious points and humps. I also used the old bent rod pattern quite a lot! Lol

 

      I can remember buying lake maps that had contour lines. Using those along with 2d sonar got me introduced into offshore fishing. I kept up with sonar until livescipe. I haven’t bought that yet. Not sure if I ever will. Anyway, on screen mapping along with side scan has made finding juicy offshore spots much easier. 
 

I just recently moved. I’m fishing Lake Champlain a lot starting this year. I’ve only been out on it a handful of times. I moved here from about 3 hrs west. I used to fish the st Lawrence a lot. So I have my boat ready to go. I’ll be fishing a lot of new places this year. Should be fun to find some spots. 

[Alex from GA]

Moved to a new state and made a fishing buddy that built brush piles and had over a thousand waypoints on his GPS.    After a while he gave me all the waypoints and I've been using them ever since.   20 years.  Of course I've found a bunch on my own also.  I evened it out by teaching him to finesse fish like I did in CA and he caught many more fish.  Since wintering in FL and all the shallow lakes I'm at a disadvantage but still catch fish.  On the rivers I fish I throw at anything that breaks up the current.

[Team9nine]

Hours and hours and hours and hours of time with the electronics, combined with hours and hours and hours and hours of fishing areas to figure out which were good and which weren’t, all built upon a structure fishing foundation.

[Woody B]

Electronics, and maps for places deep or shallow.     Paying attention to the wind, and the winds direction is a BIG one I think some people miss.   Unless I'm going to a strange lake I usually have several "milk route" stops planned before I even get to the lake.  Certain times of the year if the wind has been blowing the same direction for a day or 2 I'll have channel swings the wind is pounding picked out.  This time of year, (spawn, including shad, and Bluegill, not just Bass) I'll pick out flats and pockets sheltered from the wind.  IMHO "Windy" is an excellent sight for wind information.  You can zoom in and see if the wind is funneling over a channel, or just swirling.  

 

I understand that this thread wasn't about wind, but I suspect the hammers around here like Ajay, Pat Team9nine ect pay a BUNCH of attention to the wind.   I think this is important on any lake or pond regardless of size.  Current, current breaks, and eddy's "may" trump the wind on rivers.  (?)

 

Also, if you see something that looks like a point on land, confirm it with maps and or electronics if possible.  Some of my most productive locations are points in places that don't look like a point belongs.   A also see people fishing (but not usually "catching" ) in areas that "look" like points, but really aren't.   

 

As far as getting fishing spots from others,  I don't fish for other peoples Bass.  I do my own homework.  To me a bunch of the fun is finding spots and figuring them out.  If I had Ajays waypoints from Lake Menderchuck I wouldn't use them.  I'd look at the topography and terrain around them but I prefer to find my own spots, and fish.   

[MediumMouthBass]

how do i find good spots? Well i start by fishing for 2 hours and on my way back to the boat launch with 5 minutes of sunlight left thats when i find them!

 

I fished with a group last season that had 4 people but 2 boats, both boats had either 1 or 2 fish finders each on them.

My father and i caught tons of bass and crappie, we payed very little attention to the fish finders.

We just kept casting to areas we thought there might be fish.

 

The other guys caught maybe 1 or 2 bass in the 6 hour period and were staring at the screens most of the day.

 

I believe fish finders work but they arent going to be the magic answer to catching fish.

I bought one but returned it soon after just because i decided i wanted to fish old school instead, plus i remembered i bought a kayak to get on the water as fast as possible and to have a good time. I didnt want to start drilling holes, having wires all over, and a head unit in the way.

Fish finders are nice to find structure and depth, but a heavier jig dragged on the bottom often tells me all i need to know.

 

My good spots on the river change weekly, one week a great spot will have 0 fish, the next there might be 20 logs on the bottom and im breaking off ned rigs constantly.

My good spots on the lakes i usually find are in the same areas year after year, i usually stick to the shallow water near docks or close to vegetation, or ill fish where the lake drops off from shallow-some what deeper.

 

 

[gim]

Took me a fair amount of time to find many of my spots. I found them visually, by catching fish there, and then marking them on my GPS. I’ve got 22 years worth of data saved in my current GPS.

 

Some fish naturally inhabit the same areas year after year during the same time period.

 

A few locations were given to me by family members or trusted friends. Most of them did not produce. But a few have.

[T-Billy]

7 hours ago, A-Jay said:

How did / do you find your “spots”

I go fishing.

 

A-jay

 

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Hours and hours and hours and hours of time with the electronics, combined with hours and hours and hours and hours of fishing areas to figure out which were good and which weren’t, all built upon a structure fishing foundation.

Yes and yes. ☝️Thousands of hours of the above.

[TOXIC]

It helps to be friendly with those of us who fish pretty regularly.  Had a friend IM me and ask if I could help him catch a snakehead on the Rappahonock River.  He fishes the Potomac mainly.  Being a guide, I was able to give him the specific information he needed to go get some.  Pic is him yesterday and me last Sunday.  I will be heading out again this Sunday.