searching for fish?

[jeremyt]

I am about to take a trip to a large lake that I have little to no knowledge of. Is it ok to take a crank and slow troll over cover, rip raps and such to locate the fish or does trolling a crank do no good. I am going to be using my graph to find the structure. My main plan of attack is to start in 3-4 ft of water early in the morning, then move out to deeper water as the day goes on. The lake is pretty deep with channels being in the 60-80 ft range. Thanks for any advice.

[bpm2000]

trolling cranks definitely works.

[Matt Fly]

Sounds like you have a good starting plan already.     If you use a crank, try to match the bait to the conditions.

IE.....a floating crank backs out of rocks easier when snagged than a suspending crank.    Balsa baits deflects of wood better and so on.

Matt

[jeremyt]

Thanks for the info and the replies. I didn't even think the type of material they were made from would make that much difference. I still have a long way to go I guess. I am using shad, baby bass, and a silver with blue back color. I also have some green pumpkin and shad color senkos in 4' and 5'. A few dark spinners with colorado blades for nights. Other than that I guess I will do some vertical jigging for stripers and some live baiting at nights for cats.