where are you catching your fish?

[Gatorbassman]

In the heat of the summer small lakes loose their ability to hold usable oxygen due to high water temps. The fish will move around untill the find oxygen. Find where the water is entering the lake. This will be where the most oxygen is.

[Bankbeater]

They have been holding tight to cover in the lakes around here.  Jigs and topwater baits have been working the best.

[CWB]

In the heat of the summer small lakes loose their ability to hold usable oxygen due to high water temps. The fish will move around untill the find oxygen. Find where the water is entering the lake. This will be where the most oxygen is.

This is pretty much the case on my home lake and I rarely fish deeper than 15 feet. Deep weedline is at about 10-12 feet. Plenty of shallow cover to fish and there always seems to be some active fish shallow for me. Of course water temps aren't 100 deg up here.

[TrippyJai]

TrippyJai - As said in the previous post, what I'm showing are balls of bait at various depths. How you know they are bait balls is by two ways. First of all, I'm anchored. So, when that mass of bait comes rolling in, you know the bottom content hasn't grown like that! Besides, the sonar doesn't shoot through masses of rock (which most off-shore structure is composed of - around here anyway). Secondly, I've used an Aqua View on several occasions to verify the type of bait I'm looking at. I've had enough experience to know which is what, by looking at the screen.

26.3' - Decent size ball of perch. (They were pecking our DS baits to death!) The leading edge shows some minor arches. Probably small bass or larger perch. A smallie will show as a heavy straight line, when you're anchored like I am. The top of the screen is signal clutter and is to be ignored. BTW....the verticle line is my drop shot line.

34.7' - Another ball of bait on the bottom coming through. This one is mixed with bass on top of the screen and some just coming in behind it on the right of the screen. A few fish coming through at about 15' - 20'. These are either rainbows or salmon - again, I ignore these, unless I'm getting desperate!

42.1' - A single ball of bait which stayed under us. It drifted back & forth under us, which is why you see the same sized ball on several locations in a single screen shot. And again, the vertical line is my drop shot. We did not catch anything here however. If you notice, no really decent fish are shown either. But fishing a bait ball like this is always worth a shot. Sometimes the biggest bass of the day will come here!

Hope this was of some help to you.  

Very informative post and it has helped me out big time. I actually had no idea what I was looking at. First impression, I though it was a hump with no fish around. I guess I won't really know until I get my first boat next summer, but it's always nice to get an idea for that little head start.  

[EastMarkME]

TrippyJai - As said in the previous post, what I'm showing are balls of bait at various depths. How you know they are bait balls is by two ways. First of all, I'm anchored. So, when that mass of bait comes rolling in, you know the bottom content hasn't grown like that! Besides, the sonar doesn't shoot through masses of rock (which most off-shore structure is composed of - around here anyway). Secondly, I've used an Aqua View on several occasions to verify the type of bait I'm looking at. I've had enough experience to know which is what, by looking at the screen.

26.3' - Decent size ball of perch. (They were pecking our DS baits to death!) The leading edge shows some minor arches. Probably small bass or larger perch. A smallie will show as a heavy straight line, when you're anchored like I am. The top of the screen is signal clutter and is to be ignored. BTW....the verticle line is my drop shot line.

34.7' - Another ball of bait on the bottom coming through. This one is mixed with bass on top of the screen and some just coming in behind it on the right of the screen. A few fish coming through at about 15' - 20'. These are either rainbows or salmon - again, I ignore these, unless I'm getting desperate!

42.1' - A single ball of bait which stayed under us. It drifted back & forth under us, which is why you see the same sized ball on several locations in a single screen shot. And again, the vertical line is my drop shot. We did not catch anything here however. If you notice, no really decent fish are shown either. But fishing a bait ball like this is always worth a shot. Sometimes the biggest bass of the day will come here!

Hope this was of some help to you.

Very informative post and it has helped me out big time. I actually had no idea what I was looking at. First impression, I though it was a hump with no fish around. I guess I won't really know until I get my first boat next summer, but it's always nice to get an idea for that little head start.

I agree. This is invaluble to me. Id LOVE to see more screenshots from you guys and explaination of what it is.

Any websites that have folks that do this?

Mark

[D4u2s0t]

My lake is man made, and there's not a large mount of natural structure.  Once you get a few feet from the shore, it's pretty consistently 10-11 feet throughout, but there are a few dropoffs and some great stumps out in the water.  I've been catching my fish right out in the middle, with no logical reason for even fishing there.  The "Obvious" spots that anyone would think would hold fish are dead.  I've been getting my fish like I said just randomly casting out in the middle of the lake, in a pattern that makes almost no sense when thinking about the fundementals of structure fishing.  Here's a few from the middle

This one is held right next to my body.  

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30379991&l=a96d905457&id=1003390062

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30378368&l=9742c10b1d&id=1003390062

In this pic you can really see i'm just out there in the middle

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30310774&l=51165bca81&id=1003390062

These are great fish in my lake, I'm yet to break the 5 pound mark.  (lucky southerners that think a 5 lber is a dink i hate you lol ) But I fairly consistently pull out nice 3-4 lbers.

That being said, break the mold.  If you're not catching fish on the shore (which is typically not the ideal spot over the summer) just get out there and try new spots.  I ended up randomly casting in frustration one day, my thoughts were "Fishing sucks this year!  I may as welll just throw my bait where I know there are no fish.  That way at least I know it won't be my ability to find fish"  and then WHACK! There they were!  So give it a try!

[basswitch]

TrippyJai - As said in the previous post, what I'm showing are balls of bait at various depths. How you know they are bait balls is by two ways. First of all, I'm anchored. So, when that mass of bait comes rolling in, you know the bottom content hasn't grown like that! Besides, the sonar doesn't shoot through masses of rock (which most off-shore structure is composed of - around here anyway). Secondly, I've used an Aqua View on several occasions to verify the type of bait I'm looking at. I've had enough experience to know which is what, by looking at the screen.

26.3' - Decent size ball of perch. (They were pecking our DS baits to death!) The leading edge shows some minor arches. Probably small bass or larger perch. A smallie will show as a heavy straight line, when you're anchored like I am. The top of the screen is signal clutter and is to be ignored. BTW....the verticle line is my drop shot line.

34.7' - Another ball of bait on the bottom coming through. This one is mixed with bass on top of the screen and some just coming in behind it on the right of the screen. A few fish coming through at about 15' - 20'. These are either rainbows or salmon - again, I ignore these, unless I'm getting desperate!

42.1' - A single ball of bait which stayed under us. It drifted back & forth under us, which is why you see the same sized ball on several locations in a single screen shot. And again, the vertical line is my drop shot. We did not catch anything here however. If you notice, no really decent fish are shown either. But fishing a bait ball like this is always worth a shot. Sometimes the biggest bass of the day will come here!

Hope this was of some help to you.

Very informative post and it has helped me out big time. I actually had no idea what I was looking at. First impression, I though it was a hump with no fish around. I guess I won't really know until I get my first boat next summer, but it's always nice to get an idea for that little head start.

I agree. This is invaluble to me. Id LOVE to see more screenshots from you guys and explaination of what it is.

Any websites that have folks that do this?

Mark

I agree, I just got a Humminbird PiranhaMax 230 portable, and I'm having a great time learning it. Probably looking at it more than I'm fishing! But I would love a site with some screenshots to give me some ideas. Any site like this I've come across so far has been of really nice expensive sonars, which don't really help me lol. All that being said, the nice bass I caught yesterday was right up under the bushes around an island,1 or 2 feet deep, and not where my finder could see him:)