How would you approach this?

[Luke at Gouldsboro]

If you pulled up to an unfamiliar lake, with no maps, no prior knowledge of the lake, and no electronics on your boat (sonar, and depth finders), how would you disect and go about fishing there. Basically, what would you look for, and how would you break down fishing there?

[Fishmaster10]

I would have to say it depends on what time of the year it is, and how big the lake is. (I assume you are talking about fishing it now)

[Intrepid]

i would look for things like visible trees, stumps, and laydowns. also things such as lillipads and other vegetation. look for possible creeks that may run into the lake. also, points. if all else fails i would beat the banks...

[Hot Rod]

First thing is to consider what time of the year it is, what phase the fish are in (pre, spawn or post) and what the water temp is there.  That would dictate were I start to look.

[deep]

Cover on structure. Cover on its own is no good if it's not on a structure. Points are the easiest structures to find, you got google maps, right?

[senile1]

deep stated:

you got google maps, right?

The OP's question states that you have no prior knowledge of the lake and no electronics with which to locate appropriate structure for the season and the conditions. I assume no prior knowledge means no Google maps. I don't know if this is a hypothetical question but I'll answer it just for what it is and try to make it as concise as I can. Hopefully, some of the structure gurus will come along and fill in all the gaps for you. In the meantime this is what I would do.

First, consider the season (prespawn, spawn, etc) and the conditions. Let's say it's prespawn with water temperatures around 49 or 50 so it's not warm enough for the ladies to move up on beds just yet. Let's say we've had stable weather for a few days so the water has been slowly warming. I would expect to find fish on drop-offs near spawning flats and some might even be up on the flats feeding at particular times during the day. So now I need to find these features. I can do this by analyzing the shoreline and noticing which features extend into the lake such as points, creeks, etc. These could be highways to the drop-offs I'm looking for. I would move my boat to these areas and use a bottom dragging lure such as a carolina rig or a jig to feel the bottom and map out the depths as I follow the structure that I have located. This will allow me to locate any drop-offs and staging points. You are looking for cover on good fish-holding structure. I would also use a bait such as a jerkbait, lipless crank, spinnerbait, etc to fish some of the shallow areas in case some fish are up feeding due to the stable weather. If I think I have found an adequate fish holding structure then I would saturate that area with whatever lures are appropriate for the season and the depth of the structure. Other things to consider are areas where you see birds feeding which can indicate baitfish, current entering the lake, water releases through dams, etc. All of these can indicate places where bass may be feeding.

This could turn into a long day (or even longer) if I am on a large lake. Finding structure doesn't necessarily mean I have found good fish-holding structure. I may strike out a few times before I find the right areas. Your best bet is to always acquire some prior knowledge of a lake before fishing it by studying maps, fishing reports, etc. And I believe that electronics are essential when fishing large lakes. If you are fishing a smaller lake that you can cover in a day it's possible that you can chunk and wind all day and cover the lake without putting much thought into where you are fishing and you could still locate fish though I wouldn't recommend it.

[Missouribassman95]

Visible cover, and shallow.

[TimJ]

a couple more to add to the bunch: look at the slope of the immediate shoreline. if its a long taper or a sharp slope, chances are that that angle continues on somewhat underwater. if there are trees on that slope, they may be underwater as well.

also, if you get some trees in the water with a definite front edge, straight or winding, they may be along an old creek.

something to look for.

TJ

[MFBAB]

The first two things I would look at is the current weather pattern, pre frontal, post front, stable, whatever.

The second would be the current water color in the pond (assuming we're talking about a pond if no maps are available).   

If you know those 2 things you can make a decent guess about whether they should be shallow or deep, active or inactive, etc.  and pick your baits accordingly - at least for a good starting point. 

For example - If there was stable weather and stained water color, I would expect to be able to find some active fish reasonably shallow, I would tie on something like a spinnerbait, squarebill, have a flipping rod handy, shaky head, basically be ready to work the 1-10' zone.  From there, just start trying to run that pattern on whatever variety of structure or cover you can find in the pond until you either get some bites or feel like it's time to move on to plan B.  Good Luck!! 

[Catt]

Regardless of time of year spinner bait, crank bait & some type of plastic

[senko_77]

Cover on structure. Cover on its own is no good if it's not on a structure.

I highly advise you not to follow this little tidbit because in my experience, nothing could be further from the truth.  To dismiss a piece of cover because it isn't on "structure" is foolish.  Take a lake like Toho in Florida.....not much structure there seeing as it literally is a cereal bowl, but man, you sure can find fish on the cover (grass), even though no structure is present.  Also, cover in a way is like structure.  Just because there is one tall stump on a flat, doesn't mean fish won't relate to it.  They will hold on the stump because in a way, it acts like a small drop off or shelf that they can suspend next to. 

Gotta think outside the box, kid!

[senko_77]

And OP, to answer your question.....

If I pull up on a lake without any previous knowledge, the first thing I do is look as previous notes I have in my fishing log. Bass are bass and most of the time I will have faced a similar fishing condition in the past. If you don't have a fishing log, just read up on fish migration and where the majority of fish tend to be at certain times of the year.

Water clarity would then dictate if I thought the prespawn fish were shallow or deep.

I live in GA, so at this point, I would be trying to find any potential spawning area with the closest deep water access. I would start out on the shallow side throwing out into deeper water in the morning and as the day warmed and I felt the fish could potentially move in toward the flats, I would set up my boat in the deep water and cast in.

If I couldn't find them there, I would look at some of the major points on the lake and eliminate them until I started hitting the secondary points.

If all else fails, go find some real shallow cover and pound the hell out of it with jigs and shallow crankbaits.

This time of year is great because you really can catch them with anything you want. On my boat, you'll see a bunch of jigs, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and crankbaits tied on. Don't forget about topwater either.

Good luck man

edit -- I didn't see the part about not having electronics.  If I didn't have my sonar, I would put on some old school sonar.......Carolina rig and a Spro Little John DD