|
|
Posts: 7036
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Its a brand new muskie season, with everyone armed with new rods, reels, boats and baits......hopefully many of us will be trying to tackle some new waters in this new year, what are your approaches to hitting a muskie lake for the first time? | |
| | |
Location: The Yahara Chain | When I get on a lake for the first time I like to use my electronics and my eyes to analyze the locations that looked good on the map.
I will spend anywhere from 2 to 4 hours doing this. Sometimes my boat partners complain. When are we going to fish? But I feel this really helps key in on the spots I want to fish. It helps to find a spot on the spot. | |
| | |
| I explore new lakes and rivers each year for muskies, and I like to first study and mark a map if one is available. Then I like to ask online about the lake or river just to see what has worked in the past. Once on the lake I hit promising spots and search for baitfish.
| |
| | |
Posts: 100
Location: Blaine, MN 55449 | I get a lake map, find a couple of what looks like hot spots and fish them. I use one of my own rules Fishing Fitzel's Way, rule number #1- ask questions, go the local bait show, tavern for those WI fisherman and Bar for the MN fisherman and ask what are good spots. I ask old timers that have spent time on the water, in theses lakes!!! My grandpa said, if you look for good spots, and do not wet your line, how will you know if there are fish there? I also watch the environment, seagulls, loons, and the pattern of small bait fish if available. Wet lines and sharp hooks, means fish!! Think positive!!!
It worked yesterday for crappies!!!!!!!!! 
Edited by bfitzel 4/18/2005 2:33 PM
| |
| | |
Posts: 2014
| Exploring new lakes is exciting and rewarding....to learn a large lake cut the learning curve and hire a guide. | |
| | |
Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | I absolutely love fishing new water. My first task is to motor slowly around the lake paying attention to the electronics and checking out all likely looking areas on the map. I generally find the weedline depth and concentrate my running at that range.
After finding some good looking areas I will go back to them, again exploring to see what they have only this time I usually have a bucktail or Depth Raider in the water. Following the weedlines or rock points etc. with the trolling motor, and using your bait as a guide (this is where the Depth Raider comes in handy) gives you a better idea of where the various turns, ideally inside turns, lay on each piece of structure.
After fishing the best of the best looking stuff, time allowing, I will try some of the secondary looking stuff, stuff that looks good enough but won't catch all the attention from others. After checking out all likely looking areas I will go back and pick apart either real tasty looking stuff or the structure I had action on the first time through. | |
| | |
Posts: 686
Location: Tomahawk, Wisconsin | Maps are key but most of the time the info is pretty generic, I pick a few really fishy looking spots and work the heck out of em, learn em in and out, catch fish!! Each year I hit a few new waters and add more knowledge to the database. Drop the trolling motor, fish, and learn!!!! | |
| | |
Posts: 32885
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | To me a lake is like a classification of a town, and township, or a city. If it's a town (small) I fish the entire primary breeakline no matter how bad some areas look (no Map), and then move out to the secondary, and so on. If it's a township (medium sized) I do what I did for a town (no Map), but look first for promising areas that have the 'look' to them from the shoreline, breaking the lake into two towns. If it's a city (big) then I pay attention to a map, hit tha areas that traditionally should hold fish, and work points, breaklines on the stones, weedlines, and the obvious stuff first. Then I break the lake up into Wind Quadrants, and fish it as the wind dictates, treating each quadrant as a township or town. SOmetimes I look for the town sheriff, the township officer, and the City Police, better known as guides, and ask them a question or two, maybe even hire one for a day on a larger lake. Talk about shortening the learning curve! | |
| | |
Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | BenR,
Please quit following me! We thought we had a stalker! | |
| |
|
New Lake Approaches?