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Posts: 227
Location: Maple Grove | After studying your map how do you guys attack a new body of water. Run and Gun looking for active fish, or slow and methodical on likely spots? | |
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Posts: 3861
| First thing I do ask folks on this board about what they're doin on the water I'm targeting.
Second thing is drop some coin at local bait shops, see where the bait fish (eyes, etc) are at.
Then I consider past weather, what the wind was doin, and current weather. Then I look to sun/moon phases, what are the hot times right now.
Then I get out there, change change change, until I get what's workin'.
If you have the bucks, get a local guide, saves you a ton of time and you buy smarts. Guides are worth the money. | |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | A great thing to do is to look for similar structure/situations to those that made you successful on other waters. Attack it like your home water, or another lake that seemed to be similar and go from there. Build on the successes and soon, most types of lakes/waters/seasons can be addressed with a method. Always helps to know the 'hot' pattern goin' on a local lake, and they all have color and lure type nuances, but doing what worked for you in the past in similar instances can really help put a foot forward. Covering a bit of water to start with, either by running and gunning, or just cruising around the lake(or areas that look good) to learn as much about it in a short time will also help you learn some potential spots and maybe even catch a fish in the process. Then one can go back and better cover some of the better looking 'stuff' that you passed by as you did your search run. | |
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| I spend a good part of a day just looking at areas and not even fishing them. I motor over and around them watching the locator and the GPS and try to find out as nuch as I can about each piece of structure, then I try to think about how I would go about fishing it.
Of course, the bigger the lake, the more time is spent looking.
The first time I fished Cass, I spent from 9-3 just motoring around from spot to spot, looking for breaks that held baitfish and where the best weedbeds were. With 2 weeks to fish, I figured that I could burn a day getting to know the neighborhood. | |
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Posts: 32880
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I pick the water apart slowly using my sonar to identify all inside and outside turns, bottom density, weed types and depth, in a word, looking for the 'road'. The sonar is your windshield to KEEP you on that road, have to learn the way first. | |
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Posts: 617
Location: Clintonville, WI | This new water ritual started 10-12 years ago when a few of us had to drive 6-7 hours to get to our fishing destinations and grew into a good habit in my opinion. We wouldn't arrive until around 11:00 p.m. on Friday nights, but were too jacked up to sleep. We'd unload the vehicles, launch the boats, and then scout the water for a couple hours with a high power spot light. We'd have already looked at the maps before the trips and wanted to see what was where. That grew into nailing down the spots to greater detail before fishing. Obviously this works better on clear water, but it has been ok on tannic/lightly stained water too. We paid attention to our electronics as well, as Worrall mentioned, and do so even more now. We may have thrown a cast here and there to "feel" what the spot had to offer, especially on stained water.
Also, on a few of the larger lakes we chose to fish we didn't want to motor all over the water that late at night. So, for the first few times, we'd scout an area closer to the launch/cabin. That grew into breaking the lake into "sections" and then adding more each time we went to that lake. Between the Friday night scouting and the sectioning, we could fish many different ways once the fishing started. We felt comfortable running and gunning, especially within the section we targeted or we could work slowly if that is what the fish/weather/mood told us to try. Even though it started out as a way to get the anxiety fix we needed, it would appear to me now that we had a decent way to attack new water under those circumstances.
Now, if it were a daylight situation the first time/day on a body of water, I'd be more inclined to travel spot to spot at a consistent pace. Not running and gunning, but moving through spots giving enough time to watch the electronics, enter waypoints, and toss casts in to feel the spots. On the first day, I'd do this on as many of the spots determined to be "best spots" from my map studies as I could based on the pace I described. Then, the remainder of the trip, I'd be fairly comfortable choosing different fishing pace/lures etc. based on weather/fish activity/etc. Then, add more spots to this body of water every time you fish it. | |
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Posts: 227
Location: Maple Grove | A lot of good ideas here. I'm making my first trip to Vermilion (West End) this weekend, and you all have given me some good food for thought as I devise a game plan. Thanks! | |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | Good luck to you man!! stop in at the casino campground and have a cold one(that you bring...LOL). We'll be looking for some other less competetive tourney anglers/anglers to shoot the breezer with this weekend. Good luck over there! | |
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Attacking New Water?