Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL | New,
If you want to catch fish of any species on any body of water you must let structure be your guide.
The word structure is 99% of the time misinterpreted!!! The man the coined the term says,
Structure: The bottom of the lake with some unusual features that distinguish it from the surrounding bottom area.
Fish use "structure" visual objects, to find there way to the shallows, a migration route. The fish can see these objects and often times so can we. It's the fisherman's interpretation of these bottom features that separates the fisherman.
If the fish are against the bank in a seasonal movement anyone can catch one. But what happens if they are not shallow? Most dig in and say to themselves "I'm a caster and I don't fish in deep water". But what there really saying is they are in love with the method, not catching fish. To each his own!
You must put yourself in an area that gives you the best chance to catch a fish. No magic bait will do that,, no matter how wide you open your wallet.
Jerry Borst
Spoonplugger, Instructor. |
Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | not sure how you are approaching the season, but work on your map and your trip ahead of time as much as you can. find weed-lines next to steep breaks, points, current, channel edges, stump fields, saddles, islands and have these well marked on your maps and then make mental notes while you are fishing where you see broad-leafed cabbage, rocks etc... out there while you are fishing. if you can narrow down the volume of water to be more productive, it will take care of a huge percentage of error for you. if you are in the eagle river chain, you have a great variety of water to fish and fairly high volume of fish per acre for the area. i've always heard that 80% of the fish are in 20% of the water and i think it's a good rule to follow, so learn to find the 20% areas on maps and mark them up. at this point you've got a "system" or "plan" that you can execute. you could also learn how choosing the spots you've found on your map might be more productive early, mid and later season based on typical seasonal movement of fish. now it's a matter of executing the plan and finding the pattern. once you get on the pattern, you just try to reproduce it as many times with common area types, baits, presentations etc... the Eagle River Chain certainly is not a bad choice, however it does get alot of tournament and general angling pressure along with alot of recreational boat traffic. there is alot of water very close to Eagle River and you might try to do a little variety too. maybe go digest a single, smaller lake in a day's fishing and see if you can pattern it.
after that read these message boards about baits, presentations, time of year etc... don't be afraid to hunt the archives as there is some great information out there in historical discussion threads.
if you really feel overwhelmed or frustrated by all this, it's always a good idea to hire a guide. it's money well spent and you have the choice of 1/2 or full days. i could recommend you some very good ones for the area. |
