Finding the Fish

[CMorg]

I bought a book of southern indiana lake maps , these have the depths , and some " secret spots ". I got to thinking , I can catch fish , now how am i gonna find them during certain times of the year ?

[aikenyounggun]

um bass just dont live "deep"... yeah some live deep some live shallow.... go sight fishing in 20 feet of water.... just joking.... yeah i believe bigger fish most of the time of the year are in deep water, but they will come shallow to feed or nest.... but you are right about the pro thing...... there is going to be a lot on this topic i can see it coming

[rangerryan]

i am a shallow water fisherman... to me deep water is 15-20' and i hate fishing that deep... it cant be argued that the less water there is, the easier it is to find fish.... that is the biggest reason that i hate fishing deeper water. the other is because i struggle to locate good fish holding structure. luckily for me i live in oklahoma where the water is murky in most of the lakes i fish which means the fish will be shallower in most cases. maybe that is why i struggle to find fish when they move out deeper.....lack of practice.

[bcklash]

C-morg, I have to disagree with you, for most of us anyway the pros find fish better and quicker, they know how to position their boats better, use their electronics better, and they can cast a lure into the pocket of the tightest jeans that Janet Jackson wears.

[Tall]

Cmorg

Do you have 5 to 10 thousand in baits, included in that price the best poles, line and reels on board as well as the best electronics? Do you spend countless hours on the water to get the FEEL of the bite, how to work the bait and when to set the hook? Like that short game in golf, you can read a book how to but nothing takes the place of hours every day working on it and getting the feel.

Yes, finding the fish is huge but getting them in the boat on tourny day and in tough conditions is another story in itself.

Ideas, so many will work under certain conditions, due to the weather, time of year etc. but not all of the time usually. That is what the pros are so good at is finding a pattern and they know methods to do it.

An Idea is to research internet sites (google) for that state and area, usually you can find some sites that may have had tournys on that lake you are interested in and they will have information on what bait they used etc. to win such as for my state, get5bass is a good google site. Some of your local TV stations may have an outdoor section that has a lot of tourny information like I listed above like CBS station here in LR.

The pros do it, at least KVD said so and some of my buddies that fish a lot of tournaments.

[Bubba_Bruiser]

That's why they are called PROS. They get PAID to do what they do day in and day out. While most of us here work day in and day out, we are or should be good at our jobs. I couldn't imagine Van Dam, just an example, ruffnecking or working derricks like I used to. And then on the same token I couldn't get on fish like he does if I had a fist full of dynamite, a jar full of rotenone, or a 100' sein. Some people have that 6th sense, too, like the Beastmaster (Hope you seen the movie). LOL

[Bassboss]

That also depends on the cover provided on the bottom, if you have a 45ft hole with rock at the bottom. and than an other hole the same depth with hydrilla on the bottom, you can bet your bottom dollar that the majority of the LM will be at the hole with the hydrill!

[garry_3000]

Cmorg in Indiana you just find an spot that dont already have five or six boats on it and hope to catch an fish or two lol

[CMorg]

Ha , thats no joke gary !

[CCbass]

Studies show largemouth bass prefer a depth between 1m and 3m. This is constant between all studies done on the largemouth bass. Sure thay can adapt to deeper depths but this is there prefered depths for survival.

[pig n jig]

The pros have people who prefish and find fish for them.Nuff said.

[pig n jig]

CMorg,You keep plugging away trying different things until you stumble across something that works.

When pitching jigs in a huge weedbed,the longer you go without a bite.The closer you are to catching them.

[aikenyounggun]

another thing is to find differences......... so if you are mapping a dropoff that goes along the bank for 100 yds but there is a line of 5 trees submerged..... then those 5 trees are going to produce

[CMorg]

Thanks PNJ , your always a wealth of information...

[pig n jig]

CMorg,Its difficult to know exactly everytime.There is something to be said for learning from time out on the water.You sort of get a feel for what lure presentation is gonna better suit the fishes activity level . Once you catch a fish or 2 ,you can refine your presentation to further your success rate.It would be better to know the depth the fish are holding at so you can use the lures your most comfortable using.There are many lure presentations that are capable of catching the same fish but if your not on active fish, your not going to catch them. The key is to know when to give up or when know your pattern might come together to catch them.If not move and try your favorite presentations elsewhere until you run into fish that will bite. P N J

[JB]

I try to notice bird activity if I'm checking out an area by boat and then once I'm in that area look for fish feeding..then turn the graph on and study the bottom. If its out in the open where a ski boat or others can bother ya fishing, I go to the next point and start checking out the graph...once I see any fish I look for a cluster of bait fish, alot depends on the time of year, but generally after the spring bite and they come off the banks. Once I see an ideal area, like keeping the boat in 20 ft of water but saw fish on the graph in 8 suspended, I throw to the bank and then let it settle to the desired depth where I scoped out fish by structure..around brookville its big boulder rock in the front of bays by points, then standing timber or dead logs in the water all over the place, and many secondary points. I always tell ppl to watch for fish activity, then learn to read the graph and make a habit of checking your depth as your fish and see whats down there.

[tnfisherman]

im a shallow fisherman too but if the fish is deep then go deep with them, talk to some locals and go to where looks good to you,,,,use your fish finder ,,,,,,,,,,last year we was lookin for small mouth and run across a school of fish we thought they was hybirds in like 30 some foot of water and it was a school of small mouth down that deep in the summer i have a spot that good on bass its a ridge run to a island thats bout 50yrds out and drops off on each side and is little gravel and man do they love it so look for points soil change thing like that

[Bob Smith]

To be honest with you, I read all the time. I get lots of info from these forums, but I also have been digesting information from magazines and books for years on end. I have also been privy to some pretty good marked up maps and even gotten a hold of some nifty areal maps with the spots marked on them. All of it is good stuff no doubt!! None of it comes close to time on the water (definitely a redundant theme here, but well worth repeating). What I have learned over the years is that a good understanding of the seasonal patterns of bass, what kind of forage bass like, and what different kinds of environment they like and what they do when that environment changes. These lessons are best learned on the water, and learning what it looks like on a graph is paramount to successful fish location, even in the shallow water. You need to know kind of route a bass will travel and what kind of shallow water they prefer to locate them with consistency.
Once you understand a lot of this stuff then you can go across the country and experience a greater success in locating fish in just about any water. Catching them is an ongoing learning process, but it can be vastly accelerated by asking a few locals, then fine tuning the approach to your comfort level.

[Mac2]

If you see a turtle surfacing, he's usually over a weedbed. A crane along the shore means mnnows in the general area. If the wind is fairly steady and from one general direction, try going with the wind to the far side of the lake and fish weed edges there.
In a stronger wind, fish the calmer side of points. The wind will cause a current and an eddy of sorts on the backside where the food falls out. Look for indentations in the shore indicating washes in wet weather....they'll dump food into the lake as well. If you are on a foggy lake, and no wind....fish the patches of water that's the last fog to burn off.....sometimes indicating cooler springfed waters.

[CMorg]

Nice , now this is some good info guys , I really appreciate it. At first this thread was going all kinds of wierd directions , now its what im looking for. Thanks again.

[Tall]

That was because of the comments you posted that have now been deleted. Like you can now catch them like the pros.

Maybe you can pick some great ideas up with the way your wording is now.

[CMorg]

I said , I can catch fish , everyone on here can hook a fish. I said I think the main thing pros can do better than us is locate fish. I also said I personally believe that if the water is clear the fish will be deep , they may not be feeding deep , but I believe they are deep to escape the pressure of boats , anglers and weather. Tall , your comments were crazy , I deleted alot of my thoughts because it was causing mixed reactions by a few ( mostly you ).. by the way , I do have thousands of dollars worth of gear , I built a new house with a special room off my garage for my fishing gear... I guess you wanted to know since you asked in an earlier post.

[Volman]

Ya just gots to seperate the wheat from the chaff

[Culln5]

Originally Posted by rangerryan

i am a shallow water fisherman... to me deep water is 15-20' and i hate fishing that deep...

I agree... LOL... however, someone once asked me if i thought my boat was too big.... Of course I said no..... He said that's what 20' of water would look like if you stood the boat on it's end.

I have to admit that it got me thinking...... but I still find it hard to fish water deeper than 10'.

[CMorg]

Thats an interesting way of looking at it , 20' doesnt seem so deep now.