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Old 01-06-09, 01:53 AM   #1
Tennessee
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Default Just some thought I wanted to share !!

I'm visual cover fisherman by nature...it come to me honest...but these past couple years I have really been fishing open water and the hidden cover I guess you would say and found my self raking in even bigger fish. In 06 I'm proud to say I broke my personal best of 8 1/4 with a 10 lb big girl ..I was tickled sje was hauled in on a Norman's DD22 banana cream... Needless to say I was hooked ..but I must admit I really had to push my self to stay in the deep cover. I hope someone gains the courage from this post to try the hard to bite techniques and give the a shot for more than 30 minutes this year ....


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Old 01-06-09, 05:34 AM   #2
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Yea i wish i had access to some of the cover in deeper area's of the lakes/pond i fish, I drive by the local ponds up here in Illinois and see the X-mas trees sitting in the middle of the lake, and i think to myself...

"Whos the Idiot that puts the tree in the middle of the lake"

Im to scared to go out on the ice and get it and drag it back to the shore, fear of falling threw the ice (repeating Nightmare)

But i try to take a visual snapshot of where exactly that tree is at so when spring, early summer comes along, and i'm fishing top water bite on overcast days, ill throw on top of that tree, It's prob only in water 5ft-7ft deep for the pond I'm talking about, who knows maybe this year a nice 6+ lb will come up and take my Zara Spook, If i can cast it that far......laughs
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Old 01-06-09, 10:05 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tennessee View Post
I'm visual cover fisherman by nature...it come to me honest...but these past couple years I have really been fishing open water and the hidden cover I guess you would say and found my self raking in even bigger fish. In 06 I'm proud to say I broke my personal best of 8 1/4 with a 10 lb big girl ..I was tickled sje was hauled in on a Norman's DD22 banana cream... Needless to say I was hooked ..but I must admit I really had to push my self to stay in the deep cover. I hope someone gains the courage from this post to try the hard to bite techniques and give the a shot for more than 30 minutes this year ....


Later Will
This is exactly what i am missing and will be trying more...Great advise
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Old 01-06-09, 05:41 PM   #4
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i do my share of vizable cover fishing every year.. but it seems that during the hotter months you'll see me sitting way off the bank all out by my self.. i am NOT crappie fishing a lone brush pile..as most passers by assume..

i know what i am fishing and refuse to disclose what it is to ANY ONE. but one of my spots did produce a 9.4 pounder in july..


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Old 01-06-09, 06:04 PM   #5
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gonna try it meself this coming year as well tenn. and zooker.......tell NO ONE? secrets man....secrets. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, kidding pal. i don't blame ya really.
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Old 01-06-09, 06:16 PM   #6
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This past year I actually forced myself to start to fish deeper structure and cover on the 'voirs in a rowboat which can be somewhat difficult at times to the nearly constant afternoon winds, which make boat control a real science. Not to mention the row back to your boat section. Conventional wisdom taught me to finally realize that the afternoon winds usually blow more westerly.
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Old 01-06-09, 08:56 PM   #7
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Default please excuse my typos

Well to be honest I don't have an excuse other than I'm tired all the time and my fingers move faster than my brain I guess....

The deep water fishing can be even harder for some..but trust me if you give it some time try different things you will find what works and it will make you a better fisherman.

Start with topo map of your favorite spot or lake and look for old road beds and train tracks anything not visible to you in open water. ... mark it fish it and give it a shoot...Also talking to other deep water fisherman might be a great start if they will open up to you !!!
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Old 01-06-09, 09:08 PM   #8
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I have tried deep water bassin without much success and always find myself back beating the shoreline, I need to learn to trust the depthfinder and give deep water a fair chance.
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Old 01-06-09, 09:13 PM   #9
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My depth finder sucks azz ! I cant fish invisible cover , I guess I need to try to find spots and be more patient. I did however go over a tree fully underwater , with branches going in all directions about 4 times the size of my boat about 20' off shore once , and caught two 4 pounders off it.
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Old 01-06-09, 09:41 PM   #10
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Yeah my depthfinder aint that good either or maybe i dont have it set up right but i catch more fish on visible cover weather its on the bank or 200' off shore. As long as i can see cover i think i can catch fish.
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Old 01-06-09, 10:06 PM   #11
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i only look for depth and temp on mine everything else is a bonus..

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Old 01-06-09, 10:08 PM   #12
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What i found last week that really worked is a handheld GPS with nav maps.My buddy let me put it up front on the deck and i looked down and not 20yrds offshore behind me is an old underwater pond,i am pithing a deep dock and i haned my bud a rod with a red trap and told him to cast out to the pond and 2 fish 3 casts he got..I am now looking for a hh gps map capable..When i saw what i was missing it amazed me..My map didn't show this pond.
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Old 01-06-09, 10:12 PM   #13
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Yea zook temp and depth are about all i use mine for,I just cant seem to make out what its showing on the bottom.
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Old 01-07-09, 06:22 PM   #14
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Quote:
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i only look for depth and temp on mine everything else is a bonus..

zooker
Zooker, why wouldn't you use your depthfinder for more then that? Even the least expensive units can easily chart weeds beds especially their edges, rock walls, and road beds once you know what to look for.
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Old 01-07-09, 07:11 PM   #15
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I am a structure fisherman first and foremost. I can beat the bank with the best of them, but what I like best is locating fish, baitfish and premium structure. This time of year works really well for me with the colder water temps. The baitfish bunch up and relate to "edges" along vertical structure. Most times the fish are there too. You can learn to read this stuff on most any depthfinder and learn to fish it (jigging spoons this time of year without a doubt! Then drop shot rigs fished extremely deep).When the surface temp is about 45 degrees, you can pretty much bet on the entire water column being similar in temps, so unless you have had an unusually warm spell for 3-4 days, your deeper stuff is where it's at. I would encourage you spend some time on your depth finder.
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Old 01-07-09, 07:24 PM   #16
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Thats a dead on answer Bob I feel the same way about my own skills..I'm as comfortable fishing deep looking for bait fish and reading the sonar as I am beating the banks, both are very rewarding
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Old 01-07-09, 08:54 PM   #17
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ok...now ya'll have me wanting to see if i will be able to see these bait fish on my sonars. will it look like a cloud or something on the finder? can ya'll show me an example?
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Old 01-07-09, 09:00 PM   #18
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John, most depth finder/graphs the bait fish will appear like a blob on the screen. Sometimes they are so dense that it will actually have a "grey line" image with grey inside and black line surrounding it. This will generally have larger "arches" around and underneath the "ball of baitfish". Sometimes you'll see streaks, or lines running at an angle across your screen intersecting the ball of baitfish. This is usually fish actively feeding on the baitfish. The other thing I look for is what I call "spaghetti", your screen will have curved and arched lines running all over the place. This is a great indication of feeding fish! Usually when you see spaghetti you will not see a ball of baitfish because the fish have decimated the ball.
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Old 01-07-09, 09:15 PM   #19
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ok, bob, i have an EAGLE color finder (forget the number, i think 520c?) it shows fish symbol. the cockpit finder is a LOWRANCE (again forget the number) color. it too shows the fish symbols. now what should i see?
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Old 01-07-09, 09:16 PM   #20
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oh yea, the rear one is the better finder. it shows fish when the front one won't.
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Old 01-07-09, 09:25 PM   #21
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I have my finder set to show the fish symbol and i can see fish and bait suspended and on bottom but i have trouble making out what structure is on bottom that fish are relating too.Really i use it for depth changes and temp. Any tips on setting the units sensitivity?
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Old 01-07-09, 09:27 PM   #22
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i would like to learn to adapt to the water that i am fishing. i sometimes tend to repeat the same pattern that worked the day before, which is usually a good starting point but when it doesnt work its time to figure out what will work instead of beating a dead horse.
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Old 01-07-09, 11:24 PM   #23
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Default I have a better finder at the cockpit than at the trolling motor

Just remember lake bottoms can change over time and some might even change by the next summer…Several things play into this… drought for example allows areas that didn’t have grass last year now have a bed of grass when the water rises back to full pool

Example for lower end fish finders is you might not see stumps or a broken off trees with jagged branches sticking out, but you might see a bunch of humps. Over time silt forms around tress and stumps and changes the look also creates a bass haven. I tend to think when I see small humps and one after another that I’m most likely in a stump bed. This has worked for me several times.

Last year I was lucky enough to run into a fellow fisherman on the job that did some site work on a local man made lake. He was kind enough to make me a small hand drawn map showing were they piled all the left over rip-raff and let me tell you there were about 5 piles in 18-20 feet of water that really paid off for me and still do. I would bump a jig along those piles in the middle of no mans land and yank lips off all day.

Sorry I got carried away again

Thanks for listening

Later Will
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Old 01-08-09, 12:28 PM   #24
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Quote:
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oh yea, the rear one is the better finder. it shows fish when the front one won't.
John, go into the menu and turnoff the fish symbols. They pickup anything that isn't a solid and call it a fish. Most units that have been manufactured since the early nineties work just fine in the automatic mode as long as you have a good transducer/tranducer placement (on your front, always use a transducer on the trolling motor and put a piece of 60-90 duro rubber between the transducer and t-motor housing to cut down on signal interference). What I would recommend if the automatic setting doesn't provide enough definition is set your sensitivity at about 92-96%, set your "surface clutter/noise reduction" to medium or high, and your chart speed to medium or high. You should be able to see the fish as arches or semi-arches, and when you are stationary you should be able to drop a 3/4 oz spoon directly under the tranducer (on the t-motor) and see it when you raise and lower it (you should see it from about 10' and deeper, too close to the tranducer doesn't work very well). If you can see the spoon, then you will start seeing other things you didn't before.
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Old 01-08-09, 12:41 PM   #25
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I am still learning to use my fish finders. The problem is that every time I get out on the water (which isn't as much as I would like), all I want to do is just fish.
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