Finding Fish

[striker23]

Other than using the fish finder, does anyone have any good tips to locate fish? I know that birds ( kingfishers, herons, cranes, etc.) go where the big fish chase their prey, so theres always big fish around where the birds are. Any other things like that that anyones knows of?

[bassthumb32]

thats tough man. watch for shad, other fisherman, even stripper fisherman. smallmouth run with strippers sometimes this time of year when its really hot.

[BPoi523433]

i dont think it's a good idea to mix stripping and fishing

[PowerBass]

no it is okay when you have strippers performing when you are fishing LOL

[striker23]

im guessing he meant striped bass, i dont know about those fishermen that strip though.

[PowerBass]

I was talking about having a couple blonde hotties strippin for you when ya fish, not you strip while you fish!

[Rebbasser]

Take a look at the surroundings. For example, if you are on a point it will not end at the waters edge-it will continue under water. If you nave flooded timber and you see two leaning towards each other is is a good bet there is a creek channel or something in between them. If you have a leaning tree fish on the side it leans towards-often times there is some good cover at the base. That may not find fish for you, but it will find the kind of structure that hold fish.

[Mac1]

Often when you see a turtle sticking his head out of the water, there is good cover for fish below....either a weedbed or a bed of rocks, most often, I'm told, it's a weedbed.

Also look for indentations in the land surrounding a body of water. These are sometimes called washes and will often carry food into a lake when it's raining. Always a good idea to fish the incomming wash area, especially if it's raining or has rained in the last few days.

Changes in weeds are good to....say from pads to spikes or cattails to reeds....be sure to patiently fish the transitions from type to type.

Also be sure to fish the little isolations in cattails, reeds, pads, etc. Fish the main edge of the bed, but be sure to cover the little separate patches as well. One reed standing alone can shade the eye of a bass, sometimes a biggun. Same for pads......

If you can see bottom in a lily pad area....and the bottom is smooth, it won't hold as many fish at all compared to one that is undulating up and down or ridged.

As the sun rises, it becomes more and more important to fish the shadows....the shadow sides of lily pads, the shadow side of weedbeds, stumps, logs, etc. Even the large shadows in the water cast from trees on the banks....

A bed of rocks the size of your fist to the size of grapefruits are a great place to fish if you can find an area of that nature. Dying fish decompose and fall into the cracks between them.....crawfish feed on this as well as minnows are drawn to the area.

Any small streams coming into coves will help that cove hold fish. If the cove has no stream at it's back end coming in, it won't in all probability hold many fish. The stream fed coves have more food being supplied, a streambed submerged on the bottom proving a roadway for bass travel and better oxygination during the hotter summer months. There are some exceptions, but as a general rule, look for the incomming streams, even though small.

Docks are great places to locate fish....if they have weeds coming all the way up to the end of the dock they are much better than those that don't. Also, some docks touch the edges of creek channels...these can be great as well.

A fish finder, even the little inexpensive ones are a great help for locating underwater structure and cover. I'd suggest getting one when you can. I have a small Garmin that runs on a battery I put into my kayak. It works well and opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

Lures.......I use weightless lizards for fishing pads, reeds, spikes, etc. as they are less likely to hang up. With the rod tip up, you can crawl a lizard across the top of pads and let him drop into the little openings. Worked slowly in the reeds, the lizard works well also.

Cut off the tail of a zoom speedworm in watermelon/red, texpose the worm body on a 2/0 worm hook and fish weightless in and around weeds, logs, rocks, etc. I use this most of the time for slow falling and deadsticking in most of my fishing.

Hope this helps, Mac

[striker23]

Thanks, ive noticed turtles come to the surface then quickly dart into the weeds for cover; The turtles are good indicators too.

[ROBZILLA]

read this and you will understand more about finding fish in different water locations.


http://home.comcast.net/~rkrz/infoar...nfamiliar2.htm

Robby.

[KH.]

well look for cover, most fish are goind to be near some weeds logs ect. their not going to be in the middle of the lake with just water they got to have protection