New Lakes

[gonefishin3]

Long story short.... I qualified for state championships this year...... we will be on a new lake this year Ive heard its a clear lake it boarders New Mexico and Colorado (basically all smallmouth im stoked! ) . Im going up this weekend and next weekend to prefish and the tournament is on the weekend of the 17th. What do you guys do to learn a new lake? I shuld be spending like 8 days total before the tournament on the lake. But I don't understand how you find good spots on a whole lake quickly what do you guys do in this case? Obiously look at maps and contours find drop offs and islands? What about some more detailed things........

[kennethdaysale]

Hey GF3..Talk to the locals....go to every bait and tackle store around the lake...marinas....contact a couple of the local clubs. Understand of course that some of them are going to send you on a snipe hunt and some of them will tell all they use are wacky rigged marshmellows etc. I wouldn't pull up in $80-$100k worth of truck and boat and begin demanding information either.
Of course you could just earn your fish the "old fashioned" way and spend every minute you can on the water fishing. GOOD LUCK...KEN

[Bassboss]

First thing's first. Go to the local tackle shop ask around. Find what phase the fish are in (summer patterns, fall patterns, etc). Once you know that you can narrow it down to deep or shallow water. I'm sure the folks you talk to can give you a general idea of where the fish if they're deep (points, ledges, humps, etc). They might even give away what they've been catching em on.. but just by how you described the lake, seems like a robo worm on a drop shot would work well once you find the fish. IMO the first step in find fish should be finding where fish ARE NOT.

p.s. if you go to tackle warehouse, and check out the "vlogs" you'll find some pretty darn good info about prefishing tourmaline that should help you out.

[Fish30114]

Depending on your budget constraints, I would seriously think about hiring a guide for that lake. You don't actually have to fish with him, but be honest and tell him you are going to be fishing a tournament there, and when, and usually for a pretty reasonable $ a guide will sit and have a coffee with you and give you some great intel. I have had several guides visit with me, and try to refuse a tip, which I made sure they got anyway. I've done this a lot, and what a big difference it has made. One thing that can be really great about this is, despite what local shops might be saying one way or the other, a guide can tell you what is really working-bait wise--right at that particular time. Getting to an area where the local shops are sold out of the hot bait right then is fairly common, knowing that a particular color or type of bait is something you will really want to have is nice to know in advance, and you can order some or pick some up prior to heading to that particular lake for the actual tournament.

If you like to fish a particular style, I would ask about where that produces best on this lake, and factor that into my choice of how/where to fish.

Good luck!