Matt_Magnone
09-10-2011, 10:27 PM
this is more or less for the guys that need a little bit of help on finding fish. there are most that know all this already, but for the newer anglers; this is how i went about finding my fish thursday morning having not had my own boat wet for 3 months.
been off the water in my boat for a while so the lake was in a sense a new lake for me. not because of water level or structure spots; more or less fish location and activity levels. most people think that because i work in a tackle shop i see what all the "successful" anglers are buying by "tracking" an anglers purchase but i dont do that kind of stuff. realistically when ringing a customer up my mind almost goes blank as im watching to make sure items are rung up properly. needless to say, things were interesting.
okay, were in september, surface temperature was 80 and change. im thinking that due to the warmer water there should be some activity on the shade lines up until the sun comes up then the fish would either cram up in the crap, suspend, or push out to deep water. launched and shot to the west end and on the first spot i metered i noticed pods of fish hitting the surface. i noticed there were fish on the graph hovering around 30 - 35ft. i adjusted my graph and bumped my sensitivity and realized that the thermocline was at that same 30-35ft zone and there were small pods of bait with the stripes or largies balled up beneath. cool, i have a location to work around. i metered the next 3 points. all 3 points had larger rock, trees and a defined piece of cover at 35'.
its now been 30 minutes since i launched and i have a lot of valuable information. knowing i have to be off the water by 8:45am i decided to leave these active fish to find new water and refine my ideas. shoot over towards the tower direction and start metering around. the graph read 50'.....40'.....35' bingo fish. okay cool. thermocline, fish, boulder on a point. consistency. picked up the rod and threw the bait out and within the first 3 casts stick a healthy 3 - 4 pounder. flipped the boat around and worked back across the point. this time i get bit and farm a fish on the hookset. same depth, same structure and cover.
pick the trolling motor up and move to the next point. drop the motor around that 35 -40 ft mark. first cast. BAM. 4 pounder.
3 casts later do it all over again. pick the motor up and move back down the lake. this time towards bathroom cove. metered around and fish were packed up on a high spot in at 30ish feet. from this spot to the next couple spots, the fishing was straight out of control. off the water by 8:45 with over 20 fish. some fish back to back, other times every couple casts.
think of fishing like a puzzle. dont just go fishing. hunt those little green pieces of crap down and make them eat something thats fake.
fishing is out of control right now its just that there are a lot of people keeping it quiet. there a lot of busters, there is 100% a topwater bite, there are fishing eating from the bank down to 60' and there a lot of nicer fish being caught.
the whole thing is, you have to hunt them right now. if you dont get bit, bail. keep searching and sooner or later you'll find something special.
been off the water in my boat for a while so the lake was in a sense a new lake for me. not because of water level or structure spots; more or less fish location and activity levels. most people think that because i work in a tackle shop i see what all the "successful" anglers are buying by "tracking" an anglers purchase but i dont do that kind of stuff. realistically when ringing a customer up my mind almost goes blank as im watching to make sure items are rung up properly. needless to say, things were interesting.
okay, were in september, surface temperature was 80 and change. im thinking that due to the warmer water there should be some activity on the shade lines up until the sun comes up then the fish would either cram up in the crap, suspend, or push out to deep water. launched and shot to the west end and on the first spot i metered i noticed pods of fish hitting the surface. i noticed there were fish on the graph hovering around 30 - 35ft. i adjusted my graph and bumped my sensitivity and realized that the thermocline was at that same 30-35ft zone and there were small pods of bait with the stripes or largies balled up beneath. cool, i have a location to work around. i metered the next 3 points. all 3 points had larger rock, trees and a defined piece of cover at 35'.
its now been 30 minutes since i launched and i have a lot of valuable information. knowing i have to be off the water by 8:45am i decided to leave these active fish to find new water and refine my ideas. shoot over towards the tower direction and start metering around. the graph read 50'.....40'.....35' bingo fish. okay cool. thermocline, fish, boulder on a point. consistency. picked up the rod and threw the bait out and within the first 3 casts stick a healthy 3 - 4 pounder. flipped the boat around and worked back across the point. this time i get bit and farm a fish on the hookset. same depth, same structure and cover.
pick the trolling motor up and move to the next point. drop the motor around that 35 -40 ft mark. first cast. BAM. 4 pounder.
3 casts later do it all over again. pick the motor up and move back down the lake. this time towards bathroom cove. metered around and fish were packed up on a high spot in at 30ish feet. from this spot to the next couple spots, the fishing was straight out of control. off the water by 8:45 with over 20 fish. some fish back to back, other times every couple casts.
think of fishing like a puzzle. dont just go fishing. hunt those little green pieces of crap down and make them eat something thats fake.
fishing is out of control right now its just that there are a lot of people keeping it quiet. there a lot of busters, there is 100% a topwater bite, there are fishing eating from the bank down to 60' and there a lot of nicer fish being caught.
the whole thing is, you have to hunt them right now. if you dont get bit, bail. keep searching and sooner or later you'll find something special.