Fishing Approach to New Waters
We all have our favorite lakes or rivers for
bass and most of the time we know how to always catch fish there.
So what do you do when there’s that TOC for your tournament
circuit where you have never been or maybe you have just seen
the lake? How do you pattern out these fish? And many more questions
to ask. So let me tell you how I go about doing this.
The very first thing I would do is go buy
a topographic map of the river or lake and study every characteristic
and depth change in the body of water. Then the next thing I
would do is talk with some people who are familiar with the body
of water, or call a nearby tackle store. These people can normally
give you some good information on what lures and techniques produce
fish during that particular season or month. Also ask things
such as water temperature and water clarity. This will give you
an idea of what depth to fish and what size line to use. Ok,
so now we got the temperature, say 68 degrees and dropping, which
means the fish will probably start moving shallow, feeding up
for the winter. Say water clarity is about 2-4ft. visibility,
which means you can use pretty heavy line size. Now lets go catch
some fish!
We just got out on the water for the first
time and we have 5 rods rigged up. We have a spinnerbait, crankbait,
buzzbait, jig, and a worm. Now you see I set us up with mostly
reaction baits because, reaction bait fish are much easier to
catch and it’s easiest to pick up a decent limit quick.
What makes it easy to catch a limit quick is that they are made
to cover a lot of water quickly. So, you catch a fish here and
there but, within a reasonable amount of time.
When we looked on the map it showed a lot
of shallow flats with laydowns and dying weeds all throughout
them. This would be a good spot to hit first thing in the morning
because, the fish will come up from the points and creek channels
to feed when there is low light. We go through there quick with
a buzzbait, bringing it right over branches and running it into
everything else in its way, trying to make as much noise and
racket as possible. We get a few blowups but, none hooked. So,
what do we do next? You guessed it, go back through there slow
rolling a spinnerbait. Going back through with a spinnerbait
will most likely pick up most of the fish that hit our buzzbait.
Alright good job we got 3 decent keepers
in the live-well. Since we caught 3 on this flat we go and try
another, with the same type of cover and depth. We pick up one
better than average fish and a dink that just barely makes the
12" minimum. See quick limit, huh? Well it doesn’t
always happen this way but the majority of the time it will.
Right now we have about 13lbs and we know most tourneys are won
here with about 17lbs. We know that we have to at least have
17lbs. so, that’s where we set our goal. In this situation
I would go and fish about 10ft. deeper than I was and try to
cull out our smaller fish.
The main spot I would look for to do this
would either be a creek channel or a main lake point. I would
probably only throw the jig, since it normally does catch the
bigger fish in almost every lake. We get done working a few points
and cull 3 of our 5 fish which, brings our weight up to about
16lbs, maybe even 17lbs. What do I do when I’ve reached
my goal? Just keep fishin’ with the bait that helped me
cull my fish and pray that God will give you the one big bite
everyone always dreams of.
Remember this is just the way I would approach
a new body of water. These are also some of my baits that I have
a lot of confidence in and maybe you don’t. That’s
fine because, there’s nothing that’ll catch more fish
for you than your confidence bait. So go out and fish that new
place that you’ve always wondered about. Give your-self
a challenge and a test of how good of a fisherman you really
are! Take care and keep those lines tight!
Justin Lucas
Junior Pro- Staffer
"The California Kid" |
