I get a lot of questions from anglers who want to find bass quickly on a body of water they’ve never been to. Many of these folks are tournament competitors, others just want to try new lakes, and some are moving and need to learn lakes in a different region of the country.
Research
Breaking down a new body of water can be intimidating. My approach starts with internet research. In this day and age, you can get the lowdown on about any lake or river you’d like to fish. The information could range from watching or reading about tournaments to chat rooms.
I combine what I find via my internet research with whatever I learn from studying digital lake maps. This puts me ahead of the game before I launch my boat.
Breaking it down
When dealing with a large body of water, such as Lake Champlain where I’m pre-practicing now, I break it down into sections. This prevents me from being overwhelmed by a vast area I can’t possibly cover efficiently in a single day.
For instance, I might break Champlain down into four different regions. This lake consists of two long main sections, one running north and the other south. I could spend one day on the northern end of the lake, starting at Plattsburg.
I might invest another day checking out the Inland Sea and another day on the southern end of the lake near Ticonderoga.
Every body of water is different. Arkansas’ Lake Dardanelle, for example, has four major creeks and the main river. If I were limited to three practice days, I would designate one day for the main river. On the other two days, I’d fish one creek each day. Another option would be to fish two creeks each day.
Fishing a section of a large body of water allows me to spend more time dissecting it. Some lakes are small enough that you can look them over pretty well in a single day.
Run the water first
With lakes like Hamiton or Ouachita, you can put in on one end, boat straight to the other and see the whole thing in one shot.
That’s pretty much what I do whether I’m fishing a small lake or a section of a large body of water. I always start out by running the whole lake or section while looking for something familiar that I’d have confidence fishing.
At the Elite Series tournament on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway last March, I fished a different pool on all three practice days. I first ran the length of each pool, looking for anything that looked fishy to me.
The best thing I found was on the lower end of the pool we launched in. I had a good finish by picking apart water willow and cypress trees that fit my style of fishing.
Map study
Map study is invaluable, but it can give you the wrong impression of what you’ll find when you get on the water for the first time. The picture that map study paints in your head often differs significantly from the real-time views you see with your eyes and electronics.
I did a lot of map study before this year’s Elite event at Lake Murray and marked many points where herring might spawn during the tournament. When I got on the lake and began checking the points I’d marked on my chart, I realized a lot of the points had grass on them. I hadn’t anticipated that.
I found that the herring spawn was not as prominent on the points that had grass. Unfortunately, about three quarters of the points I had marked on my chart had grass on them.
