When locating and fishing structure what is the most effective reliable way to locate transition areas….e.g. sand to mud, rock to gravel. It seems these transitions areas are key in findind fish.
thoughts? Thanks! 
Not a pro,s answer but good electronics will give you the transitions. Alot of the time on newwater I will get out map then go looking with my electronics. A good tip is to go over mud/sand / rock and know how your unit displays them and use this as a reference 
If your looking for a “PRO” answer…just skip mine!
I’ve learned so much about my locator by using an underwater camera…they can be rented for a day.
Not only does it help you understand your locator better, but using it on the lake that your fishing helps too…
I’ve “trolled” with mine (.7 mph).
I ran into some nice gills on the Croix and in one area, the rocks on the bottom turned out to be clam shells.
Good luck!
First post! Kewl! Welcome to IDA!!!!!
First post indeed…I frequent a few other forums (www.fishingminnesota.com & http://www.lakestatefishing.com) but i just found this one.
Seems nice…I’ll have to add this to the list of site I check EVERYDAY 
Thanks for the replies so far…look forward to more!!
I can’t wait until May!
I need a new locator. mine is garbage!
Welcome. Great to have you with us. Please feel free to share and post all you want. 
Lowrance and Eagle make some very nice locators these days. When you see on your locator the bottom grayscale getting thicker you have just gone from a softer bottom to a harder bottom. To get an idea of what this looks like when you are in your boat on open water next time watch your locator go down a break and where it comes to the bottom. You will notce that one area is skinnier and the other connected area is thicker. Then you will see the differnce between the two bottom contents [soft and hard bottom]. If you are looking for a new locator my reccomendation would be to buy something in the Lowrance or Eagle 480 on up for example. I have a couple Eagle 320s on my boat [480 is the newer version] and they show the difference pretty well. If you are looking for something with a sonar and gps together type unit then also go the LMS480 on up as it takes the newest Navionics map chips as it has the bigger processer in it. By the way, I am not sponsored by either. Just a very happy customer.
Again, welcome to the site.
Thanks, Bill
Like the guys stated, A good locator is a must. The new color Vexilar is easy to use and shows transition very well.
Click on the Vexilar link below.
I mounted my FL-8 on the bow of the boat, and Derek is right it does a good job of showing the bottom changes. I was Bass fishing last fall and it became obvious that the fish were present over the harder bottoms even if the depth was the same. It was easy to see on the Vex and lets us concentrate our efforts on the productive spots.
Good to see ya Derek!
Rootski
I’ll toss in another two cents…
Whatever locator your next is…spend a few extra bucks for color…It’s the only way to go!
I agree with all above. Using and knowing what your locator is trying to tell you is critical in finding bottom transistion areas. There are a few maps that show approximate changes in bottom content. Map a few out and then try to find them using your locator or camera. You are right on the fish being there. Transistions are great places to start trying to locate fish on the pond. Welocme to the site
Lot’s of good answers so far about electronics so therefore….on to the next critical step….Once you’ve found a transition area on your locator…it’s time to cast out some of your transmission lures (jigs, crankbaits, carolina rigs) and feel the bottom. Watch for changes in the vibration of your crankbaits, feel the weights of your Carolina dragging across the bottom. See what kind of vegetation comes up & feel the softness of sand vs hopping a jig across a stump. Mark those area on your GPS and that’s usually the sweet spot(s) that can bring a bite. I’m surely not a pro so my information pertains primarily to lake fishing specifically around my own home base. In the river, all the above I mentioned can all change in a matter of minutes/seconds depending on water flow affecting structure.
As for Mille Lacs, the transition is pretty much 27-28′ most everywhere you go on the lake. Thats transition from hard bottom (sand, gravel, rock) to mud. There are some exceptions where you will find hard bottom below that depth, but rule of thumb is 27-28′.
i usually just dive in swim down to the bottom and look to see whats there 
,sometimes its a little cold in the winter but you gotta do what you gotta do
As Brian K said. Using your electronics is an easy way to find transition zones. There are a lot of times I use the MarCum OVS 560 underwater camera to support my findings. Most Graphs and Flashers will tell you what the bottom content is if you are trained to recognize how they read.
I can easily tell what the bottom content is using my LX-5, just a matter of how the return signal looks. However, I have hundreds of hours reading a flasher and have standard settings I use when I am searching for fish. When in doubt, down goes the camera
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As for Mille Lacs, the transition is pretty much 27-28′ most everywhere you go on the lake. Thats transition from hard bottom (sand, gravel, rock) to mud. There are some exceptions where you will find hard bottom below that depth, but rule of thumb is 27-28′.
Great replies..I love this site already. Seems like there is a lot of Mille Lacs guys on here so i’ll stay on that subject.
As you stated above about the 27 – 28 fow areas. You say that is a common depth that there would be a transition area. What about rocks? I fish a couple areas that top off at 8 – 10 feet and drop all around it. What about the transition from rock to sand/gravel. Would you rather focus on that transition or is it better to stay on top of these rocks. I personally prefer the edge but what do you all think?
Good question mnman. I will be interested in seeing what others have to say on that also. I find that when fishing the rocks in general the depth seems to be the key ingredient most of the time, but throw in the transition area which I am not sure how define that is on mille lacs and is it a fish hang out? I would think so, great place for an ambush on bait fish.
There’s lots of transition areas in the 15-18 foot range. Especially on the SW side around Andersons Reef. You can find large schools of walleyes in these areas. The hard rock changes to marl-clay and then to very soft sand. These marl areas hold loads of clam beds which hold perch which ofcourse attracts walleyes. Transition areas also includes the weed beds in the bays. Like Scott said, A good flasher like the Vexilar FL-18 
is a great tool for reading bottom transitions. The new color Vexilar Edge LCD is also an excellent sonar for find transition as well. I think a sonar sometimes has benefits over a camera because it can be hard to see what is hard and soft bottom, to me its easier to see on sonar..
And the areas Jack pointed out are key as well. Especially those walleyes that school up in the deep gravel in the middle of nowhere..
Thanks Root!!! Glad to be back…
Well the reason I bring this up is becasue many of the rocks I fish I have spots that produce 10-1.
Example: I have one spot that I fish a lot, marked on my gps. I anchor in for the most part the same spot and the same way. If I cast to the N, S, or E, I catch fish. If I cast to the W I slay them. Not everytime but more than enough to keep me focusing on that area. My electronics aren’t good enough to pick up transitions or I don’t know how to read it. So not exactly sure what is going on down there.
My goal is to figure out why the fish are focused in on this one area and then try to identicate it in other areas.
I kid you not. Three times last summer our bobbers where going down as fast as they hit the water in one spot. In these other directions off the boat fish were being caught at a much slower pace. one night there were three of us and it got to the point that we were all casting to the same spot. Wow was that a fun night.
My guess is the reason that one small area holds fish, is due too the size of the rocks! I have found many times that some areas will hold fish while others not. It’s all in what is on the bottom!! I have spent time looking down a hole in the ice, walking the surface of the ice ( new ice that has no snow cover ) looking at what size of rocks that might be in certain areas. By doing this it helps answer the question why? The use of an underwater camera will also help you idenify the why! Hook and I had a spot down on a gravel that was holding fish. We kept asking ourselves why are these fish always here? Well we dropped the underwater camera down over the side of the boat and found out that this small area had small rock laying on the bottom! This area was surrounded by “just gravel” but it held fish!!
It takes alittle extra work sometimes to fiqure out the why!!
This is great….
Thanks Guys.
I think your guide service just got a new customer.
There really isn’t any depth rules to follow when you are looking at transitions from rock to sand or gravel. That varies all over the lake. In many cases you need to look at the transitions from large rock to small rock, as well as small rock/gravel to sand. More often than not, if you are looking at fishing rocks, you had better understand current, because that will have more bearing on where the fish will be holding than transitions.
FYI, rocks are my #1 game on Mille Lacs!
MN, you give me the coordinates to that hot spot, and I’ll run out there next weekend with the camera to look it over. 
Welcome to IDA!!!
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My guess is the reason that one small area holds fish, is due too the size of the rocks! I have found many times that some areas will hold fish while others not. It’s all in what is on the bottom!!
In addition to rock size, I have one more factor that I’m convinced is a important. Clean rock will generally hold more/better fish than silted or algae covered rock. For instance, you may have a reef covered with all baseball to softball size rock. However only one corner of that reef hold fish. That corner will almost always be “clean” rock. Or rock that is significantly cleaner than the rock in that general area.
I can’t remember the year, pretty sure it was early to mid 90’s when we had a summer with super water clarity. No problem seeing bottom in 15 FOW on sunny days. We didn’t have cameras, but we sure learned a lot about the rocks we were fishing that year!
-J.
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