help me locating fish…

I am a summing that you have your favorite spots that you fish regularly. If one spot don’t bite you would move to next one and next one and so on. It from spending a lot of time in the water.
Before all that, when you are new to the place. how much time did you spend finding fish before you do the fishing?
When you look at a contour map what is it that you look for to start your search?.
Am new to this, so i wouldn’t be able to read the water/river yet.I am counting on my fish finder and map.

Over the years I’ve been mainly a lake fisherman so I’ve got a lot to learn also, but I have picked up a ton of info here on IDO, hit Everts on pool 4 if you can, they also will get you started in where and with what to fish with.

As far as spots and how long I stay, usually long enough to try several presentations and then move on, maybe a half hour or longer.
Having two in the boat helps too, you each can try different baits.

Al

Bass or walleyes?
For walleyes, finding your protected wingdams, say, behind down points, inside turns or mabe at the lowest ends of some secondary chutes is key.
You can’t beat cranks right now for locating fish!
Once found, you then can slow down and rig it, or anchor up and dissect the area. Don’t spend too much time on each winger or area, if they are around, this is the time of year they will chomp
Not a huge troller myself but a ton of expert walleye guys like to run lead core and handline set ups this time of year. The water they cover is incredible and it’s a great way to find schools of aggressive bites. That’s where the location of long seams come into play.

If you plan it right by checking your map, you should be able to pinpoint at least a half dozen areas to target for the day. Set your sights and stick with the game plan

I read a lot of reports.

Take whatever you’re looking to catch (bass/walleye/panfish,pike) and find some recent reports and a similar body of water, then work from there. If I’m finding reports of crappies in deep water off spawning area on one lake, I reasonable expect to find crappies doing much of the same in other lakes. I can work out the specifics on the water.

I don’t, but I know lots of people do, keep logs and records look what you’ve done in years past, heck I read a lot of reports from years past, especially if I’m on unknown water.

Fish with other people, I think this is huge, you learn so much fishing with other, I’m not sure at the end of the day you can even recall all that you may have learned over the day, in a big addition to that fish with a guide, even better go out with a good guide and a bad day to catch fish, I maintain you’ll learn more on those days than you will and the days you catch fish after fish, (assuming you have a really good guide)

Most of all get decent graphs and electronics, learn to use them and interpret them to their full capacity, I rely on my graphs and GPS more so on water than I do preparing for the trip, if I’m catching fish in one type of area, I’m looking at my map chip to find similar areas/structure on the lake/river where the same pattern may hold true too.

A lot of times I get some guidance from reports and such, I go out and graph the area ( if possible) and work from there, if I’m just not seeing anything, I won’t put much into it, but that depends on the spot and what I know too.

Myself I seem to do just darn fine finding fish, triggering the bite is a whole ‘nother story,

I have to say I would never take a fishing report to heart. Many folks post bogus stuff to make themselves look and feel better or just the opposite, they dont want others on the lake so they say there are no fish.

as for how to locate the active fish–there are so many things to learn that in a life time you wont know all the secrets.
some folks will look for the first group of boats and do the “monkey see–monkey do!” kind of thing.
That works now and then and is ok if you are only going to fish this lake once a year.
If you plan on fishing a body of water often, then you will definitely want to dissect the lake starting at home.
get yourself a map and/or an H2o unit.

I know for “eyes”, they are always going to go where the forage is. You’ll need to know what the forage base is in your lake system. If there is shad or cisco’s, expect some kind of suspension going on at least some of the time.

if you are dealing with bullheads, perch, crayfish, etc, then know when and where they will spawn and what they do throughout the year. where do they congregate.

I have to say, that for walleyes, there is a 5 book series called “Critical Concepts” that has turned my walleye fishing around. I can honestly say I have increased my catch rate 10 fold after reading these books. I take them with me when i go for a week long trip into the northwoods just for reference.

You can ask at a bait shop, but remember the bait shop guy is stuck in his shop and is getting his info from other anglers. He might be able to tell you where they spawn, when they spawned and some weather patterns as of late, but his info is limited as well.

you will also need to take the lake type into consideration. Is is Oligotrophic, Mesotrophic or Isotrophic? Is it some of each and what does that mean to you?

Keep in mind that in any body of water, not all fish are doing the same thing at the same time. fish in one area may be responsive to leeches while others across the bay prefer red tail chubs on a jig, and others may prefer more of a slower presentation such as a slip float and crawler.

I wouldn’t go by what is happening on another lake because no two systems are the same. The only info i would take from a different lake is the date of spawn if they are located within an hour from each other. Water temp can very by more than 10 degrees in a single body of water so taking two different bodies of water and comparing them is like apples and oranges.

These books rock. If you are the studious type, these are well worth your $$.

https://store.intermediaoutdoors.com/shop/ItemDetail.aspx?item=102106&