Lake Exploring

A friend’s family and mine spent some time at their cabin this past weekend, and we decided to try a small lake we’d always had our eye on. Seeing little emergent weed-growth from the aerial photos, favorable topography surrounding, and some decent gill lakes in the nearby vicinity, we thought we might have our very own un-touched gem right out the back 40.

It was about a 1/2 mile in, and absolutely gorgeous. 12 feet max from what we could find, and plenty of 9-11 feet depths. Even though we didn’t see much from aerial photography in terms of floating veg., there was plenty of it below the surface due to the great water clarity. I’m guessing that it winterkills with such great weeds, but it sure was fun trying.

I spend alot of time checking out survey lakes, but it was fun to take a shot in the dark as well, even though it didn’t pan out. We ended up driving right past the lake that James and I filmed those great gills a few weeks ago, but what fun would that be?

Cross another one off the list!

Joel

I did one of those last week in N Wis. I saw some interesting marks but no takers so I still dont know whats in there. Had good depth too. Basically a spring hole and some of those can and do put out.

Quote:

---

I’ve got a few of those I’d like to try this season also. No maps or surveys.

Did you guys catch nothing or just nothing big?

---

Absolutely nothing. I was disheartened to see standing weeds 3 feet below the ice in most of the 9 – 12 foot holes I drilled. Had water been more dark, a lake like that has potential to hold fish. Usually shoreline topography gives good clues, but not always. There was good slope here, just not the max depth I was hoping for!

Joel

Quote:

---

I did one of those last week in N Wis. I saw some interesting marks but no takers so I still dont know whats in there. Had good depth too. Basically a spring hole and some of those can and do put out.

---

You have to go back! Some of the best lakes I’ve found like this don’t always give up fish. Come back during a different time of winter, or in the summer, and it’s lights-out. Really promising to mark those fish too. Good luck!

Joel

Did you drop a camera down or just sonar?

Just sonar, but no movement among the weeds. Would’ve loved to have the camera with.

Joel

Joel, what is your searching technique online? I’ve always used google or bing maps on one window and lake finder on the other to search an area.

There are lots of smaller lakes that don’t have names on them though. Is it local knowledge you use to get the name, call DNR, or how else do you find names of lakes not listed on maps so you can retrieve a survey….

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

I did one of those last week in N Wis. I saw some interesting marks but no takers so I still dont know whats in there. Had good depth too. Basically a spring hole and some of those can and do put out.

---

You have to go back! Some of the best lakes I’ve found like this don’t always give up fish. Come back during a different time of winter, or in the summer, and it’s lights-out. Really promising to mark those fish too. Good luck!

Joel

---

Heck yea! You got me even more excited now.

there have been times where we have driven right past a small sign displaying the lake’s name, so one day on our way home we stopped to see what it looked like. Drove in off a picnic area. Didn’t take too long and we had struck gold. The perch were very active and in the 11 inch range, we caught more in 45 minutes that we did the whole weekend. We did throw a few in a bucket to clean, found a bunch of worms so we never went back. Some my best fishing has come from those small out of the way lakes.

Quote:

---

Joel, what is your searching technique online? I’ve always used google or bing maps on one window and lake finder on the other to search an area.

There are lots of smaller lakes that don’t have names on them though. Is it local knowledge you use to get the name, call DNR, or how else do you find names of lakes not listed on maps so you can retrieve a survey….

---

I use the dnr website recreation compass page. You can click on a body of water and it will bring up the lake finder page for it.

Recreation Compass

Quote:

---

Joel, what is your searching technique online? I’ve always used google or bing maps on one window and lake finder on the other to search an area.

There are lots of smaller lakes that don’t have names on them though. Is it local knowledge you use to get the name, call DNR, or how else do you find names of lakes not listed on maps so you can retrieve a survey….

---

WARNING – THIS COULD GET LONG AND BECOME HIGHLY ADDICTIVE –

I use a number of different approaches to tracking down lakes and what might be in them, but I’ll do my best to keep this brief.

• DNR Recreation Compass – Pat mentioned this earlier, and it’s an incredibly valuable resource in that it’s a general navigation/orienting aid, while being connected to the fisheries databases. Double click on any lake, and you get some basic information on size, and a link to go to the MN DNR Lakefinder Database.
• Lakemaster Pro Software – This tool has that same capability, but also gives you visible contours as part of the program, rather than downloadable PDF’s. It’s nice to see the high resolution contours for the larger lakes too.
• Google Earth – Essential for comparing years of imagery via the “show historical imagery” button. Using the slider, you can toggle between various years of imagery. Why is this valuable? Especially for lakes that don’t have a survey, half of the battle is trying to aerially assume whether or not the lake has depth enough to support fish life. Or more appropriately, has enough depth over enough littoral area to prevent continual winterkill conditions. Comparing multiple years reveals not only weed conditions, but possible access trails, another key consideration!
• Bing Maps – For some areas, the Birds Eye Imagery included as part of Bing shows far more detail. This can be helpful, especially for determining access.
• DNR Lakefinder – Most folks are aware of this, and we’ve done a few shows on it, so I won’t get into the nitty-gritty. It continues to play a large role in the lakes I find, but does not always include the information I need. Case in point, I’ve found a few bluegill gems in particular that had poor bluegill surveys. When in doubt, check it out!
• County GIS Departments – Perhaps the most difficult part of finding a new lake, is learning how to access it properly and legally. These days, many county GIS departments have online plat books. Either PDF, printable/saveable versions, or interactive ones you can query for ownership information. There’s alot of lakes and accesses which are illegally posted. Don’t let that scare you off. Know the ownership, and in situations where illegal posting has taken place, call the county sheriff’s department. Meet them out there and verify ownership via the plat records you have. By all means, do not trespass, but also don’t let people illegally try to keep to themselves that which is truly a public resource.
• Assorted Land Research – In MN, we’re blessed with a myriad of public land. However, from federal, to state, to county, to types of each; different rules exist for motorized vehicles, even foot traffic. Make sure to know the rules of the area you’re checking out!

There’s more, but this is getting long already. Make sure to check out lakes that don’t get surveyed also. Contact DNR Fisheries Managers regarding specific lakes. Talk about the science with them, ask them about year classes and potential for fishing there in the future. These guys are wonderful to talk to, and true stewards of the resource as well.

Good luck, and happy lake hunting to all!

Joel

great stuff joel.

in illinois they are awful at giving you creel surveys and such on bodies of water. for quite some time i’ve been able to utilize GE and then the counties GIS site to locate bodies of water and then find access to them or at least someone to contact.

its amazing what 1 phone call gives you the ability to do. however, i’ve been able to find many publicly owned bodies of water that are full of fish but access is generally difficult.

i called a union office in chicago that owns some land that has a borrow pit on it to see if it was alright that i fish it. they didn’t care AT ALL lol.

Joel
Well I’m hooked thanks for the post (and taking the time to post the information)that compass tool is impressive and I did not know it existed.

It would be great if you could put on one of your seminars???
Bob

I like using Bing and Googles “Birds Eye Views” on lakes where they have summer photos. You can tell a lot by the color of the lake and the weedlines.

I am glad it gets LONG to read! Very helpful information that everyone should be using! The harder people work the bigger the rewards! Great link!!!

Thanks for sharing!

Jake

Quote:

---

Joel
Well I’m hooked thanks for the post (and taking the time to post the information)that compass tool is impressive and I did not know it existed.

It would be great if you could put on one of your seminars???
Bob

---

Thanks Bob – I’ll try to find the proper venue and timing to share some more of this information. If anything pops out at you, or if you have any questions in the meantime, just drop me a PM or post!

Joel

Nice posts Joel, kudos for the hard work. Some of these tiny little gems are the jackpot at times. -Q