Strategy For Finding Fish At New Venues

No matter whether you are fishing recreationally or in a tournament, the key to a good day on the water is catching fish, and in order to accomplish this you need to work out where they are. This can be quite a daunting task if you have never been to the venue before, and especially if you are facing a large body of water. Of course you can just hit the water and cruise around until something catches your eye, but advance preparation will vastly improve your chances of success. A great place to start your preparation would be to do as much research as possible on the internet using various forums and online magazines. Local fishing magazines such as this one contain a wealth of information and you are likely to find useful articles on the place you are planning to visit. Google Earth is one of the most useful tools available to anglers and if you look through their historical imagery, you will find photographs of the water body when it was at a low level. It is then possible to create waypoints in Google Earth and export them to you GPS unit which will assist you on the water. I always print maps of the venue showing various levels of detail and will make notes on them throughout the course of the day. Google Earth Image high levelGoogle Earth Image low level It is important to know what the bass are doing from a biological perspective at the time you will be on the water as this will assist with your preparation. In addition, current and recent weather patterns will determine where your focus should be. For example, if you assume that most bass have now finished spawning and have left their beds, they are likely to be guarding fry or have pulled back from the flats to the nearest structure where you can plan to look for them in these areas. However, a protracted cold period leading up to your time on the water might have delayed this process and some of the fish might remain up shallow. From a tournament angling perspective, I always plan my practice/scanning days before I get on the water, and when visiting a new venue I try to make sure that I see as much of the dam as possible before an event. This will normally take more than one day, but when this isn’t possible, my aim will be to identify a couple of patterns as early as possible, and then to replicate them in a couple of areas as there is no guarantee that you will be first to your spot. When you arrive at the venue, assess the conditions by looking at the previous week’s weather and try to forecast the pattern i.e. post spawn or summer pattern etc. A check of the surface water temperature will help you to understand what the fish will be doing too. Deepwater Area Patterning summertime bass in the Western Cape: Due to the very wide variety of conditions possible, I will assume the following conditions as an example: Post-frontal, warm weather, and warm, dirty dropping water which is common at this time of year. I am also reviewing this from a tournament pre-fish/ practice perspective. Before the day begins, it would be a good idea to draw up a list of spots on the water that you would like to investigate, along with approximate time of day and to then stick to this plan! What you have to keep in mind is that you are searching for successful patterns and not looking to catch all the fish off your potential areas. 1) Mornings: My strategy for early morning is to move fast along shallow flats targeting fish that are still feeding actively from the previous night. Due to the fact that I would most commonly target Smallmouth bass first thing in the morning, I tend to choose hard surface baits such as poppers, prop-baits and spook-type baits around shallow broken rock. I like to work the bait fast and cover as much water as I can before the sun gets high and pushes the fish into deeper water. Due to the dirty water in this scenario, bass will remain shallow for longer than they would if it were clean. At some stage in the morning, the smallmouth topwater bite usually tapers off and it is time to look for other patterns. Fish are active under these conditions and can be targeted with shallow running crankbaits and spinnerbaits if there is some wind around and if not, mojo rigged plastics are good go-to baits in the morning. 2) Midday: If I have had a lot of success during the morning session, I often use this time to scan for similar areas around the dam to be used on tournament day. If you don’t find fish shallow, it is time to target offshore structure in the main lake. At this time of year, sight fishing in dirty water is not an option and so try to cover water down to ten feet deep using a mojo-rigged fluke or the like. Good electronics are very useful for scanning suitable drop-offs and rock piles but if you have had a chance to prepare properly, you should have a number of locations already marked and can get straight to the fishing. I would target deeper structure with drop-shot techniques, usually small fluke-type baits on light line or using heavy 1oz Carolina rigged plastics. Often when fishing is tough, people tend towards small baits but it is also worth trying over-sized baits particularly when targeting largemouth bass. Dropping water levels often push fish into deeper, more stable areas and usually this would be the first major change in depth adjacent to spawning areas. 3) Afternoon: Fishing in the Western Cape often improves during the afternoon and the old adage of “never give up” is important to remember. It is often a good idea to look to cover lots of water with spinnerbaits and crankbaits if the wind picks up. Try to find concentrations of fish that you can return to on tournament day and look to replicate that same area elsewhere in the dam/river. One of the most important points to remember is that you must always fish to your strengths and the key is to focus on one or two patterns using the baits you have confidence in. It is easy to get bamboozled by watching everyone else doing something different and wondering if you should change plans. There is no substitute for time on the water and it is a common mistake to see people coming off the water early because “they have figured it out”, only to find out later that there was a better pattern out there.