Fishing a new lake, where to start?

[fishuhalik]

I know you guys hear this all the time, but I figured I'd put in here and see if any of you guys can give any tips. I've been trying some new lakes up nort' in the marcell area (smith lakes, north star, big island, jack the horse, and burrows to name a few) the last couple of years and haven't been having much luck. Lakes I know have a decent amount of bass in 'em. Most lakes are smaller, under 300 acres, and have a mix of structure & weedbeds. I usually start out in the morning throwing unweighted/lightly weighted senkos and flukes in shallow pads or cabbage beds, then move out to deeper cabbage beds as the day goes on with a jig & craw, heavier senko, slow spinnerbaits, any have been trying drop-shotting (thanks deitz!) more lately whenever I can find rocks, but I haven't been having alotta success. There's a couple of lakes I have them pegged on, but it's never fun going back to the same lake every time! Anything I'm missing here? It seems like I don't have a problem finding fish for the most part, but most of those lakes in that area have me scratching my head!

[whitebassman]

A favorite of mine when conditions permit is to through a topwater, especially a rapala popper. Attracts fish, and you always get nice bass on them. But you got to do it early am or pm with calm water. other rapalas have always worked for me, and are my go to lure all the time. especially xrap, rattlin' rap, husky jerk. any suspending jerkbait should do. experiment with colors of course.

But when I fish a new lake, I usually cast in my search for fish. More efficient that way. Jerkbaits work so well for me, I don't jig or T-rig plastics much for bass at all!

[oleballcoach]

I fished Jack The Horse a couple of weeks ago, and had good numbers of big fish 15-20 that were 17 in or better, and we found them holding in weedbeds that were just off of the pads. We found that the pads that had that secondary structure around were holding fish whereas areas that just had pads were not holding fish. We found some deep structure and pulled some fish off sunken islands as well.

[mainbutter]

----------------

Here's what I do

----------------

Where to start:

Just outside the weedlines and above deeper weed beds

What to throw:

1) wacky rigged senkos, no added weight

2) crankbaits

3) any other bass soft plastics (jighead and curly tail grub)

[BigGrassBass]

I'm a spinnerbait guy. Especially on small lakes you can cover a ton of water in a hurry and learn the lake in a short period of time. I start on the deep weed edge and cast in. Make a mental note of when/where you get bit and then you can always go back and slow down to get more fish. I think you waste too much time with the slower presentations. First trip should always be a searching/learning thing. Then ramp it up from there.