advice on a new lake

[Tyler D]

I found a new lake that has an awsome survey for crappies and sunfish, it is small and out of the way and gets very little fishing pressure, so i am thinking of hitting it this weekend. Now, the problem I have is that it is unlike any lake i have fished before, the vast majority of it is a 4-5 foot flat, i would say at least two thirds. There is a small 16 foot hole, and a small 14 foot hole, and a little larger 10 foot hole. Now my question is should i even waste my time searching the giant shallow flat or should i go right to the deep water. My personal feeling is this time of year i should go right to the deep water, and see what happens, but I could also see there being fish in the shallows if i can find some green weeds, problem is it could take forever to search that huge shallow flat. What do you guys think?

[Stratosman]

Well, depends on what you are targeting, crappies may tend to hold over the deeper portions of the lake, while the majority of sunfish should still be found in the shallow weedy areas, find an area with still-green weeds and you should be in business, there may be crappies hanging out with the bluegills too. Try transition areas as well. Look at the contour map, find the shallow flats that are the closest in proximity to the deeper holes, check them out thouroughly, also any points that may extend out into the deeper portions of the lake shouldn't be overlooked for crappies. Rememeber though, deep is relative to the lake. In a lake with a max depth of 60' 30-40 feet might be considered deep, whereas this particular lake, the 10 or 14 foot hole might be considered deep when the max depth is 16'. That doesn't mean they won't be in the 16' hole either. If it sounds like I'm being a bit vague, it's because it can be, until you get out there and search around enough to establish a pattern on that lake. That may be the one downside to shallow lakes, the fish can litterally be anywhere and everywhere. I fished a similar lake on Sunday, max depth 15', found good numbers of bluegills and crappies holding together in 9' of water. Talked to a guy at the landing that said he was doing well in 15'. Small lake, should be relatively easy to get yourself on some fish. Good luck and drill some holes. Work an area for 5-10 minutes and if nothing is happening, move on, I see soooo many people sitting over one hole and catching nothing rather than getting out and getting mobile. Even once you locate a school of fish, don't be afraid to drill 7-10 holes and be on the move, targetting the aggressive fish in each hole and moving on. Another example from Sunday, a friend that does not fish much tagged along with us, while I was continously hole-hopping he was content to sit inside the portable, that was until he realized I was outfishing him 20:1. He finally moved out and around the same area, and quickly iced as many bluegills in 10 minutes as he had in the previous 1-1/2 hours.

Sorry for rambling on about it. Good luck and let us know how you do.

[slicerboy]

This sounds like a lake that I fished at last week... if so, bite was on in every hole, but the fish were small.

[Tyler D]

slicer

where was this lake you were fishing?

im going to hit this lake saturday and see what happens, im sure it will be nothing but 15 inch crappies

[slicerboy]

Good luck, but the lake I fished is in the twin cities area. I didn't notice your location until this morning. In south-eastern anoka county is where I fished.

[united jigsticker]

My method of attack on a new body of water in winter varies depending on the time of year and type of lake I am fishing.

However, a normal approach for me is to start in a deep basin area and work my way towards suspected spring spawning areas or potential summer structure (breaklines, points, inside turns, weedy flats, etc)

The point is to try and cover area that will hold the most fish, and what better areas to hold fish then areas adjacent to suspect hot spots at other times of the year.

I always assume the fish are as lazy as I am most of time, especially for them old timers.

Typically, I try to work the northern edges of holes in the direction of the shoreline, unless of course you are fishing the southern most part of the lake.

Not finding fish doesn't mean they aren't there; it could just mean they are active at a different time of day.

Water clarity is the key driving factor to this nugget of success, with cloud cover, weather fronts, and also snow cover on the ice rounding out the "activity" factors.

[CrappieJohn]

Good point on not finding the fish, Jeff. This is the time of year when serious down sizing can be of issue when your target fish are tight lipped. Even this tactic holds no promise when the fish turn negative or when peak periods fall in a different time-frame.

I'd say stick with the larger expanses over deeper water and try to locate roamer. These fish will hit eagerly and when you get into one or two you'll usually find five or six will to hit.

Lots of holes and lots of moving.

[eyepatrol]

What I do is get a map of the lake, take my pencil, close my eyes and stab the map with my pencil and see where it lands! ha! I'm just kidding.

My approach is very similar to UJ's and CT's. At this time of year I'll look for deeper basins and structure relating to it such as land points, underwater points, humps, and inside turns. Steep drops may be a good place to look too. I start with these ideas in mind, but ultimately it comes down to searching and learning the lake.

I think another good piece of advice would be to go back through the history of posts in this forum and read articles that CT, Matt and Corey have written on here...for ice fishing season I browse the months of November through March. I'll do the same for open water too, depending on what time of year it is. There is soooo much great information you can pick up from these 3 guys!!!

Good luck out there!

[CrappieJohn]

Bass...don't keep UJ out of this loop. His experience on the water is one tremendous teacher too. Everyone has a tidbit here or there that helps out.

[eyepatrol]

I wasn't aware of that. I'll go through the post history and read up on his stuff too! Thanks for letting me know!

[CrappieJohn]

Bass...Jeff is a very good tourney angler with some very impressive wins. They were not accidents. He's been quiet for the last year, but he knows his stuff. And he's an interesting character to talk with. I've done so over the phone on a couple of occasions.

[eyepatrol]

That's one thing I wish I could do myself...be a tourney angler. I realize it's a tough life being away from family, affording it, being on the road all the time and I'm sure a number of other things, but my biggest passion is fishing and if nothing else, tourney fishing would be something I'd love to experience. Maybe after I retire?

What I love about this site so much is the great info a person can learn not only from the pro's, but from all the others on the site. Each person share's their experience and knowledge of the sport and we can all take away something from each individual. I'm just glad I stumbled across this site a year ago while doing a search on the internet for Minnesota fishing reports. I had no idea whatsoever that something like this existed. This site is probably the greatest "accident" I stumbled upon!

[CrappieJohn]

Tourney fishing is an experience. I'd don't do contests and have some mixed feelings about the way many of them are managed, but that is just me.

In my humble opinion, everyone has the potential to offer up something here that will be of help to someone else. What makes this such a unique experience is that we cover so many miles with information coming from every imaginable nook and cranny that has water and fish. I have had personal exchanges with people quite literally from every state in the union, except Hawaii, about fishing.

Narrow down the scope of this information to just good old Minnesota and I would like to think that every body of water that has fish in it has been mentioned here. We are all a part of one huge information resource pool here at FM. And all of us are teachers. Where else on earth can you find that much eduction for free being taught entirely by a volunteer teaching staff with such incredible teaching credentials? Thank you! And all of you!....for the part that you play here.