Best way to figure out new water??

[guide2live]

I was wondering what a guy looks for in finding good carp and other rough fish water? Tailouts? Small feeder creeks? Eddies? I lived in Moorhead for 4 years (college) and I have really gotten into fishing rivers, but I'm have'in a hardtime checking into waters in my home town (Brainerd). Any info would be great

[Randyjr.]

I'm Randyjr from Rochester. I was just out on Tuesday while the snow flurries were falling scouting one of the branches of the Zumbro. The branch I was on is a small to medium sized river averaging 10 to 20 yards in width and ranging from shallow water to holes from 5 to about 10 feet. I think it makes a little difference between bigger and smaller rivers. What size river will you be fishing on? I think some principles are the same for large and smaller rivers. Maybe we can combine thoughts and come up with some general ideas for most rivers. When I was scouting I noticed some great potential spots for dropping a line. I saw four current seams. Each water obstruction was a fallen tree. I dipped a long stick next to each root system and found that 3 out of four were around 4-7 feet deep. The other was three feet deep. Although it is high spring water, these holes should contain carp and a variety of other fish. Last year a friend and I caught and released many carp, smallmouth, catfish, and a mystery line snapper (three occasions) on the same stretch of river under similar cover. Eddies have been great for carp on the river especially with cover. The other feature that smaller and medium size rivers offer are slow moving outside river bends, especially with fallen or overhanging trees. The outside bends seem to be deeper as the current gouges into the bank.

[Carp-fisher]

If you are looking for a carp lake (or any sort of lake for that matter), a good strategy would be to go to the Minnesota Dnr Lakefinder. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html