lake features

[Kyle]

How would I go about finding rock piles, gravel, or sand in the lake that I will be fishing on opener? I have a topo map of the lake that Im going to fish, but it only shows emergent vegetation areas. I dont have an underwater camera so thats out of the question.

[PerchJerker]

Tough question to answer with a lot of specifics, but you would want to look at a contour map, look at the shoreline and surrounding terrain features to see if it indicates any underwater structure, observe where other people are fishing, and maybe ask at the local bait shop. And on the water you should use your sonar to locate features and fish.

[hhguide]

Buy a underwater Camera Best thing we ever did for fishing. When prefishing and you see arcs you drop it down you can see what kind of fish is down there and whats the bottom like. you'll love it trust me! then its not sucha a guessing game!

[fishermatt]

Read the manual on your Graph and it will show you at least how to determine hard bottom from soft. Hard bottom (indicating sand or gravel) will have a thinner bottom reading than soft (mud) bottom. A heavy sinker also helps to tell how hard the bottom is.