anyone else getting skunked lately

[JimBuck]

Confidence is the best bait in the box. Also don't bring tuna sandwiches or bananas in the boat.

Great advice. I think going into a day of fishing feeling confident is the ticket. In retrospective, the days I've been out on a new body of water (or not) and felt confident in the fact that I will catch fish has almost always proven true. Go with your gut, let instinct guide the motor....

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Buy, rent or borrow an aqua view and scope out the structure until you find fish, then fish the fish.

My wife will hate you for this

[matthothand]

Glad to hear you got a few fish in the boat and kicked the skunk out for a bit. Depending on your lake chances are good anyhow that there will still be a few bass "shallow" and a few "deep". This might be tougher in part because the fish population is spread out more. Like others have said try fishing your new plastics along a few different outside weedlines if you can find some. Fish different sections of the lake. Often the windy side of the lake will hold the more aggressively feeding fish and more of them. Spinnerbaits are a good option to locate these fish. Once you find them note where they are in relation to the weeds or other cover/structure and work similar spots. Also slow down and work a few different baits. You might find fish with one bait but catch more on another by slowing down in such productive areas. If you are unable to find any suitable weedlines look for surface weeds like pads and toss baits like scum frogs or other weedless topwater baits with a steady retrieve but at different speeds on different casts to see what the fish want. In general I would suggest to fish spots briefly until you can put together something that works with some consistency. I really hope what I have suggested makes sense and helps you find a few fish. I would definately target bass over pike though for now. There's always the chance that you will find pike while searching out bass though too.

As far as the bananas...They are bad luck. Supposedly 'back in the day' a boat was hauling cargo of bananas and spiders were hiding in the bananas. The spiders wound up killing the crew. So bananas are a symbol of bad luck.

[Neighbor_guy]

Can you explain a little more on this? Are you what type of spinner do you use for trolling and what do you put the sucker on? I'm new to trolling for pike so anything can share would be great.

Not to steal the response, but you can use just about any big spinnerbait. The easy answere would be the ones made for pike and muskies. They tend to be large frames with big blades and what not. Then you tip the thing with a sucker minnow like you would with a plastic trailer. I have had some success using a swim bait for this in a jam, but the actual minnows work best.

As far as when and where, Trolled along outside weed edges, over submerged weed beds, rock piles, the sky is the limit.