Transitional areas

[CrappieMagnet]

With this weekend coming fast and the last weekend for the ever popular gamefishes,pike,walleye etc.Now is the time to use transition areas.Underwater humps and saddles are the highways for fish and they can be some of the best fishing this time of year.Also i key on deep old weedlines where they meet sand and or rocks,just as long as they border deeper water.Jigging spoons are my preference for deep walleyes and crappies.Spoons with alot of flash work really well on the transitional areas.Fast jerks of my rodtip and then small twitches and repeating this seems to get alot of attention.
Hopefully most of you will get to ice your favorite quarry(fish).Good luck this weekend!
What else works for you guys?This works for me this time of year.How bout you?

CM

[This message has been edited by CrappieMagnet (edited 02-10-2004).]

[fiskyknut]

When I think transition areas I think mud to sand/gravel. Definetly a key to finding fish midwinter on the main basin of LOTW.

We get to fish till 4/15 up here though!

[Matt Johnson]

Good topic CrappieMagnet!

Transition areas are key areas to look for throughout much of the hard water and open water seasons. Find the transition area and you usually find the fish.

I like to hit areas where weeds die off, and you have a slight increase or decrease in depth. Humps or saddles close to raised or lowered weed levels are high percentage spots too. And like CrappieMagnet said, adjacent deeper water is a plus as well.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[CrappieMagnet]

Another thing about transitional areas.If you can find abrupt turns in depth and it borders deeper water,i seek these out also.Sharp drop offs or anything that shows visual.For instance...A tree thats fallin into deeper water.Bullrushes bordering deeper water.Things you have seen during open water months could be used today.Now is the time to remember these things.Structure is in my eyes,is the key elements.After the weekend,panfish is gonna keep you fishing till the opener.Good luck to you all and hopefully this helps in bagging more fish for ya!

CM

[This message has been edited by CrappieMagnet (edited 02-14-2004).]

[This message has been edited by CrappieMagnet (edited 02-14-2004).]

[This message has been edited by CrappieMagnet (edited 02-14-2004).]

[northernnels]

CM great topic do you have any tips o locating these areas. with my job consuming much of my time I usualy just go uot some place and start trolling I watch my locator but how do you know what under the water. any tips for hard water strucker. Im sure there are lots of guy's like my self that would like to know. but might be to imbaressed to ask. thanks Nels

POND SCUM: nickname for any fisherman who gets to your lucky spot before you do.

[CrappieMagnet]

Yes.Try with a lake map.Either the DNR HSOforum or your local bait shop.What i do is,i look at the Map and key on specific areas.Like i said,abrupt turns and changes in depth.I pick out 5 of the most specific areas with the changes,also i look at points with abrupt turns.What you want to do is eliminate the areas that don't look good.Nothing worse than fishing unproductive water.It's simply a waste of time.Don't go to an area's where alot of people are fishing.Go away from the crowds.Noise affects the fish.Drill lots of holes looking for the abrupt turns.What you want to do is find the fish highways.
Crappies are attracted to these.Sunfish on the otherhand need cover to stay away from the bigger predator fish.Find the first and second old weedlines and your more than likely to find the sunfish.Usually the bigger panfish are on the deepest weedlines.Also remember,the murkier the water,use bright lures,the whites,yellows and chartreuse and also lures with lots of flash.The clearer water i use greens,pinks,blues and blacks,except at night.Than i use glows and super glows and keep them charged up...What i basically do is plan to fish before i get to the lake and than i fish my plan.Keep it simple!I hope this helps!

Good luck!

CM

[This message has been edited by CrappieMagnet (edited 02-14-2004).]

[Matt Johnson]

Look at a lake map and look for the contour lines. Often times you will have a transition area as a contour line changes depth. Just think of it as if you are looking at a big rock wall, as you go down the rock the color and layers change, same for the lake bottom. You might have a rock face or sand bar from 15 to 25 feet, and then once you hit about 25 feet and its starts to level off you might have weeds, mud, or small gravel. At certain depths you could have a totally different bottom type, and it can change rather quickly too. I've seen some spots that have gravel and rocks for several yards and then as fast as you can blink it turns into weeds. These are the spots you want to look for, myabe not necessarily that combination, buts its one of them. Also try and find out at what depth the weeds stop in the lake you are fishing, that will help you pinpoint a large transition area with little effort. Then key in on that depth where you see weeds. Sometimes it may be 10 feet in one area and 12 feet in another, but generally you will see a like depth throughout the lake.

Small transition areas can improve your catch as well. Areas where a rock pile is scattered here or there can be hot spots throughout most of the year. If you are fishing a large flat and you have a small rockpile thats surrounded by the open flat, you can expect some fish to stop and check that rockpile out. Any obvious structure, although not obvious on a map, on a large structureless flat will often times hold fish. Take Mille Lacs for example, the large flats out there cover a huge amount of space and fish will roam those areas, but if you find some of the small rock piles or humps then you will find the fish. Most of the time they are not marked on the map, and they are found by accident or while open water fishing, remember those spots, they will help you catch more fish down the road.

What I like to do is punch holes perpendicular to the contour lines of the lake, that way I cover the different depths and work my way down past the weedline, and eventually past a second change in bottom type, which is the transition area. Both the weedline and second change in bottom type are both transition areas and each have there place and time to be fished. Sometimes you will have more then two transition areas as you move down the line, but in my past I've generally found two that are the most predominant. One being the weedline, and the other being the change where the slope declining depths begin to flatten out.

Remember to use saddles, humps, bars and points as well. Those areas can have more then one transition area on them depending on their size and makeup. The inside turn of a point might be full of weeds and cabbage, while the exterior is rocky or sandy, and as you leave the point you might start finding mud or silt. Same goes for humps, bars and saddles, these areas can all have different bottom types on the actual structure, and a whole new bottom type off the structure.

Finding the transition areas can be difficult sometimes, but they are in every lake, and they will almost all the time, at one point or another, attract fish.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy

[northernnels]

Thank Guy's for taking the time to explain some of your tips and ideas. This site is the greatest. You both must have spent a lot of time on the water to learn these thing Its great that you are willing to help us less fortunite I cant wait till retirement to spent time looking and learning my self. In will keep all your thought and pointer handy to review.Nels

[CrappieMagnet]

Another thing is during open water nels...It pays to have a good pair of polarized sunglasses.These help in locating the transitional areas,on calm days.Sometimes sight fishing along the weedlines will show you the sharp turns.In wind,i look to where the wind blows along the shoreline.If the wind is coming out of the NW, i look at the SE corner of the lake or if you have an island,try the NW corner.The plankton gets blown around by the wind,which in turns attract the minnows,which attract the panfish and other predators.Follow the food chain and you'll more than likely find fish!

Good luck!

CM

[This message has been edited by CrappieMagnet (edited 02-14-2004).]

[CrappieMagnet]

A good time to bump.

BUMP.

CM

[CrappieMagnet]

Bump.....