Hire a teaching guide, James Biggs is a good one to hire. James will teach you how to break a lake down, any lake. That will be the best money you'll spend.

If you fishmark unit is a gps you can but an older navionics chip off hear and it will change fishing a lot. Otherwise grab a map and start in coves where you see the little creeks running way out, they'll look like look title blue lines resemble not a crack in a windshield. I would throw a lot moving baits this time of year (square bills, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, topwater) and cover water.

In my opinion going out to learn a technique or how to fish a certain bait is not what you need to be doing at this point. The most important thing to do is to learn the seasonal patterns of the bass. As Fishspanker pointed out, their patterns is almost always directly related the pattern of their food source. For a large part of the year this is shad dependent. However, it is sometimes perch or crawfish related. If you cannot locate the fish then you will not catch the fish no matter what technique you are using. Once you have a general idea of the seasonal patterns, then you must learn how they apply to each lake. Seasonal patterns are not the same at all lakes. Some people will tell you that you need to fish deeper in the summer to early fall because that is where the bait and the fish are. That is true at many lakes but is definitely not true at some lakes. In some lakes the clarity is low and their is a depleted oxygen level in deep water causing the bait to stay shallower in the heat of the summer. Therefore, the fish will be shallower. Even during the spring when the bass are spawning the lake patterns will differ. In some lakes the fish are looking for sandy areas with vegetation to lay their eggs while in other lakes the fish are looking for particular types of wood to lay their eggs on.

Once you locate active fish you will then learn that their are numerous techniques that will catch the fish. Sometimes it is even necessary to switch or rotate techniques to continue to catch them in an area.

Remember, it is more important to understand a bass' movements and patterns than it is to learn to fish some specific technique. If you are not where the fish are then you cannot catch them. Now with that being said, there are always some fish that are random and do not follow the lakes patterns. Catching one or two of those fish can really throw you off and keep you from finding what the bulk of the fish are doing.

Last year was our first year and we were just like you, no electronics and fishing shallow first half of season. Upgraded boat and electronics by January and finished Betty good but not in the money. Over the summer we took a trip with James Biggs and we finished 2nd in the first tournament this year. The trip with James was money better spent then the electronics.

THIS for sure. The third sentence says it all. Decent electronics with Lakemaster or Navionics is an absolute if you're going to get better at finding fish.Knowing where the fish may be at different times of the year is also a must. Not a gaurantee but a good starting spot.

I was there five years ago with my son and feel your pain, sent you a PM

Suggest you download the Navionics app to your cell. Also, go to www.navionics.com and download their map feature right to your PC. Good stuff.