What is the best way to approach fishing/boating in unfamiliar water?

I'm fairly new to boating and recently my brother and I purchased our first boat.

We've only fished out of texas city, near the dike and are looking to fish different areas in the near future.

Thanks
any helpful tactics or information, would be greatly appreciated

Buy a few topographical ocean maps and analyze them for underwsater structure and breaks in current. The maps should also be handy for finding launching areas near your pre-selected fishing spots.

I am not new to boating, but I am new to most of the lakes in Texas. When I go to one, I observe where the main traffic seems to be at. This is usually the best area to open up at. I also, watch the depth finder real close. It is also best to have a friend with you as a forward look out looking for tree tops just under the surface. Be prepared to shut her down in an instant. And it always helps if you have a chance to talk to some of the local boaters there what might be the most hazardous area on the lake also. This is just a few things I try to do. I am sure there will be some more and even some better ideas from fellow boaters from TFF.

Aggie-Kid,

I'd say the main thing starting out is safety. Saltwater fishing is absolutely fantastic, but it is not without some areas of caution.....

For example, make sure you've got sufficient boat for whatever you're doing....don't do like I did starting out and fish offshore in a 15 ft boat.

Your boat should be unsinkable, i.e. have upright flotation...I wouldn't fish open bays, jetties, or offshore without that.

Watch the weather. Summer thunderstorms can come up quickly between you and land...and that placid looking bay can turn into your worst nightmare. Don't get caught in one of those, believe me.

Reefs and other hazards are generally marked on maps and you can figure them out pretty quickly.

As to fishing, pick one area and work it good. Learn the water. Note the tides, wind conditions, water quality, etc. when you are successful and not successful. Select an area that is known for the kind of fishing you prefer and then become an expert on it.

Start out using a lot of live bait...until you know the feeding patterns better...and then switch to artificials, if you prefer, as you develop the knowledge of where the fish are and their patterns. Learning the patterns is most important...and it is really something you just need to do yourself, with time on the water, IMO. Talk to others, yes, certainly, but develop your own knowledge of patterns and you'll never be sorry and rarely ever skunked.

Don't expect to catch limits every time out and don't follow "what's hot" in other places. Learn an area, gradually expanding your knowledge base each time out. With that grounding, you can become an "old salt" and enjoy some great times on the water.

Learn how to read the water to find shallow reefs and spoilbanks. There are a bunch of places in West Galveston bay where you can lose a lower unit in a heart beat. Waves will break when they go over these spots so you will see little whitecaps all along the shallowest area. On calm days it is tough, go slow until you learn an area. Use a GPS and keep your tracks to follow home. Realize that they can and will be off as much as 35 feet and that is enough to get you into trouble in the dark. I missed a buoy in the intercoastal by inches on evening coming in. If I had hit it head on it would have been very bad. I should not have been going so fast.

Oh yeah, read the maps. And PVC pipes sticking out of the water mean "something is here, be careful". I lost a skeg to a sunken shrimpboat in far west bay because I hadn't read the map (the boat was marked) and I ignored the pipe. I was in 8 feet of water, what me worry? The boat was 7 feet high and when I passed over it took the bottom on the skeg and a couple big bites from the aluminum prop.

One of the major factors here is to slow down. I know that when I am somewhere unfamiliar I will slow down. (and slowing down is hard for me) I prefer to miss hundreds of dollars of damage than to miss a fishing spot. I REPEAT SLOW DOWN, I have seen lots of accidents cause they were going to fast.

Amen Minedude-

My brother says I only use two speeds when driving a boat, flat out throttle to the max ON and OFF. He says my posting handle should be "Stumpjumper". I drive fast and have paid for it on occasion. So I now read the map and mark the spots where I need to be cautious. There I only go 3/4 throttle.

do what everyone says here, they've pretty much covered it... get a map and learn your path... most good maps will show the reefs for you, but still "take it easy"... if you're unfamiliar with the body of water you shouldn't be in a hurry in the first place... explore... learn it...

Pay attention to the TIDE when leaving and coming in ! Especially in unfamiliar areas. I've seen many a boat come back thru a spot that was fine at high tide, but too shallow for low tide. This also goes the the previous advice of "reading" the water. Do an internet search on it and you'll be surprised what you learn...no matter how long you've been boating.

Here's a short one:

http://www.florida-keys.fl.us/boating.htm

Be aware of the tides, like Oldfrog said....watch the locals, too. I've found that most bait/tackle shops are more than helpful when you're interested in safe navigation and not fishing spots.

Everyone has pretty well covered the obvious about maps and dangers etc...

When your in unfamiliar water especially offshore, make sure you carry extra drinking water in the boat. I try to carry at least a gallon per person over and above what I would expect to use for the time on the water.

Carry a cell phone, or a marine radio.

There is a long list of other safety things, but these two are REQUIREMENTS as far as I am concerned, all the rest can be lived without.

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Last October my son and I went fishing outside the jetties, and murphy struck. We were litterally just outside the end of the jetties, and killed the engine to do a little drift fishing. When we went to restart the engine the starter was out.

Wasn't a major issue, but pull starting a 120hp engine is nearly impossible we found out.

Made our call to sea tow to come get us back to the marina, and all was fine. 2.5 hours later the little yellow tow boat showed up and we were on our way back in.

BUT consider this, this happened at the beginning of the day, so we had all of our normal water and food on board for a full day on the water. Had it happened at the end of the day or much furthor out it is possible that we might have found ourselves on the water waiting for help for a much longer period of time.

I'd also recommend looking into Sea Tow as well, it's cheap insurance against murphy striking on the water. I was glad I spent the $150 for their coverage, the tow back to the marina would have cost me $1100 and ruined the entire vacation without them. As it was I spent $300 on a new starter and relay and was back on the water the next day.