I try to fish with a local angler that knows the lake already, then you learn it pretty quickly. If that is not an option, trust your instincts and brain. Many times, the pros will pull over and say this feels good or it feels bad. If you have that kind of talent/experience, then trust your gut feelings and fish where you THINK the bass should be. Sometimes it is tuff to do so, but once you learn how to do it, the better off you will be, as INSTINCTS are hard to beat. Hope this helps. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

From what ive learned being a coangker and having my own boat, the best spots tend to be isolated cover, stick ups, and if the lake is slightly flooded any green alive trees. Birds that eat fish are great if theyre on the bank theres probably fish theyre the real pro fishermen.

S.W.A.G. has helped me(a few times)

do some research on locals who excel in tournaments, hang around ramp and follow them

#1 in my book is proximity to deeper water. If it's much more than a hundred yards from deeper water it's not going to be near the top of my list. Next I'm looking for some kind of structure that differentiates it from the surrounding area. Finally I'm looking for cover near that structure. Donald is absolutely correct in his approach. Start with a map, but you'll have to go through a process of elimination from there. Once I roll up I'm looking for baitfish activity. If the place looks barren on the graph I'm going to spend less time checking it out. 20% of the lake hold 80% of the fish. In fact that number might be closer to 10% of the lake holds 90% of the fish.

whats "deep water" to y'all? Does anyone have an example(picture) of a "great shallow spot near deep water" on a map? Sorry I am still struggling with this near deep water thing.

Deep water is a relative term. In Florida deep water could be 4 feet in a lake with an average depth of only 2 feet. In Texas I'm usually looking for water at least 8 feet deep within 100 yards. Again, no hard and fast rule here though. 2 major reasons for this. #1, big fish like to suspend out over deeper water (usually after the first drop off). #2, the closer you are to deeper water the more confident you can be oxygen depletion won't be an issue in the summer. When you get in the backs of shallow weedy bays in mid summer that are far from deep water, you could have major issues with oxygen depletion, particularly in the early morning. (weeds make oxygen during the day and consume it at night).

Sure! But, first, Donald Harper has laid it out in great detail, so there is little to add there. No need to "crash through an open door."

And, the suggestion to get on Google Earth for a really good overhead view of a new lake is super to identify various locations including rivers and creeks.

So, some of you may know that Bill Wilcox often fishes Lake Athens and goes over to this one area near the dam where (he didn't fish it at this location this year), as he says, there is a big drop off from shallow to deep water. It also has several other of the factors on Harper's list.

Here, you can see water dropping from 2 feet to 38 feet in one spot. A fish can go up and feed on the bank in the AM, maybe extend its stay if it is cloudy (as was mentioned), then it can scoot out into deeper water without moving much. It'll be attracted to all the normal things: grass, wood, and more.

On contour maps, don't get lost in the numbering so much . . . just know that if you see tightly spaced lines, it means there are pronounced changes in depth.

Brad

For 89javelin100

Let's rate this screen shot from the above Stat List:
- Forked Cove
- 2+ Creek Cove
- Big Flats to the North
- Main Creek Cove
- Deep Water Cove
- 10 Small Points in the cove
- Channel Swings against the South Shore
- The creek channel in the back will have good bank depressions.
- Cove Runs West/Excellent for the spawn
- Has Islands or humps
- Cove has 4 depressions running to the North shore out of the main ditch. Not on the rating sheet but very important. It also has very irregular contours both at the mouth of the cove and going into each of the depressions that run North out of the main ditch.

It is an excellent place to fish as I find it has at least 11 things going for it and I might find more once I get in there and fish it.



Feel free to ask questions about what things are on the map that you don't understand.

I keep it simple. I consider shallow to be 0-6 feet. I look for cover first and foremost and second, I look for a depth change of at least 3 feet within 50 feet of the "core area" of the shallow water. And don't think because it is shallow that you can cover it quicker than deep water because this is often times not true. I will pick apart shallow water much more carefully than deep water.

Oil your reel, tie on a square bill, put the TM on 100 and get after it.

What do you mean by 2+ creek Cove?

Reece, Donald likely means 2 creeks feeding into the cove.

Brad

Two creeks leave the back of the cove and two creek enter the mouth of the cove forming one main creek. Satellite view shows that they are both fishable leaving the back of the cove where the cove splits.