I am wanting to try out some different lakes next year so I started to think about my "new lake strategy". I usually spend a little time looking at contour maps before leaving town and get a few ideas of what I think may be good areas. When I get on the water I go to one of those spots and start casting as soon as I can. I dont really spend alot of time cruising around, am I making a rookie mistake there? Do yall spend awhile searching and graphing before you cast a line? Are you going to burn up the banks with search baits or start off searching for more offshore structure and cover? I guess a lot of it would depend on conditions and time of the year. Lets just say its march and the water temps are 58 degrees and just trying to produce fish, not a tournament scenario.

ooooo following this! I make the exact same mistake you do as come spring I am so anxious just to get my first bite of the year. I have told myself over and over that I am going to spend more time on my electronics before I actually make a cast but doing that is so hard.

I look for hydrilla or other types of vegetation that fish like. If the lake has it, I'll always start there.

your prolly going to get to the lake at first light...being its a strange new lake, best to drop the trolling motor and fish around the ramp area and try for a morning fish, see how that goes as there is usually resident fish around most boat ramps... then when you get the itch and its more light and motoring around is safer, go to someplace that offers a little bit of everything a deep pocket near the dam area and idle graphing your way into the very back taking note of bait, contour, drains, ect. that you want to hit on the way out, by the time you get to the mouth you should have a good idea of the activity of the fish, what they may be holding on, narrow down your bait selection, and if something is really coming together once you wear 'em out go try and duplicate that somewhere else, but plan on returning to where the best catch ratio was to hopefully catch a few more there... for me the biggest struggle with new water is navigation, outside of that the fishing is the easy part... hope this helps...new water is always fun...

I think what you do has a lot to do with what your experience is. A little over four decades ago I jumped off in this sport and started out having to learn without maps and even depth finders, and as I experienced catching fish in certain situations: mainly diffrent seasons and weather patterns, I developed an ability to just pull up to spot without any prior knowlege simply by watching the shore line, contour, the way trees/stumps lean, weed lines, etc and finding fish, most of us older guys can do this just because we had to back in the day, there was no other way. Does it pay off every time? No but it helps.
That being said, I have a Humminbird fish finder with side imaging and mapping at my console and I find myself using the the contour mapping probably 95% of the time to find a spot. Usually I look at the chartplotter on the Navionics App/website and get a rough idea of where I want to go by their contour maps. I've become more dependent on my fishfinder than I ever use to be in my earlier years using one. It's probably just going to get worse from here.
Another thing you can do is look at You Tube videos for what ever lake you want to try for the first time and look specifically for the season or weather pattern you'll be working with, you'll learn a lot from that too. A good source; especially if you are fishing mainly in Texas, is watching shows like Honey Hole TV, Wade Middleton's Fisherman's Handbook, Texas Team Trail, Barry Stokes, Ken Smith, etc. They bring a lot of knowlege to the table as well.
If you dont have a BASS or MLF membership get one or both, their publications will have quite a bit of knowlege for someone wanting to learn new lakes and techniques and where to use them.

March (I’m guessing central west Texas)

I’d drive around some looking for any warmer water. Sometimes just a few degrees that time of year can make a big difference. Agree with scanning sonar while driving to see what depth most of the bait is holding.

Factors that contribute to warmer water:
Water that is more stained. Stained water will warm faster than clearer water. With that being said, you do not want cold, muddy water with a cold north wind blowing on it.
Rock/rip rap/grass/concrete/timber will retain heat, especially if it faces south toward the sun
Areas protected from the cold north wind (south side of a bridge or a south facing bluff wall for example)

Don’t get discouraged that time of year if you don’t have success early in the day.
That time of year, they might not get active until the afternoon

Some good advice here. I usually watch my graph but recently switched to one with side image and so far I like it and I am now paying more attention to it than I used to. But this is also on the same few lakes I have been on for over 15 years.

We have man made reservoirs in Texas, they fish so much different than lakes.

A lot of it is 100% seasonal as how to break water down.


Study typical seasonal patterns for the area and break it down from there.


Structure, cover and bait. Bass use structure to feed and move, cover as habitat and follow bait.

Honestly, rarely can you not catch bass in 6 feet or less.

march with 58 degrees is prespawn time fishing secondary points back in creek arms .Put on a Trap in red and cover water . When you find them slow down and hammer on them

I have never thought about fishing a reservoirs different than fishing a lake.

First thing I do when I know I'm headed to a new lake is pull up Google Earth Pro and use the time feature. That allows me to find the lake at it's lowest point and find structure to fish. It also allows me to find a safe place to run with confidence. I create my own boat lanes. Navionics is wrong ALOT. This method also gives me a time frame to pull up water data on the lake to see what the water levels were at different times so I know how deep areas are that I plan to fish or run through.

Since you brought up March, that it prototypical pre-spawn time of year with a few moving up shallow. I would target 6-10FOW near major creek channel swings with flats near by. Mainly I would focus main lake areas and most likely the 1st 1/3rd of arms/pockets. Fish will feed on the flats and slip back to the creek channel or swings nearby. Crankbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits/chatterbaits will be your friend. You want to locate the fish, once you find them, park it and slow down.

End of the day you should enjoy the day and see as much of it as you can once it's safe. When I do my study, I will typically find 30-50 waypoints to go and check out. It helps me fish with a purpose and eliminate water along the way.

With 58 degree water there are likely some bass in all 3 phases though mostly still late pre spawn. If I have no lake history, I would probably focus on spawning flats and the nearest deeper water cover/structure on the upper third of the lake using moving baits. I would also buzz the bank to see what the bucks are doing. IMO, the scenario you provided is one of the easiest to decipher with limited lake knowledge.

Find a spot the absolutely longest distance from where you launch. Go there.

Here is a good read


https://www.bassfan.com/news_article/9589/three-pros-talk-differences-between-lakes-reservoirs