When going to a new lake, chum at least 3 areas, in 3 spots that are a little different, Go back to the 1st area, give it 20 minutes, if no action chum and move to spot 2, when those fish stop bitting, chum and go to spot 3, once they stop bitting there, chum and repeat, the longer that chum is in the water the farther they will come. You will get a good idea on where they are.

Gotta fish the fish and not the area. Just because fish are relating to a certain type of structure doesn’t mean they will be at every spot with that type of structure. 90% of the fish will be in 10% of the water. If you’re seeing the bait relating to a certain depth or type of structure then move around the lake checking those types of areas with your electronics until you start marking good fish.

As Azul stated fish the fish not just the structure/location.

One thing I have learned is they move around, A LOT! I have seen a ton of fish and caught them in one spot one day, came back the next day and they have all done a Houdini disappearing act.

The other challenge is just because they are in one spot doesn't mean they are chowing down.

I went out on Monday, it was real cold, and I thought they would be down in the deeper water. They were, stacked up, but I could I get bit?

Nope. They weren't interested at all in my fresh and bloody cut baits. I spent no less than six hours bobbing around like a fool with nothing but 3 tiny box fish to show for it.

One thing I've learned in the last couple of years is that blue cats seem to roam in "pods". There will be any number of these pods in different areas of the lake at different times. I believe these pods will be different in overall size based on the time of year as well. During the winter, I think they get fairly large in size. I believe these pods will have similar sized fish in them. I may be way off here, but this is just a theory and usually, as soon as I come up with a theory, I get proved wrong pretty quickly.

There are days that I will catch quite a few fish in the 5-12 pound range and then there are days that I will catch quite a few in the 20-40 pound range. Now, I'll catch a few smaller fish in these areas but generally, they seem to be similar in size. I think this changes in the spring and maybe early fall. If you learn what to look for on your graph, you can usually find fishable areas. I think that once you get pretty good at identifying fish with your graph, you can really increase your catch rate. Now, that being said, I've found plenty of good looking areas on my graph and not done well at all. I just think that you can cut down on your skunk rate.

Another thing is, you need to have a plan before you go. If I'm fishing a new lake, I'll look at my Navionics map of the lake and try to determine a number of places to look once I get there based on the time of year and the weather. If it's fall or winter and it's been cold for quite a few days, I'm probably going to be looking in at least 20-30 feet of water. If it's been pretty warm for quite a few days, I'll look for main lake flats that are pretty shallow in relation to the surrounding water. Shad like to get really shallow during warm sunny days but I believe they'll stay fairly close to deeper water. Radiant heating on the bottom will give them an area that's a few degrees warmer. For example, this is a lake I've never fished before.....




After a few days of really warm weather, this is one area I would look. The following pic is the same area, just zoomed in. The red circle is where I would look if it was really warm weather. That area is around 5-8 feet deep with 20 feet depth pretty close by. If it was cold, I would look in the yellow area which is around 20 feet deep.....




Now, there may be a number of guys on here that totally disagree with me but my catch rate has sky-rocketed in the last year. Give yourself a number of options and stick to a plan. Set time limits on what you are doing and where you are doing it. Don't expect to be able to go to a new lake and get on fish right away. Experience on a specific lake is invaluable but general knowledge is tremendously helpful in putting your plan together.