So, here's the scenario...

you are dropped off at some random lake around this time of year...

You have the following stuff.
A contour map.
your boat and whatever normally is on your boat.
your normal tackle.


what do you do? where do you go? what is your strategy?

Easy, go look for some grass, mid-depth timber or ledges

Look at water temp, clarity, and predominant cover. That will help me determine my plan of attack. If the lake is off colored to dirty you can rule out deep water. That's half the lake right there. Water temp will dial you into seasonal patterns there is another chunk of water gone. Then start with thickest cover near deeper water. Deeper water may still be shallow. If thickest cover doesn't work try isolated small pieces of cover. That's what I would do.

It would depend on the size of the lake for me... If it was over 20,000 acres I would break it down by staying in one major creek. Before I even made a cast, I would look at the map, and then I would go on a 20-30 mile boat ride and scan the banks.. Other than that, the time of year would depend on my plan of attack..

Study the map and look for creeks next to the bank and see if there is some type of structure. Idle around checking water temps. Check secondary points. If water is stained I would fish shallow.

Find the nicest rig, follow, observe, wait for it...wait for it........race in,cut em off,drop troll and claim the spot as my own from past trips and hope not to get knocked out with an oar...Just kidding.

I would look for structure or grass and hope and pray and hope and pray and hope somemore and pray some more and just have a great time gettin my fish on.

Depends, if it is anything like today I am driving the boat up on the boat ramp to get out of the wind. No need to worry about anything else.

I would call Evan O'Brien and ask him for advice...

You call Evan and I will call you.

and then we can all zero!

Evan, FB message send

Chuck Norris calls E.O.B. for fishing advice..

I would spend most of the day getting skunked and pick up a couple dinks before sunset..

Chuck Norris and Jay Kendrick are one and the same.