Need some help fishing offshore structure mainly talking ledges and how to find them or what to look for. Do you usually look for steep banks or bluffs and just move out from the bank and start fishing down it until you find fish or do you just start idling back and forth until you find em. I have caught very few fish with deep cranks but can never really load the boat. I know alot has to do with time on the water and experiance but any help would be appreciated.

Most of the time the contour of the land extends into the water, so yes you can look for areas that way. Also, a good lake map and GPS map such as Navionics is a great way to find those areas. The closer the contour lines are together is what you are looking for. If it is close to deep water then that is even better. Remember, not all maps are 100% correct so, yes, sometimes you just have to go looking.

I'm going to say idle around, graph fish and then try to catch them. Not all points, ledges, humps, etc. hold fish and there is no point fishing it if there aren't fish around. Of course this is assuming you are pretty good at reading your graph.

I'm not lol. That is why I am a shallow water fisherman and need to learn to utilize that tool more often.

Start fishing only points until you figure out how to read it.

You will see the fish on the graph.

Do you have a gps? If not you can look at a map and find old road beds and old railroad beds too. If you go over a steep drop off or hump and mark alot of fish on the bottom or brush. throw out a marker bouy and fish it from different angles. Hope this helps.

The best tool for offshore fishing is a color graph, if you have one of these you are good to go. If you can afford a side imageing unit that will be the best helper of all. I found rockpiles all over my lake that I have fished for 16 years and never knew existed. It shows you exactly what is down there and then you will know how that object reads on the sonar. I learned more in 8 hours with my Lowrance HDS than 16 years with a black & white graph.