Hello all,

I'm struggling to locate fish with my electronics on my local lake, and I am looking for any and all advice. It would be greatly appreciated. I am using what some may think is an outdated piece of equipment, a Lowrance X96. It has no GPS, lake map, side view, etc. However, although it is old, I feel like I have become more comfortable at reading it after using it all this time, so I don't think reading my graph is exactly my problem. I notice a lot of fisherman and fishing reports talking about fish being on humps, drop offs, and things of that nature. It seems from what I have seen in the particular lake that ive been fishing, that there is not a lot of depth change, or underwater structure for that matter. There are many times that I take that boat over, around, up and down main lake points looking for fish, but there is just not much depth change. So, with that being said, where else should I be looking for deep (non surface feeding) sand bass? Are there certain landmarks that you may look for, or lake characteristics that may trigger you to think it could be a hot spot? Any input and help would be appreciated. I've found a school once on my graph in about 11 feet of water, and the graph looked just like the pics many of you have posted in the screenshots post. Once again, thanks for any help or .02.

Sincerely,
Steve

What lake? If its a bigger lake get a topo map for it first and find the channels and humps on it then get on the lake and find them. On a older unit just because you dont see the fish on it doesnt mean the fish are not there, just need more info on the lake and what lake to give you more info and whats in the lake as in type of fish and structure you can at least see. Im guessing it has sandbass.

Look for changes in the hardness of the bottom also.

Try trolling.....that's right I said it! "Disclaimer" I don't condone trolling nor do I troll myself but trolling is an efficient way of covering a lot of water and locating suspended fish.

Its good for LOCATING!!!!! not catching numbers! If you get multiple hookups in the same general area stop trolling and start slabin!! If you decide to burn the gas be a good Waterman and give guys who are on anchor or on the trolling motor a wide birth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing will get you cussed faster than trolling thru schooling fish or getting too close to folks on anchor!

If you could tell us what lake I'm sure someone on here cloud tell you some good spots to try. Good luck!!

HooknSandies35: Structure fishing for sandies is the kind of fishing I've been doing since the mid 1970s when all we had was the flasher type depth finders. Here's a post I made a couple of years ago on structure fishing for whites:

POST #2 How do you find white bass on structure? Here are my recommendations:

1. You need reasonably good electronics and know how to use them. IMO a high resolution B/W depth finder is the minimum needed. Color and side view may speed the process up but are expensive. If you can afford them and feel it is worth the money, then get them. I don't use either - just high resolution B/W. To me, the cost is still too high for the side view. I may upgrade to color when I have to buy my next unit. Good electronics are important so you can distinguish baitfish from the fish you want to catch. Also, so you can zoom in on the water bottom and distinguish between trash and fish lying right on the bottom. You want it to show you what it sees rather than interpret it for you and put pictures of fish on the screen. After you see what a good bunch of fish look like (as when you are over them and catching them readily) you will remember what this looks like and that's what you will be looking for when you go searching other structures.
2. Get a good topo map of the lake and study it for points, humps, drop-offs, roadbeds, etc. A good structure is one where the depth is significantly shallower than water next to it. For instance, humps have deeper water all around them, points have deeper water on 3 sides of them, roadbeds have deeper water on both sides and drop-offs have deeper water on one side. There may be fish anywhere on these structures, but I find that the most likely place for them is at the edges just before it drops off into deeper water. This is particularly true if the point or hump is broad. Most of the productive structures I know of in the Texas lakes I fish are 10 to 18 ft deep with deeper (25+ feet) water next to it. Structures with 25 to 30 ft tops (with 40+ ft next to them) can also be productive if the water is clear enough. In stained water it gets dark fast as depth increases.
3. With map in hand get on the water and locate the structures you see on the map. Use landmarks and GPS points if you have a GPS and the map has some listed. I have been doing it for so long without GPS, I don't feel the need to use them myself. I have a handheld GPS but just don't use it. If you do use one, mark the structure as waypoint and label it so you can get back to it.
4. Favorite structures: I know 3 lakes pretty well. My home lake now is Cedar Creek and I've come to realize it is such a good white bass lake because it is loaded with structures. So far I have found 30 structures where I frequently catch white bass, and I find new ones each year. Some of my favorites among these are (you guessed it) Saint Annes Point, Key Ranch Drop-off, Dam Drop-off, Dam Ridge and southwest corner of Hump Across from Spillway Dam. Eagle Mountain Lake has a lot fewer good structures. I know of ten starting at Pelican Island and going south and east. My favorites are the south edges (drop-offs) of the large flat extending south from Pelican Island, the well known 27 ft hump that is about 100 yards out from the main dam about 100 yards east of its west end, the large tall point just to the west of this dam hump and a hump 24 ft deep not on the map out in the middle of open water between the Boat Club marina and the south end of the lake. At Livingston I counted about 20 structures I fish from the Hwy 190 bridge southward to about 1200 yards south of the Old Hwy 190 roadbed. My favorites are Old Hwy 190 submerged bridges (7 of them and each bridge has 3 structures - both ends and the middle), Submerged Kickapoo Bridge - both north and south sides of it, the point in front of old Frank's Marina, Old submerged Hwy 190 Roadbed where it reaches Trinity River on the east edge of river.

Of all these structures, my very favorite and most reliable are 4 of the submerged bridges on Old Hwy 190 roadbed: the one on the west side of the Trinity River channel, Hell's half Acre bridge, and 2 bridges near the west end of old 190. Submerged bridges, if at the right depth, are ideal structures for attracting white bass. The ones on Old 190 are 10 to 12 ft deep on the road surface with rails on each side 3 ft shallower. Depth under the bridges varies from 22 to 30 ft. Shad feed on the algae on the hard road surface and on the rails. This in turn attracts the white bass. Fish can hang out in the shade of the bridge, and then when they want a meal, they swim up to the roadbed or rail and catch a shad. We park our boat at either end of bridge or in the middle of it (of course after we find it using our electronics). We catch fish casting on top of bridge road surface, casting down the roadbed and to shoulders at ends of bridge and casting over and pulling bait across bridge rails (which you can do with an inline spinner but not a slab or spoon without getting hung up). I call this last one "rail fishing" and made a post describing it last year. How effective is this bridge fishing? I went to Livingston twice last year. The 1st trip I fished with my sister in mid July, and we went out from 7:30 to 11 AM and caught 110 on the bridges and came in. In early August I fished with long-time friend Randall Lovelace, and we fished the middle half of the day and caught 206 on the bridges. All these sandies were from 13 to 16 inches. All caught on Mepps spinners.

Back to the present, if your lake is not large and well known for holding sandies on structure, and if you are just learning how to ID sandies on structure, I'd recommend making a trip to a lake known for good white bass structures - like Cedar Creek Lake (map of fishing spots sent via PM). It would probably save you a lot of time if you hired a guide here for a 1/2 day "learning trip" so they could show you what you are looking for. Spend 2nd half of day doing same in your own boat. Then go back to your lake and try to find similar structures and fish patterns.

A topo map of the lake is a HUGE help, but not all lakes have them - like Lake Waco. In that case, contact the US Geological Survey organization and see if you can get your hands on a topo map of the lake before it was a lake. You will need topo maps that have 10 ft spacing. I tried but they did not have such a map of the terrain where L. Waco is.

Hope this helps and good luck!

I completly understand your problem, I have a similiar locator and it a bit frustraing. However I have another tool Navioncis which is loaded on my Iphone and Ipad, it is a great tool that shows lake contours and your position relative to it. It is GPS, and it shows the details of Lake Ray Hubbard. With that said I am close to buying two Side Imaging Hummingbirds for my boat.

Dennis- thanks for the pm and reply, and to the others as well, thank you. The lakes I fish the most are Cleburne and Navarro mills, which probably aren't well known for sandbass, but they're close and convenient. And for the most part pretty quiet lakes to be on, which is what I prefer.

If I were you hooking sandies35 I would fish aquilla they have good consistent reports of good catches of sandies in the open water near the dam and associated humps also smaller lakes look for smaller depth changes if what you're
doing isn't working try something different try trolling or using different lures or even live shad

cleburne is a neat lake,, lots of good sandbass.
avoiding skiers is a issue by the damn. so concetrate across from the golf course in the mouth of that large cove. out towards mainlake. lots of manmade structure in that area. and you will catch em schooling in the evenings.

Be careful about using old topo maps to find minor structure. Major humps and valleys will resist silting over, but minor gullys that look like they would be great spots are commonly filled in after 40 years of floods. At Lake Granger, 20 ft deep gullys on the old topo maps are completely gone. Course, Granger is a really muddy lake.

The Navionics app for your Iphone is the best $10 investment you will ever buy...... I mean it so much I'll repeat it..

The Navionics app for your Iphone is the best $10 investment you will ever buy......

Affordable=yes
Convenient==yes
Accurate==yes

How about the best investment you will ever make....that sounds better

I definitely have to agree with this statement. I have the app on my galaxy s2 and it works great very accurate gps location. My only complaint is that i use it to much so my battery is almost dead half way through the day.

did not know you could get Navionics map on I phone great idea. I have a HDS 7 and HDS 5, use one for chart and one for sonar. I can find lots of fish but I can't get either unit to tell me if they are biting.

I might be interested in that app for my Iphone. But how much of my monthly data plan would it eat up in a day of fishing. I have a minimum data plan.

It will kill your battery way before you hit your data useage and doesnt update quickly enough on my phone to realistically use it for on the water navigation. But it is a great app. It also has a camera app inside it so you can take a picture and it will give you easy to see gps coordinates that you can text or e-mail and will superimpose a thumbnail of the pic on the navionics map so you can have a log of what you caught where and when.