My hope this year is to get away from the banks and points a bit more and fish the way most pro's do. But, holy cow have I kept striking out each time I try. I'm curious from you guys that make a living doing this or are just good at it, what tips can you share to help a new guy find some sweet spots away from the bank? I fish Lake of the Ozarks primarily, but I fish all over the midwest and Texas on rare occassions. So, just looking for generic advice.

What do you look for on the countour maps?
Does it change from season to season?
What baits do you throw first to see if there are fish there?
What are you looking for with your bottom feeling baits to know if you're in the right spot?
What are you looking for on your electronics? Fish or depth or countour or structure?
How long do you give a spot before you move to your next deep water spot?

Is it obvious, I'm clueless???

Like!! I'm in the same boat! Fill us with knowledge TFF.

Good Question..

I, too, look forward to responses to these questions. As 3125 states, please, "fill us with knowledge."

You know what would be AWESOME?? To a guy that sits in his garage up North and stares at his favorite lakes on his HDS8??? If somebody could post some screen shots of the types of places you'd mark to check out and explain why. What are you looking at? How do you approach it?

I spend lots of time in the winter sitting in my garage sorting gear and then move to staring at my lake maps. But, every time I try to figure out a few good offshore areas to try out, I have no clue what I'm looking for. Mostly because I have a 20 year track record of NO success out there. I can flat catch em in visible cover, docks, points, rocks, or any other place they always stay. But, I want to chase some of the fish that most folks don't cast to.

Off shore stucture is found using lake bottom contour maps or topographical charts. Finding fish on structure is a seasonal quest which is also effected by the type of lake and regional trends. In other words where you live in the US and the type lakes you fish effect where the fish will be located at any given time of the year. Flat weedy shallow lowland lakes are different from deep rocky canyon lakes and fish are located on different types of habitat accordingly.

You can read fishing reports for your area and get a general depth then locate that depth on your map. There should be off shore structures at that depth marked on your map or your electronic GPS chart locator. What you really want to locate is bait fish to locate feeding fish. You can go to a general area with the correct depth from a report and just drive around looking for bait fish on your electronics.

Since we have an almost limitless source of online fishing information all you have to do is read up on various articles from the BASS and Guide pros on deep water structure and winter fishing tips. As you become more used to getting off the bank it will get easier and you will get comfortable with locating and fishing off shore structures.

Good Luck Yall

"What do you look for on maps?" Depth changes. The tighter the lines are to each other the sharper the drop -- usually a good thing. Look for depth changes that relate to some other structure like a creek channel, point, hump, etc. It's all relative to where you're fishing. Some lakes aren't that contoured so depth changes maybe more gradual and less severe than other lakes. Amistad is the most contoured lake I fish regularly while a power plant lake like Fayette is much more uniform.

"What baits do you throw?" Techniques first before you think of baits. C-rigging works well because you can thoroughly cover alot of area with a number of different bait choices. C-rigging is also great for feeling the bottom -- rough and hard bottoms are almost always better than smooth and soft. Crank baits are good too if the depth is shallow enough so you can reach your target area. Jigging is effective as well as t-rigging--I guess it depends on what you're comfortable throwing.

"What are you looking for?" Bites! Also see above about rough and hard bottoms. If you start hitting cover (a good thing) make sure you pause your bait a while.

"What are you looking for with your electronics, bait, fish, contour?" All the above. It's wonderfull when you see shad balls, fish arches, rocks and bushes all together. That's off shore heaven! But it usually doesn't work out like that for me. Most important is seeing the "right" looking structure. Just because you don't see fish on it doesn't mean they're not there. If the structure and cover look great chances are fish use the spot so to me it's worth some time. Even if you don't get bit, if the spot looks good enough it's worth marking and trying it again in the future.

"How long do you give a spot?" Depends. If I there is plenty of structure around and I'm in a hurry I won't stay too long. But if the spot looks great and I have a good feeling about it I'll stay a long time and try a few techniques and different baits.

The most important thing is to stay with off shore fishing long enough to develop confidence in it. Once you start getting bit regularly it'll be a lot easier to stay focused out deep.

Im in this boat also haha

NEED GOOD ELECTRONICS..

IT looks like your in St louis mo but if you are ever coming to TX you should look up Clark Reehm and his Elite Angling course he will teach you all about the questions you have and more. I have spent about 45 min talking with him about the course and with just that conversation i would think it would change the way i gather info,look for fish and pattern fish. With him being a Elite pro he could have a tournament in your area. Maybe he could work something out with you on your home waters or maybe you can go down to Sam Rayburn.... Good luck

I'm in the same boat (just a smaller one...LOL) as you guys......sorta. I tournament kayak fish and I have always been a bank beater. I usually have no issues at all putting fish in the boat in 1 to 15 FOW.....but I just don't have any confidence out deep. I'm very much a "visual fisherman". I like to be able to say "That rock will hold a fish.....that pocket in the reeds has a fish.....that tree has a fish". I like to be able to see my target and cast to it. Last year I was very inconsistent in my tournaments if the fish were not shallow. Almost everyone who beat me fished deeper offshore. Because of this I went out and bought an HDS10 w LSS-2 and mounted it to my kayak so that I could more easily locate offshore targets. I've just recently started to focus more of getting off the banks and trying to fish deeper. I'm very comfortable in reading my graph and understanding what I am looking at.......just don't know what to be looking for to be able to see on my graph.

I'd also be interested in seeing screenshots of what you are looking for or hearing some tips.

zcblue: what is the Clark Reehm Elite Angling course? More information please.
Thanks

Good stuff. Bazztex and Jpost, thanks for the detailed info!! Would you guys even fish an area, if you idled over it and didn't see bait or arches on the bottom?? Seems like every time I think I'm in a decent deep spot, I'm seeing nothing on the graph except the bottom. I get flustered and head back to the banks alot.

There are some touring pros {past and present, both FLW and BASS} that our members here. If you didnt mind throwing some money at your education I would PM some of them and see if they know or would recommend a good offshore guide up in your area and then hire that guide....Just a thought....Good luck!