Finally got a canoe so this is the first time I've been able to do anything other than shore fish. Needless to say I'm a bit lost. There is a small 40acre lake that we've done well shore fishing at and a slightly bigger 140acre lake also in the area. I'd like to start at these two to get a handle on the basics so that I can apply them elsewhere later on.
Honey(Vienna) contour map
We might head to this little lake tomorrow. It's been mid 80's and sunny all week. Tomorrow is going to be down to 70 and partly sunny. We probably won't get out till early afternoon. The launch is at the far N. point. I'm thinking with it being summer and mid-day I should start running along that 4ft trench(not much of a trench but not much going on here anyway), and work my way down to the 6ft hole in front of the dam. As it gets later and cools down work my way to the W side of the lake and topwater along the piers with a buzz bait or something.
For catfish on this lake I don't know... THere is an inlet on the far W side and I thought maybe along the edge or on the lake side of the bridge would be good but that's only 1ft of water...
There is also an underwater pipe that connects the smaller lake to the SE but I'm not sure how active that would be...
Waubeesee Lake Contour
This one has me at a bit of a loss. It's a bit deep for a beginner lake but I'm thinking if I keep it simple and just fish topwaters shallow in the mornings or late evenings and then work my way out to points and dropoffs midday with spoons or spinners that would be my best bet.
The thing is I have no clue how deep bass or pike like to drop off to during mid summer days. This lake goes down to 70ft in some areas.
I have a fish finder but It isn't tuned quite well enough yet to reliably pick out fish vs. other shit and I use it more to locate structure and depth changes to get my bearings on where I'm at more than anything. I don't want to just float around looking for fish on the screen, I want to figure out where the fish are at, know why they are there, and what to fish them with. Won't really learn that just by aimlessly rowing around with my nose in the screen looking for dots.