How I Scout New Waters for Fishing Success
I have a pretty good system for finding, scouting and being successful on new waters especially ones I've never seen before
I have been fishing big reservoirs and riverine systems for 40 years, and over that time I’ve found there to be so many commonalities between how fish behave on one body compared to another. The more you fish the more you build a rolodex of what to look for and what to try as you approach new waters. And I’ve used that to build systems to breakdown new fishing water even before I get there. And a lot of that is research and then applying your rolodex to the research.
I wanted to share some tips on finding new places to fish, how I break them down with research and map study and then how I break them down on the water. It’s fairly simple and it seems to keep my fishing pretty consistent regardless of where I fish. And as you fish more and more new waters, you want to be fast and efficient so you can spend more time on the good fisheries and waste less time on the ones that just don’t have good populations of quality fish.
And you can apply this to learning new areas of your home lake to branch out beyond what you know already about a few small areas. A lot of local anglers are creatures of habit. I’ve forced myself to break out of that mentality on Kentucky Lake by making myself go to sections of the lake I don’t fish much and making myself focus just on that area for a day. I also change up the species to learn more about different species on the water I spent so much time chasing bass on.
FISHING NEW WATER STARTS WITH RESEARCH
I think the first place you start is with research. For me I will get online and see if I can find a map of the water. This is especially handy if you are looking at bodies of water you intend to fish on foot. You need to find good accesses, but you also need to see if you can access less fished water if you are willing to hike a bit on foot.
Fishing where everyone fishes generally yields average results. So you shouldn’t expect much more than that. I ook to move away from the places people can get to easily and that generally means getting in the water and wading or walking through the woods (although careful to be sure you are not trespassing) along a good stretch to get to maybe a few places other people haven’t fished. I do this a lot on rivers that have a lot of walking access. And it almost always pays off.
I also use research to tell me if a good piece of water I’m looking at has good reports. Has someone made a youtube video fishing on that water. Has there been several posts about the fishing there. If so then it likely has a good population of fish. Then I start looking at where I can access it and where I see others posting about fishing around those accesses.
Even if I’m going to another part of Kentucky Lake, say south of Paris Landing, I will spend some time researching what I can about the fishing in those specific areas. And talking to folks I know that fish that area. I don’t need spots. I just want to get a feel for population, potential, etc. I can find my own fish. I just need to know if one area is worth the effort and the search. Sometimes I just go blind as I mentioned and just make myself learn all I can about an area from scratch. And that has yielded great results more times than I can count.
READING WATER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN FISHING NEW WATERS
It still surprises me the amount of fishermen who can’t read water, or do not even understand why their “good spot” is a good spot. There are factors that put fish in key locations. And the more you can read water above and below the surface, the more consistent success you have in fishing.
Part of reading water is identifying changes in depth, changes in composition, changes in cover opportunities and changes in current. All of these things can help you narrow down your search because fish will key on different things at different times or always key on certain things.
Like if I’m bass fishing or trout fishing for example, and I come across a mud flat, I’m not going to spend much time there. Now if that mud flat has a big laydown, a grass bed, or something attractive or the current changes above or below it, then now I have something to key on that trumps what I would otherwise ignore. So again it’s a combination of things you consider when reading water.
Typically though, I’m looking for current breaks, or current faces where fish often feed. I’m looking for cover that can hold fish and attract forage. I’m looking for favorable water clarity, good bottom composition and signs that the water in that area is alive and vibrant.
I recently trekked to the Eleven Point River with my friend David Taylor who is a trout guide on the Little Red and White Rivers in Arkansas to try to catch trout from one of Missouri’s 9 Blue Ribbon Streams. The water was high and colored from a recent flood. This was the biggest amount of rain and flood water the river had received all year. Not ideal conditions for trout fishing, but a great test in reading water.
I’ve never seen the Eleven Point before so this was going in blind. We researched the access areas at the top and bottom of the Eleven Point Blue Ribbon Section of the river. So we made a plan to access it at a couple locations and started our trek up the trail.
Unfortunately the trail had been all but washed away by the flood and debris it carried over the paths. It made for a grueling hike up and down the river. But we managed to piece together the fishing by search for medium to slower current runs, turns in the river that changed the flow and created some soft water ambush areas and we focused on cover in the river.
We ended up catching some nice trout, several smallmouth and a few other fish like Goggle Eye, largemouth and a few chubs and shiners too in very poor conditions by focusing on specific water that read right.
The best water was where swift water was diverted around something to create a slower flow or a point of river bank or log that created easy ambush points. And for some reason the tops of shallow runs held a decent amount of fish that would fall for our hair jigs and mop flies. As we caught more and more fish we were able to hone in on the exact areas we should concentrate on. And ended up catching a couple dozen trout and bass.
LURES ARE FOR DISCOVERY, PLYING OR MINING
I think lures fall into a few categories outside of their obvious classifications. Sure there are a myriad of styles of lures like jerkbaits, crankbaits, and topwaters. But I’m talking more their application in the pursuit of breaking down water efficiently to find and determine the mood of fish in an area. So there are baits that will find active fish. There are baits that can ply an areas to give you an idea of the amount of fish and there are baits that will catch the majority of the fish in that area.
This process is often how I approach new waters. I will start with something I can work quickly and cover some water to gauge activity level and presence of fish if I can. Some conditions won’t allow overly aggressive applications like shallow, flat-calm, gin-clear water. But for the most part I’m looking to be aggressive where I can be aggressive to start. Then I will slow down and be more methodical with a slower lure that catches numbers.
Ultimately I will try to fine tune my presentation which might require another lure change or simply a color change or adjustment to how I’m presenting the lure. That’s where you often figure out how to catch the better fish in an area you have determined is holding fish and numbers of fish.
As you get more familiar with the area and how the fish are setup in it. You will delve into your rolodex and realize there is a better tool to mine all the fish from that area. That stays at their desired depth and moves in a way to which they readily react.
For bass it might mean I’m burning a lipless crankbait, working a topwater fast or grinding the bottom with a crankbait to get a reaction. Then I slow down to maybe a jerkbait and figure out they up off the bottom and not wanting to chase too much. So then you start dialing in on their mood and preference and that’s when you really get dialed in to what you should do that day.
PUSH YOUR BOUNDARIES
I find that exploring new waters keeps fishing interesting for me. You burn out faster if you always look at the same water all the time with average to minimal results. So it’s worth having an open, adventurous mind in fishing to explore new areas, new waters, even new species to keep you expanding your knowledgbase to make you a better angler.
If you use fishing as an escape, by all means just get on the water and enjoy being out in it. But if you’re an avid angler and really enjoy the pursuit and the catch, I think you will enjoy adopting a similar systematic approach to searching for new waters, then researching all you can about them and then spending the time to explore and breakdown different sections of water until you figure out the best places and ways to catch fish.
This is good stuff. I’ve never really thought about it in terms of “types of lures.”