Location fish on a new lake!!

[Preacher_man]

 How do you find fish on a lake you've never fished before? I'd like to hear some expert advice here!!  
                            Preacherman

[FullTmeDad]

I've always found that the best bet is to buy your bait (even if you don't need any) at the local bait shop and ask them. Sometimes picking up a few small jigs as well. They know that if you do well, you will be back.

[alpinehigh]

Thats the best part about fishing! Finding them. To me, it all starts with the type of fish i am fishing for. If its walleye, i look for 12 foot depth, brookies at about 6 foot etc. I drill holes to search for the depth i'm looking for. Then i leap frog around with my jigging rod and tip down. Best to illicit help from friends for this part. I also try to use the smallest bait and jig as possible to try and get even the small ones to find where they are. It may take a few trips to find where they are but after you do, you have a favorite spot for life.
good luck

[JT]

Above threads were very sound advice. Get out there and fish agressively until you find them then dial it in. Like was said the more lines employed the more efficient one can be at getting rid of the junk water so to speak and concentrate efforts in productive areas. It takes time but each time you fish there you dial in all those little micro spots on the spot ...that's what being successful is all about...that and challenging
mother nature to do her worst while your out there! Experiment!

[crappieloo]

I've always found that the best bet is to buy your bait (even if you don't need any) at the local bait shop and ask them. Sometimes picking up a few small jigs as well. They know that if you do well, you will be back.

Thats the same thing i do

[crappieman6]

All posts were good, there are few good lakes that in the least are not fished by those that know the lake well. Watch and learn, If I happened to be fishing a strange I will look for a place that in the past have many holes dug I mean 30 or more, there are there for a reason. most ice fisherman do not mind if you come near and fish close by...most lakes will like a wendys ,,,, once the words out where the fish are ..the evidence is wow look at the holes..

[rgfixit]

All sound advice.

 Without getting too technical I would;

1-GET A MAP!
2- Get advice
3- choose a species
4- Observe others (if they're out there)
5 - do what you know works other places
6 - MOVE, MOVE, MOVE
7 - learn from the results

RG

[Preacher_man]

 Last year the only time I did any good was about an hour of so before dark. I found a dropoff that went from 5' to 20' My son and I did really good during that hour ( 20 or so 10"bluegills) They were bulls. But I couldn't find them the rest of the day.

[frozentoes]

All above are great ways to find fish. I know it took me a couple of years of fishing a lake year round to get dialed in. That is the fun part. The map is one of the best tools out there. It will at least give you an idea of the depth and structure. What worked best for me is drilling many holes in many locations. I always started shallow and worked my way out. The lake I predominately fish has a max depth of 22 fow, although I have only found water to the 16' depth. I think the silt has filled in the deep pockets. I also agree with starting out with small tackle and work your way up. I am not so sure of the bait shop advice. Some, not all, will sell anybody info to sell bait and tackle. Talk to people on the ice, explain you are new to this water, and more often than not, they will help you out. I know I would help someone out, even though my fishing partner doesn't like it. The water and fish are there for all to enjoy.

[Wyoming_Ice]

If I do not have a map,I look for a point,or a drainage coming into the lake.
Some guys like coves...I prefer a point...
A good map should be your best friend
Wyo Ice

[alpinehigh]

most ice fisherman do not mind if you come near and fish close by..

Not sure about that, crappieman. Lakes are usually big enough and enough fish to find your own spot. If there is structure at one spot there will be structure at another spot. I and people I fish with don't appreciate when people fish close by. I dont mind chatting and dont mind if someone uses my holes after I leave but prefer to have a 25 yards buffer zone on a busy lake or 100 yard on a less busy lake.
Isn't most people like that or am I an introvert?

[DipLip]

Fish as a team. Get a good gang together (if possible) and spread the field! Great way to get younger people involved. We sometimes use Motorola units to communicate in groups of 3-4 all over the place. Especially late in the season when schools of smelt make the rounds and keep the fish moving. Somedays we'll have 10 or 12 people all working different areas.  

All the other advice is bang on, too.

[mnfishman]

Prior to heading out on a new lake I sit at the landing area watch where everyone else is going through a good pair of binoc's.  Finding old auger holes sometimes good but it also can mean that the schools have moved on to deeper water or they have been fished out.  

You can ask the local bait store but they don't always know either.  

Last but not least is a good map of the lake.  

[grumpymoe]

preacherman  lets pick a specie of fish first and then we can start--walleye/perch  northerns, lake trout, smallmouth bass??  it really makes a huge difference and i'm being picky cause i dont want to waste time on the water >:(grumpy

[Preacher_man]

 OK Grumpy, Lets start with Crappies! I would say that I have the hardest time, finding and consistently catching these critters,most of all!!

[Jam_Jam]

I'd be careful about taking too much info from stores and other fishers also, as they may give ya some decent spots to start but they likely aren't giving up their BEST spots.  It may be worth striking out on your own and doing some hard work and risking some skunk days to find your own honey hole.  IMO those who follow just get the leftovers    

[Preacher_man]

 I guess I need to be a little more specific! What do you look for,on a specific lake,that you have never fished before? Besides other fisherman! I know that it depends on the species of fish that your trying to catch!! One person said he looks for points. Whats a good point? Creek channels and roadbeds? Why are they so good? Coves? What makes a good cove?  

[Jam_Jam]

To find the fish you have to think like the fish.  Perch and other small fish are the bottom of the food chain so cover is going to be a biggie.  The hiding place also has to be tempered by the fact that there also has to be food nearby say a large mud flat that harbours alot of bug larvae.  With pike and walleye etc. being predator fish a good ambush spot will be the key as they are fish hunters.  You'll always find some overlap in fish territories and differing ideals on 'the best spots' depending on what waters you fish and the food and structure that is available so it is a very very tough question to nail down.  A weed bed in an otherwise barron area is likely to hold alot of small fish.  Dropoffs and channels are notorious ambush type lies...deeper channels may be better for walleye while pike tend to stay shallow so they may work along a 6-12' shelf or channel or something like that.  

Fish will be all over (so don't get caught sticking to the rules as a religion) the key is to find the odd spot where they are concentrated just that little bit more.  Some lakes just don't seem to have those concentrations and ya just have to move a tonne or stay put and accept the fact that you won't have quite as much action as at other lakes.  Thats my half cent.  

[mrlongbeard1]

   Through trial and error.Listen to the people fishing the area.The way it is on one lake may not be the same down the road.We have so many diffrent types of lakes here in NY that its a learning experiance all the time.Some of the lake hold perch down as deep as 60' to 80' some lakes there never below 20'.And it never hurts to try somthing out of the ordinary either.Good luck and I don't mind someone sitting close by either.Make me smile when I'm heaving fish on the ice and there not.

[kerosenecounty17]

Preacher man-

Points or peninsulas are good places to start because you can pick them out without drilling a hole.  The topography almost always extends into the lake for some distance.  The peninsula will extend out under the water until it finally flattens out at the end.  That end of the point can be a good place to find fish.  Also, the inside corner of the peninsula where it meets the main shoreline drop off can be good.  Both the main shoreline and the peninsula will slope to deeper water and meet at an inside corner where the bottom flattens out.  That's one of the best places to give it a try.  If two peninsulas extend out from the shore on oposite sides of the water, you can sometimes find a bar running from one to the other that is shallower than the surrounding water.  The sides of that bar can be the best spot to catch crappies (bluegill and walleye too).

Coves - Look for a big flat consistent depth bay.  I usually look for something in the 10'-14' range.  Look for shallow sloping shoreling coming into the lake on at least three sides.  Again, that topography will usually extend into the lake, and you have a really big bowl half full of water, but you can see the part of the bowl that isn't under the water.  These fairly shallow bays will usually hold some green weeds well into the winter, and those weeds will produce oxygen and feed bugs.  Base of the food chain pulls along the rest of the chain.  Once you find one, auger holes till you just about pass out.  Hole hop until you find fish.  Remember the holes where you catch fish if you can.  The ones that give up one fish will usually give up more.  

I don't have any experience with road beds or creek channels.  All of the resevoirs I fish are ancient and pretty shallow, and I don't think any of them have sunken road beds in them.  The creek channels have all filled in with silt by this time.  If you can find them, they're good because fish will hold on variations in both bottom depth and content.  A change in depth, combined with a change from silt to gravel (or gravel to boulder, etc.)  will hold lots of fish.  I don't think anybody really knows why, but that's for biologists to figure out, not fisherman.

I don't like "following the croud", and get way more satisfaction from catching 6 bluegills that I found myself than 25 that I caught fishing along side somebody who's already done all of the work.  Hope that's helpful.  

kerosene

[Luckydog]

Mr. Alpine... --

I agree with you 1000%.  I don't mind chatting with other folks on the ice but I expect you to stay at least 15 yards away... I've had some guys ask "How you doing?".. When I said "Pretty good...catching some nice gills and crappie."..They punched holes 6' from me.  These are total strangers.  I thought that was RUDE!
It's a totally different story if I know your face...When fishing with friends we've been within 4' of each other.  Sometimes, just for fun, if a guy catches a fish out of a hole, someone else will pull his line and then drop it in the successful guy's hole... it's all done in fun...especially when the second guy catches a fish out of the same hole.
I think you need to absolutely ask permission to move in close to someone who's already working a bunch of holes.

[grumpymoe]

thanks preacherman  my wife is steamed that i'm going to ontario this weekend to see if i can catch some crappies she said what the h_ll are you doing that for. you're supposed to be helping with last minute xmas shopping. i told her that you need some guidance (its a 7 hour drive) i'll get back to you after the weekend and let you know where to find them. she made me promise that next year, preacherman will ask me to help him find some fish where she can do some tanning >:(grumpymoe

[Preacher_man]

 Oh Yeah! Use me as an excuse! Thats alright I don't have a problem with that!! I just hope you catch a bucket full of fish!!   If I lived a little closer to ya,I'd be sitting right next to ya on that ice, picking up some pointers!   Let me know how you make out!
                           Preacherman

[grumpymoe]

just one more thing preacherman--i've never fished them before and was wondering if i should be using steel line-they look like vicious little b_ggers