How To:


Working An Area And Finding Fish


Author: Ryan Carson

Where You Fish Matters!



"You can have the most expensive gear and the world’s best lure or bait and not catch a thing...It’s hard to catch something that’s not there"


One thing I’ve seen a lot of this year and years past are people using certain baits or lures that they have seen others using to catch fish but when they go and try it and get skunked. Some people’s first thoughts are this lure doesn’t work. This is not always the case. There are many factors that play into your success when you go fishing. In my previous articles I’ve talked about solunar theory, peak game activity and weather. They can all help increase your odds in catching fish but if you fish an area that doesn’t have fish you are wasting your time.

Locating The Fish In Lakes

When it comes to fishing tidal waters this isn’t as big of a factor compared to fishing a lake. As we all know with tidal waters fish can come and go but with lakes…. well you know their stuck there. For both there are certain things that can lead to a great fishing area.

For lakes take the time to look over the area. A great time to try out a new area is in Dawn or Dusk. Even if you aren’t getting bites you should be able to see fish feeding throughout the lake picking bugs and other things off the surface. If you aren’t seeing this I would be skeptical about the lake. A key thing to remember you can have the most expensive gear and the world’s best lure or bait and not catch a thing. It’s hard to catch something that’s not there. I’ve seen numerous lakes that look like they would be great for fishing and came up with nothing. Some of those lakes had been drained recently to protect against a flood that I had no idea about. Come to find out most of the fish in the lake died when they drained the lake either from being caught in an area without water or oxygen depletion. To say the least I was wasting my time fishing a lake that was basically destroyed when it was drained.

4 Things To Look For

Most of the fish people target are game or predator fish. Some key things you want to look for are structure; current rips and deep holes/ drop-offs and blitzing fish are some.

Structure - can be anything from big rocks, fallen down trees or anything that is breaking up an open area.

Current rips- If you can find an area that has a rock or object that is causing water to rush around it in tidal waters this may be a great area to try. Tossing a lure or bait upstream to flow downstream may trigger a strike from a bigger predator fish that can swim in the current.

Deep holes/Drop-offs - can be good for a few reasons. A hole or drop-off allows the fish to move to the depth it’s comfortable at. It also allows predator fish to hang right over the edge of the drop off waiting for something to swim over the edge. Any time I’m on my boat I always see fish hanging right over the drop on the fish finder. A great way to take advantage of this is to drop or cast bait past the drop off and slowly let your drift or reel the bait to the point it just falls over the edge.

Blitzing fish - This is one of the most exciting things to witness when fishing and the easiest way to find the fish. Boiling water from bait fish trying to get away from the predator fish or birds diving on the water are great signs of fish being in the area.

If An Area Is Not Working, Try Another One

Another thing I like to do when fishing lures is to constantly stay on the move. When I say stay on the move I don’t mean moving all the time but ill give a spot 15-20 minutes max before moving on. Only exception ill make is if I’ve constantly caught fish in that spot before I might stretch it another 10 minutes or so. While I’m standing in a spot I will try to cast as many different directions as I can to cover as much water area as possible. If I am not getting any action I will move about 30-40 yards down the beach or jetty or about 15-20 yards for a lake or river. I will continue this until I find an area holding fish.

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