Fishing for spots: electronics or no?

JRDIII · Jul 12, 2017

I have been reading this forum for years and I'm always amazed at the incredible knowledge that resides here. It has helped me become a much better fisherman, but I still have a whole lot to learn. Right now I am trying to get better at using my electronics to find and catch fish. Just curious how many of you largemouth/spot fishermen predominantly use your electronics to find fish? I know, for example, Lanier Jim almost exclusively uses his fish finder to locate bass on humps and points and then puts the dropshot on 'em. I do that myself sometimes, but when I find fish it's almost more by chance (and I rarely pull in the numbers that Jim so often does). More often I'll end up fishing Lanier or Allatoona and at the end of the day realize I barely even looked at my Humminbird (except for navigating), preferring instead to fish up and down banks and shore lines, around points, and around docks, where a fish finder just doesn't do much good. For those of you who use electronics most of the time, what are the ideal depths where you are looking? How deep is too deep? And I guess my main question really is this: how do you balance the tradeoff of driving around looking for fish in deeper water when you could be spending that time casting – i.e., fishing shore lines and docks? Is it all just experience, or are there best techniques for finding fish quickly and consistently with electronics?

1eyefishing · Jul 12, 2017

Subscribed. :pop:

Lanier has proven the hardest spot for me to catch fish out of any places I fish.
Farm ponds, rivers, inshore I seem to produce much more than at Lanier. One thing I can say is that I've learned that most of the cover is 30 ft deep or more on full pool. Not within 30 yards of the bank.

red neck richie · Jul 12, 2017

Jrd it depends on the time of the year and water temps. March April May and into June you can catch them shallow and don't need to rely on sonar. They are spawning and You can usually see the structure visually. Such as rocks, docks, blow downs, shallow points. When you get into the hotter months the end of June, July and August The water temps are too warm and they move to deeper cooler water. But will still hold around structure that you cant locate without sonar. Such as humps deep timber and the drop off on deeper points.

Lanier Jim · Jul 12, 2017

Red Neck said it right....a few months out of the year, you can get away with bank fishing. I've taken out many people who want to do nothing but learn to find structure/cover and read their sonars better. Once we've put a few waypoints (which is something else we work on to do it right so that you can pinpoint it), we'll go back and work on how to fish it. Those same people still send me pics of fish they catch by using their electronics or with a particular technique or lure we worked on.

I've fished Lanier, Jackson, West Point, Oconee, Burton, Chatuge, and many more using electronics to find places to fish and done well.

In my opinion....someone can spend less than $800 on two sonars and learn to use them will catch more fish than someone that spends $4000 and doesn't know how to use them. Learning how to use your sonar units will help you catch fish consistently the entire year in any weather.

JRDIII · Jul 12, 2017

Yep, that's where I am trying to get to. I know how to mark waypoints, but is that what you do every time? Are you always revisiting waypoints you know will produce or are you looking for new spots? Or is it a combination?

TroyBoy30 · Jul 13, 2017

couldn't fish lanier without them.

Scout'nStripers · Jul 13, 2017

JRDIII said:
Yep, that's where I am trying to get to. I know how to mark waypoints, but is that what you do every time? Are you always revisiting waypoints you know will produce or are you looking for new spots? Or is it a combination?

It's a combination for me. JRDIII, the whole key to success in the summer months is those waypoints IMO. You can beat the banks in July and August but your probably going to get more dinks than anything. The big girls have moved out to deeper structure. That being said, the more waypoints you have, the more options and opportunities you have. A few years back my old tourney partner and I set out and just started driving points, shoreline and offshore humps looking for brush and structure to mark. We concentrated on structure from 20-40 feet and marked hundreds of waypoints out of our boats and then combined the two sets of waypoints. We started visiting the waypoints we marked and targeting the ones that usually hold fish. If I go out now, I'm solely relying on my electronics to pinpoint where the active structure is and I throw topwater and other baits over the top of the structure till I ease up onto the structure and if there are fish present, out comes the drop shot. The more waypoints you have the more opportunities you have this time of year. Waypoints are invaluable and fishing offshore this time of year is your best bet for success. I've fished with LJ a few times and I know he has thousands of waypoints on his graph. He's not that great of a fisherman but those waypoints he has makes him more tolerable and I'm hoping one day he will share them with me. LOL.... fat chance of that but seriously those marks you have on your gps are invaluable this time of year. I doubt we would have caught any of those big bass in those pictures with my grandson if I didn't have my waypoints to go by.

Teh Wicked · Jul 13, 2017

I do not have a single GPS way point in my electronics...Yet...But I never target just Spots, I always target striper so they are typically on the move anyways.

That will change soon however, im a firm believer in marking good structure that holds baits and or bass. Where the food is, that's where the striper and spots will be, they gotta eat!

THanks for the information in this thread, im going to start being a lot more responsive in recording spots now when I catch fish or see bait balls holding over area.

Scout'nStripers · Jul 13, 2017

Speaking of waypoints, one other thing that might be a good idea right now on Lanier is to do a little searching and find those red balls all over the lake and lay down a mark. At full pool those red balls won't be there and if you mark them now you'll kinda know where the crown of the hump is at. Generally there is structure around those red balls or shallow humps somewhere and if there is and you find it, that can be a really good producer.

Lanier Jim · Jul 13, 2017

Scout'nStripers said:
It's a combination for me. JRDIII, the whole key to success in the summer months is those waypoints IMO. You can beat the banks in July and August but your probably going to get more dinks than anything. The big girls have moved out to deeper structure. That being said, the more waypoints you have, the more options and opportunities you have. A few years back my old tourney partner and I set out and just started driving points, shoreline and offshore humps looking for brush and structure to mark. We concentrated on structure from 20-40 feet and marked hundreds of waypoints out of our boats and then combined the two sets of waypoints. We started visiting the waypoints we marked and targeting the ones that usually hold fish. If I go out now, I'm solely relying on my electronics to pinpoint where the active structure is and I throw topwater and other baits over the top of the structure till I ease up onto the structure and if there are fish present, out comes the drop shot. The more waypoints you have the more opportunities you have this time of year. Waypoints are invaluable and fishing offshore this time of year is your best bet for success. I've fished with LJ a few times and I know he has thousands of waypoints on his graph. He's not that great of a fisherman but those waypoints he has makes him more tolerable and I'm hoping one day he will share them with me. LOL.... fat chance of that but seriously those marks you have on your gps are invaluable this time of year. I doubt we would have caught any of those big bass in those pictures with my grandson if I didn't have my waypoints to go by.

LOL....dang Jim

Scout'nStripers · Jul 13, 2017

Lanier Jim said:
LOL....dang Jim

I was just kidding LJ, you're a pretty good fisherman. LOL :biggrin2:

red neck richie · Jul 13, 2017

Scout'nStripers said:
I was just kidding LJ, you're a pretty good fisherman. LOL

I'm sure he is but feel free to pm those digits. :biggrin2:

Lanier Jim · Jul 13, 2017

Scout'nStripers said:
I was just kidding LJ, you're a pretty good fisherman. LOL

Oh no....don't start back peddling now

We've still got to hit water for some Parker Spoon fishing!

TroyBoy30 · Jul 14, 2017

the easiest way to find those humps and structure in the ranges you need to fish is a lakemaster or garmin map. they both allow you to highlight a depth range. garmin actually let's you highlight 10 different ranges. During the summer when all of the fish are in brush on humps and points in 20-30 foot all I have to do is stop when I see something in green. It made a huge difference when I started fishing lanier. There are some waypoint cards that can help as well. The prochip has tons of humps and roadbeds marked. A bunch of these can obviously be found with just a good contour card though. I haven't fished much this year. All I have been doing is re-scanning everything to find the new brush piles. everything I had was deteriorating.

http://prochipusa.com/

these are from the garmin with 2 ranges

Scout'nStripers · Jul 14, 2017

Lanier Jim said:
Oh no....don't start back peddling now We've still got to hit water for some Parker Spoon fishing!

Oh yea, it's on LJ. The grandson is flying out on Sunday and then I'm on it like a bum on a ham sammich buddy!!! Like a rat on a Cheeto....well you get the idea.

Lanier Jim · Jul 14, 2017

Just let me know and we'll do it. I'll bring some BBQ sammiches and Diet Dews!

JRDIII · Jul 15, 2017

Hey, guys, thanks for the tips. I've got a Lakemaster chip in my Humminbird. Sounds like I've got a lot of work to do. Great suggestion on marking humps when the water's down. For not being a very good fisherman, Jim is the most productive CensoredCensoredCensored I've ever seen!

GrapeBuzzBait · Jul 16, 2017

Great advice!

Lucient · Jul 17, 2017

JRDIII said:
Hey, guys, thanks for the tips. I've got a Lakemaster chip in my Humminbird. Sounds like I've got a lot of work to do. Great suggestion on marking humps when the water's down. For not being a very good fisherman, Jim is the most productive CensoredCensoredCensored I've ever seen!

The lakemaster card completely changed the way I fish Lanier. Once I got that I could consistently find fish. Couldn't always get them to bite but I could at least find them most of the time. Jim seems to know exactly what they want to eat when he goes. Reading his posts has helped me a lot in my pursuit of the spots at Lanier

Fishing for spots: electronics or no?

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