Hey Y'all

I fish smallies on a small lake. It becomes difficult when it is very hot in the middle of the day and I don't have a depth finder to find good deep water structure or bait fish.

Any tips?

The slope of the shoreline will extend into the water. Sheer banks typically lead to steeper drop offs. Dragging a C-rig around can help you map an area and find cover on the structure. Of course a lake map if available is a big help/

I didn't have a sonar 30+ years ago either when I started to fish smallies. Do you have a map of the lake? (If not, use a Google map of the lake.) Once you have a rough map, get yourself a 60' length of parachute cord. Tie a heavy nut & bolt (or anything else weighing at least 4 oz.) on one end. Then start putting a simple over hand knot, every 10' up from the weight. You can put a small piece of different colored ribbons through each knot to indicate the depths. This has now become your new "depth finder".

Using this simple device, I was able to map a large hill-land type reservoir and establish a quality "milk run" by noting the various depth changes I discovered as I "hand lined" this device in my travels. Found humps, recorded configurations of long dropping points, old river channels and road beds, etc.. It made me a better small mouth angler.

BTW, after checking my mapping records with first a Lowrance "Green Box" (first flasher on the market) and subsequently, several LCR units, I was pretty accurate when all was said and done. It could work for you just as well. One other thing that would have saved me a lot of time back then, is a handheld GPS (which I still use today). They are not that expensive and for that matter, neither is a decent LCR. Hope this is of some help.

Many if not most of the mapped lakles were done by the WPA or CCC during the depression and they only had hand lines. A little slower but still effective.