I'm new to Hickory and the main fishing location is Lake Hickory. I'm used to fishing smaller private ponds and I do just fine on ponds but I have no idea how to fish a lake. I don't have access to a boat usually so I just have the bank and a pier to fish from. My question is simply how do I fish a lake, and if anybody fishes in Hickory, what are the best places? I use a bait caster and I have just about every type of lure. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Do just like you would in the ponds you fished. Find cover and fish it throughly with a few

different types of lures. Since you won't be able to cover a ton of water really dissect the cover you have in front of you. Fishing from the bank really forces you to slow down, and that's a good thing.

Can you buy a cheap kayak or inflatable ? Bank fishing is fine for a while, but limited to shore access.

i used to pound the shores before i bought a kayak. let me say, i love kayak bass fishing, relatively cheap, easy and deadly quiet. but to answer your question, i usually try to find a dock or a point where i can fish from. 2 main reasons. 1 its a dock, most of the time you have access to deep water and shallow water, thus you have more water to fish from one location. i caught my PB off a dock! 2, points usually offer structure like drop offs or even some current depending on the body of water you are fishing. depending on where you live will determine what baits to use. if im unsure of what to throw, i always texas rig a purple worm to see if there are bass, then i explore my other bait options. start off with your go to bait. dont let fishing from the shore discourage you, ive learned alot from the shore, so can you!