Hey guys,

Im looking for some expert advice to help me explain how to break down a map of the local area where I go fishing most.

I don't quite understand all the fishing lingo....

Can someone tell me where the points are? Secondary point? Drop offs and flats (I assume these can only be found with a proper chart or on boat sonar) 

Where would be considered hot spots to try based on these screen shots? 

This is a river system where the currant runs left to right on these photos..

 Thanks!

The attachment is a sat map, no contour lines to indicate what the depth may be.

The Saint Lowrance River isn't an impoundment it's a river so most of the terms you read do not apply. Bass, both smallmouth and largemouth are not the primary predators in this ecosystem, both pike and musky are higher predators, so they dominate the best feeding areas. Bass in a river tend to locate where current breaks occur and let the current bring prey to them verses the bass hunting prey.

Largemouth bass like slower moving water then smallmouth bass,both can occupy the same areas. Man made current breaks are the most obvious, wing dams, rip rap broken rocks used to reduce erosion, marina's, power plants, bridge pilings etc. Current breaks are anywhere you see faster moving water making an edge with slower moving water, it's the seam in between these that offer nearly no current. Where you see tree laydowns, big boulders or any structure or channel, stream or smaller river joining the bigger river that creates current breaks is where you want to target bass in a river system.

Tom

Hey JuiceBass,

I use navionics maps when looking for points and stuff.

Check them out here: http://webapp.navionics.com/ 

Hope this helps. 

Points; Are areas where land jonts out into the water.

If I was you, knowing nothing about this body of water, I would start along the shore in the morning on points or in a bay.  Or where there is it appears an island near the road is marked 132, I would fish inside of that part on the main river. Once the day got going and the sun got higher in the sky I would let the fish tell me what they want.  By that I mean are they moving off to deeper water or are they going shallow up in cover.  

I highly suggest webapp.navionics

 

 

On April 1, 2016 at 1:55 PM, CDMeyer said:

Points; Are areas where land jonts out into the water.

If I was you, knowing nothing about this body of water, I would start along the shore in the morning on points or in a bay.  Or where there is it appears an island near the road is marked 132, I would fish inside of that part on the main river. Once the day got going and the sun got higher in the sky I would let the fish tell me what they want.  By that I mean are they moving off to deeper water or are they going shallow up in cover.  

Thanks for the advice!

great advice guys.

Points can be on the ends of under water structure nowhere near a shoreline.

On 2016-04-02 at 8:47 PM, SemperBass said:

I highly suggest webapp.navionics

 

 

WOW, great link, this is exactly what i needed. do you mind explaning what the green spots would be? vegetation or is it a depth thing?

also i guess all the little numbers are the depth? seems hard to understand that also..

 

53 minutes ago, juicebass said:

WOW, great link, this is exactly what i needed. do you mind explaning what the green spots would be? vegetation or is it a depth thing?

also i guess all the little numbers are the depth? seems hard to understand that also..

 

WD = weeds. This can be shoreline or submergent vegetation. In the case above, it's both. As for depth, and any topology map, the more you zoom in, the greater the detail. I stopped there so I could provide you the image of what you provided us. If I were to zoom in, you'd see far greater detail.

I highly suggest using the navionics Web App. I purchased the mobile version on my phone as well and I use that as my GPS/Topo on my boat.

Example.

Image 1 - zoomed out view of Sanford Lake.

Image 2 - Zoomed in to the southern most half of Sanford Lake. Notice, there's more detail. Notice the white, that's the river/creek channel of Sanford Lake (ie: also the deepest depth.) It used to be a river, until it was man-made into the lake it is today.

Image 3 - Zoomed all the way in. Higher detail. Finer contour lines.

2 hours ago, SemperBass said:

WD = weeds. This can be shoreline or submergent vegetation. In the case above, it's both. As for depth, and any topology map, the more you zoom in, the greater the detail. I stopped there so I could provide you the image of what you provided us. If I were to zoom in, you'd see far greater detail.

I highly suggest using the navionics Web App. I purchased the mobile version on my phone as well and I use that as my GPS/Topo on my boat.

Example.

Image 1 - zoomed out view of Sanford Lake.

Image 2 - Zoomed in to the southern most half of Sanford Lake. Notice, there's more detail. Notice the white, that's the river/creek channel of Sanford Lake (ie: also the deepest depth.) It used to be a river, until it was man-made into the lake it is today.

Image 3 - Zoomed all the way in. Higher detail. Finer contour lines.

awesome thx!! and what would the purple lines mean?

On 4/1/2016 at 6:52 AM, WRB said:

The attachment is a sat map, no contour lines to indicate what the depth may be.

The Saint Lowrance River isn't an impoundment it's a river so most of the terms you read do not apply. Bass, both smallmouth and largemouth are not the primary predators in this ecosystem, both pike and musky are higher predators, so they dominate the best feeding areas. Bass in a river tend to locate where current breaks occur and let the current bring prey to them verses the bass hunting prey.

Largemouth bass like slower moving water then smallmouth bass,both can occupy the same areas. Man made current breaks are the most obvious, wing dams, rip rap broken rocks used to reduce erosion, marina's, power plants, bridge pilings etc. Current breaks are anywhere you see faster moving water making an edge with slower moving water, it's the seam in between these that offer nearly no current. Where you see tree laydowns, big boulders or any structure or channel, stream or smaller river joining the bigger river that creates current breaks is where you want to target bass in a river system.

Tom

well said!