every year i take a trip to the local tackle shop and buy as many lures that I'm not comfortable with throwing while staying under budget. sometimes I'll invent some new weird rigs while I'm at it just to try an invent something new.

now once i get out on the water I set a thirty minute timer and fish one presentation every thirty minutes, resetting the timer each time. if i stumble on to something that works well i will make note of it and refine it in the future. this same tactic also works great for figuring out lure colors.

(P.S. only once has any one of my homemade bass rigs ever turned out well, and it is a best kept secret)

Just get out there and fish . As long as you have patience to learn you will learn . If you dont get results right away , welcome to bass fishing . 

Concentrate on finding fish more than the latest must have lure or technique . Study topo maps , go fish different areas and use marker buoys . Get comfortable with sonar and buoys and bottom bouncing lures .

 I'm a marker buoy addict  .  Last week I saw a bunch of fish on my depth finder as I was crossing a flat . I turned around , made a long cast with a Deep Little N and hooked a bass. Immediately I tossed a buoy , not to mark the fish but mark where I was at . I caught approximately fifty fish and used the marker buoy as a reference point as I moved around and explored the flat with the sonar .

On 6/16/2016 at 2:25 PM, JDH85 said:

Well Catt if I understand correctly, right now I should be looking for long-tapering points and ledges adjacent to spawning pockets. So, in the picture here I've circled what I think would be spawning areas (shallow, protected from N wind) and points that are adjacent. I would scan the ledges of the channels that run through that area and look for cover/hard bottom/bait balls.

Anything I'm missing?

The circled areas , I dont consider  long tapering points .  They are short points and will still hold fish but do not have the potential as the long point and humps already mentioned .

I have learned more about bass fishing by watching Major League Fishing than any other TV show or video.  Especially, when the fishermen tell, in detail, what tackle they were using and how and where they used it.  I like to watch people that are fishing for bass, to win a tournament, instead of a half hour telemarketing show.