I want to get better at finding fish in general, but I struggle the most from thawed ice till about the spawn. 

I don’t have the best electronics in my boat so that is part of it however I’m determined to get more proficient at locating them. 

People say cold water small mouth fishing and 90% of the time it’s down south were the water that is “cold” is still in the 40’s or higher. I’m in Washington, as of mid October our water temps have not seen the high 30’s. So my question is without nice electronics, what depth range should I look for, and what type of bottom? 

Note; I can’t identify weed lines on my electronics so that answer won’t really do me much good. Thanks!

Here's a little light reading recently posted on the subject.

A-Jay

I can't offer much help for water temps in 30s. If one or two of the lakes near here are in the 30s I can fish a couple deeper reservoirs that stay in the 40s