I am what you might call a bank beater.  I fish shallow a lot of the time.  The only "offshore" structure that I usually ever fish is points.  This is because I find it hard to find other off shore structure.  I have a boat with 1 fishfinder (for now) and it's transducer is mounted to the trolling motor.  So when I'm idling around with the outboard I can't see a graph of what's under me.  What is the best way to find off shore structure without a fishfinder by the console?  I have studied maps and I kind of get the picture but without a graph it's kind of hit and miss on the exact location.  I want to get better at offshore fishing, such as humps, ledges, creek channels, etc.  My fishing really takes a hit in the summer when I'm just throwing at the shore for the first and last couple hours of the day and the rest of the day is wasted for me.  Anybody have any ideas (other than going out and getting a new graph for the console)?  

I would spend a hole day doing this(I know its going to be hard but dont take and tackle). but just use your trolling motor, to troll around and find a brush pile or a hump on you fishfinder then mark it on a map for the next time you go fishing. Or something else you could is take a c-rig with a 1oz. weight and just drag it across the bottem then you can feel brush then mark it on a gps or your map

I beat the bank for 15yrs and the best way to search for structure is dragging a 1/2oz Carolina Rig. You stand in one spot and fan cast. Then drag it back to you. If you use a quality rod you should be able to feel the difference between the types of structure and cover you a going over. When you feel a good brushpile just look accross the lake and line it up with something and remember it. Then you will always be able to stand in that spot and cast directly to it.

Some lakes, but not all, have maps that show some grounds for christmas trees and pvc structures, etc.  These are usually decent fishing, but are well known about by other anglers.  

Maybe you could start by going to were a creek enters the lake and just follow the channel as it goes out into the main lake.  

If the lake is fairly new, go to terraserver.com and look for the spot. Chances are, the picture is from before the lake was flooded if its under 20 years old.

Shake the boat til your fishing partner falls out Help him in like a gentelman and then ask him if he saw anything

Don't work muddy, all of my buddies seem to have the deep desire of not letting their head go under the water.