Hi folks. I've been lurking on and reading this great discussion board for a few years. I'm looking for some feedback about how you guys would scout this lake based on the maps and information provided below. We've been fishing this lake for about 15 years and I feel like we have a pretty good handle on it but every once in a while we go fish some spots we normally wouldn't and we're occasionally surprised by how productive that "new" spot is. I feel like it's easy to get stagnant on your home lake and a fresh perspective would be great.

Here's some quick info:

Lake Type: Natural lake on Vancouver Island on the west coast of the province of British Columbia in Canada. The climate here is very mild compared to the typical Canadian climate.

Current temp: 67 F

Water clarity: Quite stained in Beaver Lake (about 6 feet of visibility) and moderately stained in Elk Lake (about 8-10 feet of visibility)

Vegetation: The Beaver Lake portion of the lake is heavily weeded from the bottom to the surface about 60 feet from shore with the weeds being in excess of 10 feet tall. Some spots in Beaver Lake are choked right between the islands and the shore.

Fish Species: Largemouth, Smallmouth, Pumpkinseed, Yellow Perch, Carp, Catfish, Cutthroat Trout, Rainbow Trout

Keep in mind the depths on the maps below are in meters and not in feet.

Google maps link: http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=elk+lake+victoria+bc&hl=en&ll=48.522119,-123.391571&spn=0.039794,0.077162&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=39.873581,79.013672&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=14

15 years on this or these small natural lakes you should know them well.

The structure features in meters (40") is decent enough to make some basic observations. This looks like 1 lake separated by narrows; the south end being Beaver the north end Elk. Features I look for are isolated flat zones on otherwise steep drop offs at the depth the bass are usually holding. Another feature is irregular twists or turns, cuts or channels, rock piles on otherwise featureless terrian. Funnel zones between island and humps near deeper water with a steep breaks.

Elk lake; has 1 small reef/island located near the narrows with a hump (2m) on the south end. Another similar feature as the lake widens near the S/E where an irregular drop/cut is loacted on the 6m line. Following c-clockwise east to north the N/E corner tapers into the 6M zone, the north shoreline has a good looking cut with isolated flats, the north shoreline has a sharp break just west of the cut mentioned that drops into the depest part of the lake basin. The north corner transitions onto a cove or inlet. The west bank is steep and swings around to cove with a few small isolated flats on a rounded point that looks good near the 6M line. The island is obvious with a good features on the south corner.

Beaver lake; the structure features are the islands and funnel zones where the narrows open up, a few isolated breaks near the outlet and the deep water zone breakline at 4m. This lake looks to be more weed bed fishing punching the weed breaks where the isolated breaks are located or frog/surface fishing pockets etc. I believe the majority of the bass population spawns in Beaver or the narrows, then transitions into Elk during the late summer/fall.

The east irregular/cut point and around the cup to the west on Elk would be a good pre spawn and fall area to target.

Tom

edited; didn't realize that N was rotated 90 degrees from 12 o'clock.

Tom has pretty much nailed the lakes. The 2 lakes are small enough that any part of them may produce fish. I find the bar on the NE side of Elk very interesting... but so will a lot of others. The obvious spots like that are probably heavily fished, while other areas (that are not as attractive to fishermen) may hold more/better fish. Sometimes trial and error can produce unexpected results.

Once upon a time far, far, away... I was on Kentucky Lake when my engine quit. I was only a couple of miles from the put in and decided that I would fish my way back to the truck. I was near a nothing looking shoreline that dropped off into 25' of water with no apparent breaks. I had on a deep running Bagley's crantbait and thought what the heck, so I started cranking. After I had gone probably 1/2 mile the lure hit something and the Bagley hung up. I did the bow and arrow trick, the bait came free and was nailed by a 4 lber. She was followed to the boat by 3 of her siblings! I actually caught 2, 18" bass on the next cast. Then I won 2 club tournaments on that same spot in the next couple of months. The point is there was no reason for anybody to fish that spot and your lakes are no different.

edited; didn't realize that N was rotated 90 degrees from 12 o'clock.

Neither did I.

Thanks for the insightful and thoughtful replies!

We do know the lakes very well. But when you're on the lake and you've been fishing it for years you get used to fishing based on siting everything above the water for landmarks or waypoints you had in the past. Having someone unfamiliar with the lake evaluate it has certainly drawn my attention to some under-fished areas that I'll try out this weekend.