Where to fish ?

[Drawout]

weve tried drifting but hav not perfected it yet.its hard to change from sitting and waiting to drifting.

[Drawout]

Ok guys and girls,i want to start catching fish regulary.I go out week after week and just use the old grandpa method of stopping anchoring and waiting it out.What i want to know is what types of things should i look for on the finder to fish. The fishfinder i have isnt very detailed but i bileave it shows a good bottom view. Thx in advance.

[wolfman]

I would look for sudden drop-offs in water depth with a lot of structure or shelves. I would fish in the deeper water.

[gadzooks]

If you are in Paris, I would guess you are fishing lakes. I don't anchor much, mostly drift fish in Lake Houston. It pays off. And, I fish both shallow and deeper water. In the evening and at night, especially, the catfish will move up into the shallows. I also fish the shallow flats if its been cool for several days. In the summer, here in Texas, that usually means after a couple of days of rain and with it still being cloudy. Heavy rains cool the temperature of the lake. But, i also like to drift the old river channel, varying the depths at which I fish until I find fish.

[Drawout]

When you all say flats or humps ,what exactly does that mean,sorry to sound like a noob but im interested in learning how catch em.

[gadzooks]

Flats are shallow areas that go on for a ways. Sometimes, a flat will be off a deeper area or the river channel that feeds the lake, other times, its a big area with shallow water depths. Where I launch, the water is no more than 2-3 ft deep in a large cove...really more bay lake. I have to go a half mile to get to deeper water. I don't fish there often, but when I've come in early in the evening, bank fishermen are catching catfish. Most are small, but the do get 4-5 pound ones.

A hump is just as it sounds. When looking at the depth finder, the bottom may be pretty level, then there will be a bulge that comes up out of the bottom. That's a hump. Humps may be small, only a few inches, or much larger. But, all can hold fish. The variation on the bottom makes a difference and offers structure for bait fish to hid in and a place for big fish to ambush prey.

[Drawout]

Thx jerry for quick responses, rep for ya

[gadzooks]

Us Texans gotta help one another, them Ohioans may have us outnumbered here. I'm no expert, that's just what I know and how I fish. Its different for everyone and each body of water is a bit different. It takes time on the water to find the patterns and those patterns change with the seasons and weather.

BTW, cute baby in your avatar.

[Drawout]

Thx hes my future fishing buddy.

[Drawout]

Just bringing this thread back up to top,maybe get some more helpful ideas.:big_smile:

[laidbck111]

have you tried drifting? This may be a good thing to try. It allows you cover a lot of water in one pass. it can also be used to locate active fish. And to narrow down the areas between where the fish are located. While anchoring up allows you fish an area well drifting covers more area in less time.