Map Reading and Game Plan / Approach

[MaineBassin]

 

Hey Guys,

 

above is a picture of the upper quarter of a lake im going to fish this spring (the one on left), once the ice melts. I have never been up here and have limited information about the lake. The picture was from navionics. The red line on the left going up and down is a roadway. Majority is a pretty big flat. What i have found about the lake: 4400 acres, max depth of 121 feet. One of the clearest bodeis of water in the state. Has salmon, trout, perch, LM, SM, sunfish, pickerel, etc. I will be launching my kayak from the top part where it starts to open up. Im told this upper area is best for largemouth. There are stumps in the area. My thought is to fish pretty much from the island at the bottom (where it drops off deep) up. I bought a baitsanity trout explorer glide that i would like to give a lot of attention. Im thinking hit where the drop offs are and points. Will also throw a topwater (rat, whopper plopper) around the stumps. 

 

Anything jump out to you guys for obvious ice out spots? Im expecting the water to be pretty clear. Weather and conditions are TBD as im still a while from the ice melting. Any and all comments welcome. Thanks guys. 

[El_Weruso]

I would follow something like Mike Longs approach since there's a lot of structure. He uses many weedless presentations with fluoro leaders. So at least you could cast almost anywhere and be in those tough to fish spots. That's my thinking since you could swim a weedless bait on the bottom middle or burn and pause on the surface. Goodluck!

[MaineBassin]

Depending on timing, my thinking was that the fish will still be out deep. Maybe just off the drop off. Maybe if there happens to be a warm spell they could come up to the flat and maybe into the coves/ shallows looking for food. I have a couple 8" soft plastic swimbaits I will drag on the bottom out deep up to the flat.

[_jeffe_33]

I always look at google maps or earth to get another dimension when scouting out spots. Two areas in the circles look really fishy, with lots of channels/ depth changes. Fish definitely will be deep come ice out, but as it warms the access from deep water to the shallow flats where spawning can happen is key. Id maybe try working shallow to deep first too as the fish are going to more than likely be looking and moving uphill has the season progresses. Good luck, looks like a sweet body of water. Stick a good one!

[MaineBassin]

I do plan to fish as I come down to the deep water. I plan to cover as much water as possible. This is a very nice lake. I plan to live on it one day. It can fish tough though however due to it being so clear. I believe I read top 5 for clarity in the state. Which is remarkable considering its size. Surprisingly it does not get a ton of pressure due to tough access. One boat launch all the way at the bottom and the one at the top (the one I use) is actually only allowed to be used by that particular town's residents. Right at ice out I'll have it to myself. Man I cant wait to fish

[NEbucketmouth19]

Wow that's crazy. Compare the Navionics map of that lake with the satellite photo. All those important little channels are not even on the topo map but you can see them clear as day in satellite. Just goes to show how important actual time on the water (or er, the internet in this case) and learning your local lakes is. Now if it were me that channel that runs past "The Bar" and into deeper water would probably be what I focus on in a kayak. It's still shallow enough you can effectively anchor but you can probably cast into the deeper water. Definitely try shallow and see what kind of activity there is first though. Great thing about water that clear is you can see life below, even just little clues like baitfish activity.Who knows how deep they will be at that time of year but in a lake that deep you can't really hope to fish for bass hunkered down in 60 FOW from a kayak, at least not very effectively. I think that spot puts you in a good spot to run into fish starting to move shallower. 

Edited March 3, 2018 by NEbucketmouth19