Breaking Down A New Lake In The Rain

Come along with Tim as he locates fish and tries to develop a pattern on a fishery he knows little about! He explains his bait selection and thought process along the way so you can replicate the mindset on your own fishery. 

Tim breaks down the lake despite difficult windy and rainy conditions. He discovers the fish are schooling in the cleanest water on the lake and is surprised to find a steep drop in water temperature in the clear water. To his amazement the cold water didn't seem to matter as the fish clung to that clearer water. 

Gear Used In The Video...

Z man/Evergreen JackHammer Bladed Jig: http://bit.ly/2popvj6
Keitech Fat 3.8 Trailer: http://bit.ly/2ab7s8v

6" senko (Green Pumpkin/Black Flake): http://bit.ly/2axAmNS
4/0 EWG Superline Hook: http://bit.ly/2ac92XG

River2Sea Biggie Poppa Squarebill: http://bit.ly/2ahCzvo

3/4 oz Pitchin' Jig in Black/Blue: http://bit.ly/2amL3of
Beaver Jig Trailer: http://bit.ly/29W3RZW

Chatterbait Setup...
Rod- 7'6" Zodias Glass: http://bit.ly/2cgmMAe
Reel- Curado 70: http://bit.ly/2apmDJt
Line: 15 lb Sunline Fluoro: http://bit.ly/2h4LNjm

How To Pick The Best Spots To Catch Bass

Today Tim is hitting the water for a quick session and is taking us along for the ride. He's on a new lake where he has little experience and his first priority is to locate fish. He works quickly to find active fish and continues to break down the bite from there. 

Many anglers struggle to break water down quickly. Tim brought an arsenal of baits along for the day that helped speed up the process. He was prepared to cover the water column quickly and effectively while exploring likely structures and features. 

Here are the baits and the gear Tim was using for the day:

-Lucky Craft RTO 1.5 Squarebill (Pearl Threadfin)

-S-Waver 168 Swimbait in "Party Crasher"

-Whopper Plopper 130 in "Munky Butt"

-Salter Brecknell Scale

Camera Used: GoPro Hero 4

Matt's Favorite Squarebill Rod (845)
Tim's Favorite Squarebill Rod (704)

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Tips For Approaching A New Lake

New Lakes can be intimidating! Where should you start? What should you throw? How many rods should you bring? Tim answers these questions and more...

Its not easy to choose what tackle to bring to a new lake. To simplify Tim employs a top down approach. Any time he approach a new lake he starts with his favorite topwater. This allows him to cover water and look for active fish. If he's not immediately successful he'll drop down the water column and try reaction fishing. If reaction bait fishing fails to catch fish its time to begin slowing down and fishing the bottom. This simple approach lets you break down the entire water column very quickly to locate the most active group of fish. 

While it seems like a lot of baits and options you can literally fit all of these baits into a single box. Combine them with 3-4 rods and you're ready to jump on a boat and hit a new lake without crowding the boater and overstaying your welcome. 

Baits We recommend bringing:

Topwater...
-Rover
-Whopper Plopper
-Rico

Reaction...
-Favorite Squarebill Crankbait
-Favorite Spinnerbait

-Favorite Chatterbait

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Swimbaits...
Keitech Fat 2.8
Keitech 4.3 Fat
S Waver 168

Favorite Dropshot Bait

Favorite Finesse Jig
Favorite Tube
Favorite Spoon

Topwater Rod-704
Dropshot Rod
Spoon Rod-7'2" Medium Heavy

Breaking Down a New Lake: The Finale

Part 3 of "How to Breakdown a New Lake" picks up right where part 2 left off. The duo move into the Eastern arm of Lake Sonoma in search of shallow water largemouth. They begin by fishing in the marina where they flip a senko into boat slips and skip a keitech swimbait into shade pockets. 

Almost immediately Tim and Matt encounter a wolf pack of schooling largemouth bass along a shade line. If you look closely in the lower corner of the video you'll see a 6-8 lb bass swimming out of a brush pile toward the boat. They are able to lure a topwater explosion from the bass on a hollow body frog but they it doesn't fully commit. After plying other offerings like the senko, keitech swimbait, and even a wakebait they agree to return to the marina later after the fish have settled. 

After leaving the marina the pair briefly fish the bridge pilings. 
When summer bass fishing in a lake with bridge pilings, this is a key place to catch large numbers of fish. Largemouth, smallmouth, and especially spotted bass love to school around vertical structure.  Matt throws a senko on the pilings while Tim is casting an Alabama Rig, both to no avail. They quickly move on to another set of docks where Tim catches back to back bass fishing with a 2.8 Keitech coupled with a Revenge Dart Head. 

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After leaving the docks behind Matt and Tim fish cove after cove and point after point in search of schooling fish on deep ledges or shallow shade pockets. They spend much of the afternoon fishing standing timber in open water but aren't able to get consistent bites. Finally, as the redwoods began leaving large shade lines on the water Matt is able to catch a nice largemouth on a hollow body frog lure. After a few more stops Matt and Tim return to the marina and head for home. 

We hope you were able to take valuable information out of this video. Whether you are bass fishing in California, Texas, Alabama, or New England, we tried to fish different types of cover and with different techniques that could be applied to every location.

Breaking down a new lake and learning how to find bass is not an easy task. However, If you follow the steps we outlined in this fishing video, you should be able to locate bass much more quickly in the future. We hope this helps! 

Baits used in this video to locate and catch fish...

Yamamoto 5" Senko (Green Pumpkin)
Keitech Fat Swing Impact 2.8"
Revenge Darter Head
Yamamoto 5" Senko (Natural Shad)
Alabama Rig- Yum Ultralight
River2Sea Bully Wa in “Dirty White”

Equipment Used:

Tim's Keitech Combo:
Rod- Dobyns 742 Champion Extreme 7'4"
Reel- Daiwa Fuego Spinning Reel
Line-Power Pro Braided 15 lb
Leader- Sunline Leader Material 8 lb

Matt's Frog Combo:
Rod- Dobyns 736 Champion
Reel- Shimano Curado 70
Line- 65 lb Sufix 832
Leader- None Used