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Three Steps to Finding the Best Spot
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Once honed, the
following three steps will catch you more
fish. These steps are a top-down approach.
They begin high and removed by viewing
aerial maps from the comfort of your home.
But, by step three you're in the water
getting personal by pinpointing the exact
location of fish.
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AERIAL
IMAGES/TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS:
Use aerial
imagery to find better fishing
spots. If you've been
fishing without aerial images,
you need to change! Aerial
imagery can be an invaluable
resource whether your stalking
wild brook trout in a remote
ravine or casting to stripers
off Dogfish Bar |
(explained below). You will be able to
select optimal fishing spots. Anyone will
tell you "there's plenty of water to fish",
however most successful anglers have an
uncanny knack at eliminating water and
selectively picking water that produces.
Knowing how to read aerial images will
increase your confidence and, you will catch
more fish.
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What to look
for? Easy, if you're saltwater fishing or
lake fishing look for areas along the coast
that are different. Find a reason why a fish
would stop and hangout. In a nutshell,
there's no good reason why a fish would stop
on a straight coastline, look instead for
something that'll hold the fish. Piers,
points, coves and sandbars are all good
spots to target but they're not your only
choices. Try locating darker areas close to
shore. These typically will be deeper
troughs or sloughs that'll harbor predatory
fish during feeding time.
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Why look for the
abnormal? Bait! Piers, points, coves and
sandbars all provide protection in one form
or another for bait. Congregated bait equals
a ringing dinner bell to hungry fish. One
special note, a change in the current seems
to coincided with increased bait
populations. If you can look at these aerial
images and train yourself to look for
structure with deep water close to shore,
and if you predict areas with current
change, you're 90% there. The last item is
to check the topographical map.
Topographical (topos) maps show changes in
water depths and obstructions like wrecks.
By design, topos are great at displaying
elevation changes. The closer the contour
lines, the steeper the grade.
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Aerial images
are also important for stream or river
fishermen. More often than not, close
contour lines next to a stream coincide with
deep water. Look for bends. Targeting areas
on the far shore is a sure bet to finding
deeper water and more fish.
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NOTE: Typically,
in Step 1 you will review several miles of
shoreline looking for the best spot.
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Examine your
fishing hole via:
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Microsoft
TerraServer (displays large images)
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or
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Maptech
(includes nautical charts)
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Below are
examples using a popular Martha's Vineyard
destination, Dogfish Bar. If you just
showed-up on the beach without doing your
homework, you'd see a long flat beach,
possibly the exposed bar. However, the
images below provide an idea what to look
for. I used the aerial image below to
envision bait being washed across the bar on
an incoming tide. My "theoretical" preferred
spots are the deeper holes noted in red,
however this is a best guess made from the
comfort of my computer chair. Being a guess
and because these images may be more than 10
years old, we need to clean it up a bit by
moving to Step 2.
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Image courtesy
of USGS, click to enlarge
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Image courtesy
of USGS, click to enlarge
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USE A GPS:
Short story
- I'll never forget the one
night I was walking to my
fishing spot. I had
scouted Dogfish Bar the previous
day at low tide and now I had
returned with a low lime-green
light beaming from my GPS.
I approached an angler who I
first thought was |
a fishing
buddy. But after coming within 5 feet I soon
realized it was a stranger. Feeling a bit
lost for words I managed to stammer out "how
you making out?" The angler responded "ah
not much, what are you talking on your cell
phone?" I responded "no, it's a GPS, I've
marked my holes. I'm just on my way to my
fishing spot." Well, that resulted in the
angler immediately winding up and following
me about 20 paces behind right to my spot. Within 10 minutes I had landed 2 six-pound
bass right before a massive thunder storm
ended all fishing for the night. Lesson here
is this stuff works.
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I've done Step
1, so what next? You need to find those nice
areas you had picked from the comfort of
your favorite computer throne. More than
likely a GPS won't be needed to find these
spots, however, a GPS will be needed to
pinpoint the spots you'll want to fish (this
is more important for fishing areas with
tidal fluctuations). GPS's come with an
array of features, whether cheap or
expensive it just needs to mark spots.
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Amazon has an
easy navigable site that includes reviews.
Checkout GPS's
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I use a Magellan
Meridian Marine handheld. Regardless of the
model, you'll want to walk the beach at low
tide and mark the areas that look most
promising. I usually look for areas with
deep water close to shore or a change in
water currents or an obvious point or
structure. Mark it!
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Click on image
to enlarge. Once enlarged, maximize image
size.
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I'm not buying a
GPS, I'll just use a stick or rock?
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CAUTION - While
not buying a GPS will save money, you won't
be as accurate which may be the difference
between catching or just fishing. Plus, why
alert others to your spot by marking it with
a stick or rock?
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Short story - My
parents and I fished Assateague Beach the
day before and had done well. I marked the
hole with my GPS. My father and I looked
around taking visual mental markers of its
location. We returned the next day in two
separate vehicles. My father and I, both
being rigid people at times, parked our
trucks at "our" perceived hot spot. Funny
thing is we were parked roughly 80 yards
apart. That's a huge difference in fly
fishing! So to settle matters I broke out
the GPS. Our hot spot was exactly between
us. This is just an example of how even an
engineer and a scientist can get
dead-reckoning wrong at times.
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NOTE: During
Step 2 you'll typically find multiple good
spots. These individual spots may be
contained in a 100 yard distance or you may
just find one good spot.
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WALK AND
FISH:
Walk and fish!
This is a very important step
and rarely used by anglers.
In Step 1 you reviewed miles of
shoreline, Step 2 you marked the
"theoretical best spots" and
Step 3 is "walk and fish"!
By walking and fishing you'll
cover areas not visible to the
eye |
(even
when wearing polarized glasses). Located
near your "theoretical best spot" will be
subtle differences in the bottom where fish
will hang. If you sprouted roots at the
first spot you started fishing, more than
likely you'd miss a depression that holds
fish.
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The game plan I
use is to begin 25 - 50 yards up-current of
the "theoretical best spot". I cast and
retrieve while walking with the current past
and beyond my spot by another 25 - 50 yards. Typically, I'll receive consistent hits or
catches in one specific location. Once honed
in, this becomes your "BEST SPOT"!
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Click on image
to enlarge. Once enlarged, maximize image
size.
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FINAL NOTE:
Steps 1 through
3 will work for saltwater shore fishing.
Step 2 and 3 usually are not needed for
freshwater fishing.
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These steps have
been used successfully at Assateague (VA),
Martha's Vineyard (MA) and streams
throughout Pennsylvania.
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