So, you’ve picked up on a hint, heard a rumor — perhaps even found a picture or two that really stoked the fire — and now, convinced you’re onto a solid lead, become excited about exploring strange new waters, seeking out new fisheries and personal bests … ready to boldly go where you’ve never fished before!

But now for the challenge, because when it comes down to the details, the buzz tends to fall silent, causing all of that excitement to suddenly fade into anxious thoughts of where to begin. If you have ever found yourself in such a situation, fret no longer. Here is an action plan of solid guidelines.

Initial Evaluation

Ponds and smaller waters usually are not too difficult to dissect. Working the shallows, followed by time spent probing the edges of adjoining drop-offs looking for unique cuts and extrusions, before heading out over deeper holes searching for suspended fish — usually provides a reasonably thorough overview. If you’re equipped with live imaging sonar, simply drilling holes strategically in centralized locations, and scanning back toward shore will cover this efficiently and with minimal disturbance.

When fishing larger bodies of water, maps may appear a bit intimidating, but they’re crucial to breaking things down. To make your evaluation less threatening, try dividing potential expanses into manageable sections before employing the strategy outlined above. Examine depth contours, noting how those lines and their intricate variations form primary fish-attracting structures such as points, bars, reefs and saddles. Also be sure to discern their degree of complexity in terms of secondary turns and fingers, the proximity each has to shallow feeding flats and the deepest water available in the area — often highly critical components — and the distances between them, which may reveal probable migration routes.

Whenever possible, evaluate the types of cover available and note details such as height, density and any other fish-attracting irregularities. If the cover is vegetation, what species? Is it healthy and green? Does it create any distinct edges or pockets? What forms of bottom content underlie them, and what percentage of area does each encompass? Intersections where these varying features meet are also important because typically, the more diverse the area, the greater the quantity and quality of forage the location will support, and the more likely they are to attract fish.

The variety of game and forage species present in the system, their relative abundance and an awareness of how your target species interrelates with them, along with the influencing effects of water quality and clarity, oxygen content, how far winter has progressed and presiding or changing weather conditions, are all crucial variables that must be considered, too.

That’s a lot to digest. So how is it possible to gather such information?

Establish a Network

Start by sourcing addition information from local bait shops, guides, taxidermists and any literature available from a variety of print and digital publications. If possible, try contacting the authors directly.

More importantly, be sure to find out what jurisdiction your waters fall into and identify the local fisheries biologist(s) assigned to that region. Call to introduce yourself. Keep in mind that between office work, field studies and other assorted duties, these folks usually have their hands full, so reach out well in advance — ideally before the ice even forms. Then after providing a brief outline of what you’re looking for, request their e-mail address(es) so you can specify your questions in writing, then allow time for them to respond.

Utilize Technology

While awaiting a reply, continue your own evaluation and consider going beyond the use of just paper maps. 

Research started during the open water season with today’s sophisticated electronics not only permit you to launch your boat and run transects covering water much faster than is generally possible atop the ice. And by using select software applications, you can refresh your digital charts using data collected as you go, so your maps are fully updated. This may not seem important, but last winter we fished waters that had recently been dredged, and this process allowed us to upgrade our mapping data of the affected area with detailed, high-definition bottom configurations.

Some apps also allow access to shared data compiled in the same manner by hundreds of other users, and since this technology combines sonar and powerful GPS systems with electronic charts, you can download them to your device. These maps already feature admirably tight contours, and you can apply satellite overlays generating highly detailed, 3-D images to more easily identify regions of high potential, perhaps even discover features that others would spend an entire lifetime looking for on their own. Panoramic images of shoreline landmarks can also be added, providing easily recognizable references that will help guide you directly to waypoints and establish travel routes between them. Be sure to check the compatibility guide for your device manufacturer’s plotter, as such capabilities and functions vary from one manufacturer to another and unit to unit. 

The power at your fingertips is pretty amazing. Fishing a reservoir or flowage? Once on the ice, some apps go so far as to allow the realignment of contours to compensate for rising or receding waters. Again, this information can be uploaded with your own personally logged sonar data, ensuring the map file you’re accessing has been completely and accurately refreshed.

Just think, this compelling combination of technologies allows you to identify and locate target structures, mark travel routes, refresh data and make real-time adjustments as you go, even zoom in on specific locations and add notes about each for future reference.

Best of all, this technology is not difficult to use. With today’s mobile devices, the process is usually as simple as downloading a mobile app, entering the region and specific waters you want to fish, choosing the desired map, then integrating the GPS feature on your mobile device to utilize such attributes.  

Tying It All Together

With all of these preliminary tasks completed, you will be fully prepared to ask the local biologists calculated questions. Then they can help you find the most pertinent fisheries research projects and provide links to relevant studies that can be immensely helpful when addressing specific questions involving your target waters.  

Say your target species for the trip is walleye. If one study finds bloodworms densely concentrate on deep mud flats, and another determined those bloodworms provide a key food source for perch, while yet another concluded perch constitute the primary forage for walleyes, you are really onto something. 

Then again, should a study show chubs often forage heavily on invertebrates over mid-depth rock humps, or disclose that concentrations of shiners relate similarly to shallow cabbage weeds or reveal that clouds of suspended, plankton-feeding shad are periodically present, opportunistic walleyes might not be far behind.

Just keep in mind that depending on your lake, walleyes may display a preference for one forage type over another. Or they may be forced to feed on a secondary one simply because another competitive species influences such a shift. The presence of largemouth bass feeding on shiners over a shallow, vegetated flat, while large schools of aggressive white perch or white bass are slicing into suspended shad, for instance, might pressure walleyes into feeding on mid-depth rock bar chubs.

Lake ecosystems are also cyclic and dynamic. When shiners are scarce, perch may move deeper to feed on bloodworms, and walleyes will likely follow. A die-off of shad might cause a synchronous movement of suspended walleyes toward mid-depth humps to forage on chubs. To further complicate matters, on a large, diverse lake, select portions of the walleye population might choose one forage base over another, or possibly relate to two, even all three simultaneously — and not necessarily in equally proportionate segments of the population.

So why, you ask, would a biologist take the time to volunteer such information, potentially saving you hours of research relating to such matters?

The answer has two parts. First, it’s part of their job, but even more importantly, you could prove to be a valuable asset by returning the favor and providing them with data from tagged fish you catch, or offering input regarding proposed regulation changes. Don’t underestimate your value. Who knows? You might even help them by making them aware of something new that you discovered.

Area guides, bait shop owners and taxidermists might be willing to exchange helpful insights, as well. Of course, finding such willing sources can be challenging, but the process is not much different than working with an area biologist. If you return the favor by sharing intel gleaned from your lake evaluations, beneficial relationships are sure to form, and such contacts will help you better prepare to begin efficient exploration of your target waters.

Assembling Final Details

After all of these advance preparations are complete, putting together a plan should be a little easier, but there  could still be gaps in your strategy. One way to fill them is by reviewing other lakes with similar characteristics to the one you are targeting. Often, established location patterns on comparable waters will cross over and prove helpful when formulating a basis for solid strategies on your lake.

In other words, noting productive waypoints found on similar waters and using them as references may help form a foundation comprising an efficient, logical outline for identifying productive locations and means of determining patterns.

Use your digital mapping platforms to search, mark, save and label each of these potential locations as sequential waypoints and formulate a prioritized “milk run” sequence. Make sure to add detailed notes regarding any gathered fisheries study data and other helpful information or references you have gathered about each one. Then continue reviewing it all right up until the ice forms.

On the Ice

Once on the ice, use your customized electronic maps to travel directly to your prime spots, then implement a fine-tuned action plan to determine the most productive ones. Scan each with sonar and/or an underwater camera to confirm you have found the desired combination of structure and cover, reveal forage and fish, identify species, the depths they are holding and how they may be interacting. 

If you have the option of using a recording feature on your underwater camera to archive each area, do so. At the same time, consider utilizing features of your app to shade specific contour ranges where you have found fish, then label and save these specific coordinates, always taking time to add notes detailing the situation and conditions for future reference.

Use a similar approach when evaluating presentation options. Carefully consider strategies you have researched that proved productive on comparable lakes and in similar situations, along with information provided by local intel pertaining to your specific lake. By combining all of this with your personal knowledge and experience, you can begin collectively monitoring fish activity and responses to efficiently assess and determine the most productive presentation tactics and techniques. Then fine-tune your attack based on combinations generating the best results.

Use your technology to record detailed notes of presentations used at each waypoint, like lures and baits, sizes, colors — those that worked and those that didn’t. Other details like weather conditions, depth, types of cover and bottom content present, types of forage present, species of fish encountered, their activity level, specific jigging cadences that may be triggering positive responses, how far off bottom fish were found holding, depth where the most activity is occurring and any other relevant points.

Such details provide a wealth of valuable information that you can reference anytime or share with other members of your network.

Give It a Go!

There are certainly no guarantees — but don’t be intimidated. By following these guidelines, using carefully researched data in combination with today’s technologies to their fullest capacity and incorporating a little ingenuity, you hold the means of developing and implementing a strategic game plan for effectively and efficiently approaching new waters. This strategy will lead to rewarding discoveries; you may be challenged by a species you haven’t fished before, or be among the first to capitalize on an untapped opportunity, perhaps even ice a personal best, resulting in memories that will last a lifetime.

That is what embodies the excitement and challenge of fishing new water.

— Tom Gruenwald is a fisheries biologist, an angling writer and author of four books on ice fishing. Look for him on his television program, “Tom Gruenwald Outdoors.”