# Finder Locating TIPS



## Fishers of Men (Jul 29, 2005)

Locating bottom fish and structure TIPS.

Venue, Lake Erie.

I move along at a pretty good clip while searching, and don't stop on my first fish I see, it gets investigated first.

The following is a "brief" tutorial on how to find bottom structure and bottom fish.

*Artificial Structure *
There are 2 kinds of artificial structure,
Stuff that sank unexpectedly and stuff that was intentionally dropped.

The unexpectedly sunk stuff more often than not is pretty well documented on charts and lists, and also usually gets hit pretty hard by fisherman and divers.

If you are trying to figure out how to use your depth finder, these are usually large targets that come 20-40 feet off from the bottom, and should give you good practice searching for them.

I usually will anchor past these, especially if I don't have an experienced crew. 
If you try to drift across these, you will wind up losing a lot of tackle. 
Anchor 50-70 feet up current from them. 
If you don't get bites, you can let more anchor line out to position closer. 
This varies depending on the amount of current there is, how much weight you are using, and how aggressive the fish are about coming out of structure to grab bait.

Chumming also works good in this scenario. 
Good places to hit are the wrecks. 
Another tip on these, is a lot of the older wrecks are breaking up, and if you hunt around you will find smaller structure that is not well known and may hold bigger fish.

This is why I have an extra slot for a blank c-map cartridge to record my own information when I find something new.

*The artificial reefs are a little different. *
They usually consist of a general area of bottom structure that was intentionally put there. The relief off the bottom is generally 10 feet or less. 
When fishing them, it pays off to recon at least a couple hundred yards around these. 
Put your GPS map on, and run strip patterns like you were mowing the lawn about 75 feet apart. 
I usually like to run N/S patterns. 
They usually put these reefs down in areas where fish are found. 
Search north and south on these at the same depths.
Hope this helps some perch guys.
*
These are also hot trolling zones too.* 
Put your GPS in map mode, 80 foot range, and get 100 feet up current from where you marked fish or structure. 
Drop your baits and drift or troll to at least a couple hundred feet past the mark. 
If you get bites, hit the MOB, and continue to work the area. 
If no bites, motor back up to a place 50 feet to one side or the other perpendicular to the last drift.
Drift the mow the lawn pattern until you have worked the area, or are catching fish. 
Last tip here, is if you have a place that has produced fish, and you go there, and mark structure, but not fish, fish it anyways. 
You don't always mark fish, but still can catch them.

*Natural structure*
Here are some tips for natural structure in Erie.
Work your western reefs like mentioned above and gather the tips from the lake Erie forum. If in doubt, ask KaGee. 

There are contour lines that were left over from the glacier ice age that cut levels in the lake floor. 
They are shown on chartplotters.
They generally all run E-W more or less.
If you don't have a plotter and are good on your fishfinder, you can still follow these. It would help to have a paper chart of the lake to follow also. 
If you run anywhere, you will see these and you will find some sort of structure, current flows, and highways for fish.

One feature of this lake tho, you have a prevailing west wind most of the time and you do not generally drift with the current. Then again the wind can change 4 times or more in a day.
The majority of currents in the lake run N-S. 
If you can find a W-E current, you can pretty much drift along parallel with these structures. 
Your plotter will also show you places where the contour lines curve and come inward then back out, N-S in some areas, they are not straight lines.

The relief on this varies from a couple of feet to more in some areas. 
There are different bottoms along the way, plotters will identify them for you or you can see them on your fishfinder if it is set properly. 
Mud, mussel beds, shale, clay etc and broken bottom is pretty much a rocky ledge line, and will have a few interesting features in places. 

It is mostly just broken or rough bottom. 
Study the features that are not as well pronounced, it sure can hold fish at times and you may just find yourself some secret spots.

There is structure out East that some people think there is none.
It is in these contours and the lake bathymetry that you find it.
Another form of structure that holds fish is current. 
Yes, it is a structure. Structure is another topic.

The area of features and relief is more spread out in the Eastern Basin than the Western basin and more pronounced.

SoI usually work an area north out of Ashtabula, and follow Toxic and WorkDog around to make life easier, LOL.
I think the fish out there roam around a little more, and are not as structure centric, they are where the bait ismaybeone minute there in close and in no time can be out deep. 
I believe the current changes and temps change their location.
Lets hear those two guys view!

Heres an interesting site to check out:

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/website/geosurvey/SSILEGG_v2/viewer.htm

Hope some of you other guys add to this to keep it going


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