ESOX HUNTER
Three Steps To A Hot Spot / Trolling, Drifting And Casting
By Uli Beyer         May 10, 2008

Another Uli Beyer Monster

It is very difficult to find hot spots to fish in big water situations.   I do three steps to find the huge trophy fish in these waters.

The bigger a water, the bigger the pike and walleye (zander here) grow in most situations.   But how shall we find them – a secret, which is known only by a few specialists.   By employing these secrets they consistently catch some monster fish each year.   If there is a new      A locator and GPS pays dividends. catch-report in the fishing-journals a lot of anglers will go to that same water and try to be lucky too, but it seriously takes more than a few days to get one of these monsters into the landing-net.   Mostly all anglers disappear again rather disappointed within few days.

In my opinion, you have a chance to find some better producing spots within short time.   You need a boat with fish-finder and GPS-instrument and of course some patience.   I will tell you, how I in very short time, caught some record fish in the first year of fishing some big water.

Step 1

If you are standing in front of a water with a surface of many square-miles, you can be disillusioned very fast.   Maybe you can get a chart with depthlines to get a rough idea of the underwater-structure.   Maybe you have some information from local anglers as to where to fish.   Be careful: Most of these tips are available to everybody and often you would be fishing in a high fishing-pressure spots and areas if you followed them.

Normally I start fishing by trolling – that means in most German waters rowing.   In our freshwater-lakes motors are mostly forbidden!   Trolling for big fish gives you a small opportunity to make a “lucky punch” and catch some fish.   Without knowing the water, it´s not very productive, but for me it´s very useful, because I can locate fast interesting structures, fish-holding areas and maybe I will get my first bites.   I can then go back later using more efficient methods to thoroughly fish the location.

I am not a trolling-angler, but I am able to fish while searching using this method.   It beats just spending time searching!   Here in my region one of the difficult lakes is “Möhnesee”.   I learned, that fish move very far within a day and the season.   The colder our water becomes, the deeper the pike move there.   In early spring we find the fish in shallow water, where the sun warms it up faster and attracts small fish and of course pike.

Step 2

Of course you could continue trolling, if you found fish-holding areas, but in my opinion it´s less interesting and efficient than other methods.   As an active angler I prefer keeping my fishing-rod in my hands while fishing and casting allows for more possibilities in influencing the running of you lure.

Mostly, the fish-holding areas are still very big.   There is still a big surface to work on.   Here I start drifting with a “drift-sock”.   Drift-anchors are a great instrument to fish bigger surfaces continuously and precisely with your casting-rod.   These helpful socks can be fixed in different spots of you boat.   If I am alone in my smaller rowing-boat, I fix it in the middle of my boat to reach it better and being able to move a bigger fish around it.   If the                    Trolling .. Searching and Fishing! wind becomes stronger and the boat faster, it´s better to fix the drift-anchor in front of the boat.   Here the boat becomes slower in the wind.   If you have very strong winds and you fish with two anglers in the boat, it could be helpful to fix two drift-anchors on your boat.   I fix one in front in the bow and the second in the stern (end of the boat).   If you fix only one drift-anchor in front of your motor-boat, you can also slightly steer/pilot you boat by changing the direction of your motor!   Depending on your boat and motor, you can achieve direction - modifications of about 40 degrees in your drift!   That can often make the difference between drifting parallel along a drop of or not!

While fishing, I frequently check my fish-finder and GPS, because here I am not only in search of a bite, but also in search of smaller, interesting structures and maybe better fish-holding areas.   Drop-offs, weed-beds, stones on the ground and many other interesting fishing-spots could be found in this way.   As soon, as I see some interesting spots on the screen or I get bites on my casting-rod, I set a waypoint on my GPS-plotter.   If you have no GPS, you can throw a marker-buoy or you need to remember landmarks like trees, houses etc.   Finding your way back to good spots is one of the most important things in fishing big waters.

My favourite fishing-method, while drifting, is casting a softbait (shads of 6-12 inch length) or a jerk-bait like “Zalt-lure” in not so deep waters (dives only up to 8 feet).

I don´t know, if two rods are allowed in your fishing-area, but we can use a second rod and I do also using a heavy soft-bait.   The shad on my second rod must have a very heavy lead-head to hang straight over the bottom.   Sloping               Concentrate on productive areas (diagonal) lines are much less effective!   I drop the lure to the bottom and lift it up for about 1 or 2 feet.   Only the movement of the drifting boat and the waves is enough to trigger some bites.   Sometimes, this “passive rod” produces as many bites as the rod in my hand (those are the moments, when I ask myself, why I work so hard with my casting rod….).   You could continue to fish in this method and you would probably get several good fish, but you are still drifting over a lot of unproductive area.   Soon you will realize that most of your bites come in small specific spots. Here comes step 3 in the game…

Step 3

Of course, we want to really work the hotter spots.   If you have marked them on your plotter or with a marker buoy, you can come back and put your boat-anchor (with line on the bottom, this time not your drift socks!) slowly into the water.   Please take note, that you don´t drop it on the heads of your prey, but in a comfortable casting-distance to your buoy.   Often, if the spot looks good, it is useful to cast from different directions to a spot.   I learned, that pike very often prefer attacking a lure only from one direction!   With a fixed boat on a hot spot, you can try many different lures and methods to tease also the really big ones.   Sometimes, it´s only a question of time before your lure gets on their nerves so that they bite.   You will be astonished, how many really unknown hotspots you can find in a big water!   Good luck for your next trip!

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           Last updated on ...July 8, 2008