Safety First
While out on the water there are some very important things you need to know. Knowing how to swim is an invaluable asset while out on the water, regardless if you can swim or not you should always be wearing a life jacket. At minimum the life jacket must be within arms reach at all time. Ya I know getting a life jacket tan sucks but please make sure you can always reach that safety device.

Do you have your boat license? No, your car license will not work. Go to your local sporting goods store or take your boating exam online. It’s pretty easy and you’ll learn things you must know while navigating on the water. In most cases you don’t pay for the test until you pass, so the worst case scenario is taking the test over, no harm done.

OK, moving onto the good stuff…

I’ll start out with a few general things I personally like to look for while navigating the lake. Finding the perfect spot to do some fishing from the boat isn’t to difficult when you follow a few of these instructions:

• Look for calm water
  If you look across the lake you’ll notice some places are rippling and some are calmer. Choose the calmer water to start your quest. The most common areas of calm glassy water are usually inside small bay’s or cove’s. Fish love these areas. The calm water is indicating a shallow depth, most of the time fish like to come and feed in these shallow areas. Perfect!
• Whats the weather like?
  Weather greatly determines feeding habits of almost all fish species. On hot sunny days fish tend to stay in the deeper cooler water coming up only to feed. Entice them with some food inside their comfort zone and your guaranteed to catch more of the big ones!
• Bait
  Do you know what kind of bait the fish are biting on? Try asking some locals what they’ve used for succesful fishing. I like to take some minnows or leaches. These generally yield me great results for most fish species.
• Weed beds
  If you can find some shallow weed beds your going to find fish. Look for those Cattails and make sure to use a snag-less hook.
• Fish Finder
  If you can afford a fish finder then buy one! They take all that guess work out of question. It’s fun to scout a location with your eye’s then confirm there’s fish beneath you using the fish finder! Bingo!

Now that you have a general idea of where to drive your boat, find a suitable place and set anchor. If you’d like to do some trolling, that’s fine too! Either way you’ll have to stop the boat and get your fishing rod and fishing tackle ready. Decide now if your going to troll or set anchor.

• Trolling
  If trolling is what your going for then put a nice spinner, spoon, or crank bait on your fishing rod and cast it out away from the motor. Start up the boat and start trolling in the direction you wish to take. I personally like to find a ridge in the lakes bottom and fish along there making slow weaving passes. You can find the ridge anywhere from 5′ to 20′ away from shore. Sometimes more, sometime less.
• Setting Anchor
  Sit back and relax while you fish, let the fish come to you! Setting anchor and floating is the greatest way to enjoy fishing from the boat and taking in all the site’s that this location has to offer. When I’m anchored I like to use Jig Hooks and soft bait lures. What I do is find a depth of around 9′ – 15′ and drop the lure straight down until it hits the bottom. Reel it up around 6″ from the lake bed and slowly jig the fishing rod up and down. Be sure to keep consistent motions or patterns. Experiment with different depths. This method works best for catching a Walleye or Pike.

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• Fishing License
  First thing’s first. Make sure you go out and get yourself a fishing license, without one of these you may get caught and slapped with a hefty fine. A fishing license can be purchased at your local outdoor sports store. If your from a small town, you can try the local hardware store. Most small town gas stations can also issue a fishing permit or point you to the store that does.
• Bait Bans
  Check and make sure there are no bait bans in effect. A bait ban means you are not allowed to use anything that’s artificially scented or any live bait on your fishing hooks. Usually early season fishing have bait bans. Make sure you check the local rules and regulations. These magazines are availible free of charge from the same place you have purchased your fishing license.

OK, so you’ve got your fishing license and you’ve checked the bait bans. Your good to go! Grab your fishing supplies and head down to a river, stream or local lake. I have a favorite spot about an hour from my house. It’s on a very rocky dam. By rocky, I mean massive boulders. The ones that like to snag your line. Frustrating at first, but once you have a better sense of the underwater terrain you can bounce your jig around and create a technique to decrease your chances of a snag.

Here’s a few tips I use while fishing from shore with rocky underwater terrain:

• Line Tension
  Don’t let your line get any slack in it. Constantly reel it in or use slight pauses while jigging. Once there’s slack on the line your hook will probably sink to the bottom and wedge itself into a crack.
• Using Bobbers
  Use a “J” Hook or jig hook with a bobber. This will let your hook and bait just sit under the surface of the water. This is a sure fire way to avoid any sorts of snag problems.
• Jig Fishing or Jigging
  If you prefer to jig and go for the larger fish near the bottom of the water, I like to use jig heads with a weighted head. Pair this with a soft bait lure or jelly worm and you can bounce it off the rocks. Bottom feeder fish are usually larger and funner to catch. Be prepared to loose lots of hooks, snags will happen. These hooks are cheap, just make sure you take enough to last

Here’s a few tips for fishing from shore where there is a sandy or weedy bottom. The three tips above can still apply, but when you have a nice bottom there are some additional things you can do!

• Use a “Pickerel Rig”
  These 3 hooked monsters are a great way to fish at different depths with 3 different hooks all at the same time. You can buy these pickerel rigs pre-packaged or if your experienced you can make them yourself. Either way, it’s a very effective and relaxing way to fish!
• Spoons & Spinners
  Casting with spoon lures and spinners is probably the most common fishing from shore technique. Casting out and reeling in the spoons sink to the bottom and hover across the ground with your reeling in. A huge array of colors and styles are available. All with one trait in common. They are made to reflect light and shimmer through the water.

There you have it, a few short but sweet fishing tips you to try out for yourself. Now you can sit back, relax and do some fishing! Oh, don’t forget to drink a few beers and take some time to admire natures beauty!

- Enjoy Responsibly

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