Let's hear your thoughts on how you pursue walleyes, northern, and SMB on the following map area. Let's say the time of year is August 1st.

Would you work around and between the cluster of small islands and rock outcroppings? What with - rapalas, leeches?

Would you get up into those 3-4 little coves along the mainland on the right side and cast toward the shoreline, or maybe stay out where they pinch off by the main lake?

As an amateur fisherman I'll take a stab at it.

I would probably start a little west at the north end of the big island heading due east. Follow everywhere the topo lines are very close together (steeper drop offs). Also the 20 foot hole in the north-east.

I like bottom bouncing leaches with a slow paddle until you find the bite.

Spring time I might fish the smaller bays, summer I would stay in the 13-20 foot water.

For SMB...

Daytime: I see several midlake areas that look like submerged islands. I would check each of those to see how close they come to the surface. I've had crazy good luck at humps that rise to 4-5' surrounded by 20-30' of water. I'd start with 1/8 oz jig/leeches under slip bobbers.

Morning/Evening: I'd fish the shallow water near shore. I'd fish Zulus or topwater poppers.

That area of Jackfish Bay is filled with nice saddles that hold fish. I'd try between the islands north of the campsite and along the underwater point/flat farther north of there. Also between the bigger island just off your shot to the west and the shoe print islands, but especially around the peninsula and tiny islands to the NE of the site on the deepwater side.

Very impressive knowledge of the area, Schweady. I wasn't sure how long it would take for somone to figure out the location, but I figured it would surely be longer than that.

I was trying to be fairly general about fishing around islands, but I also plan on heading out to this exact spot. Thanks!

I've fished that area on Jackfish. Had good luck with the walleyes, drifting and bottom bouncing, with lindy rigs and leeches, between the islands and the mainland, particularly off the points of the islands and in between narrow channels.

Had great luck with smallies on the submerged islands in Jackfish (as mentioned by Mad_Angler). If you go to the south end of Jackfish, near and just west of the southernmost campsite (i don't recall the campsite number now), there are some small, rocky islands that hold great numbers of smallies. One afternoon, 4 of us laid into several dozen smallies within an hour, tossing back many 2-3 pounders, as we already had a stringer of walleyes for dinner.

If it's northerns you're looking for, there's a small river/tributary that pours into Jackfish in the southeastern portion of Jackfish (don't have a map in front of me so can't remember the name of it). Paddle up that river as far as you can go, turn and drift back toward the bay. Troll a mepps or rapala and you'll catch northerns, in the river and in the bay, at the mouth of the river.

Ok I need to disqualify myself from this one because I know Jackfish bay like the back of my hand, but this will apply to any bay on any lake in this area on August first. In the morning fish shallow up to the shoreline on the basin side of any structure, you can still catch fish on the shallow side of points islands reefs and other structure but if your looking for quality fish, stick to the deep side. If theres saddles always give them a look, even fishing topwater over them in the middle of the day with bright sunshine. If theres susbstrate transition such as rock to rubble or rock to sand or weeds hit that edge because its almost always productive. Neckdowns between islands fish the downcurrent side of the flow as it transistions to deeper water. Theres alot more I can add but I dont want to write a book :-)

The choppiest, deepest, windswept side if day. Look for a 'flat' or wide hump or gradual slope at night. I never catch many this way but it sure sounds good. :)

quote overthehill: " The choppiest, deepest, windswept side if day. Look for a 'flat' or wide hump or gradual slope at night. I never catch many this way but it sure sounds good. :)"

LOL

For eyes, I guess I would start with the bar (about !5 ft depth) extending from the northeast part of the big island. Looks like good mid lake structure surrounded by deeper water to me. I would try to drift over it with either live bait or jigs and twister tails. If there isn't much wind I would try slip bobbers or trolling around with plugs.

That would be my starting point, but if that weren't working I would be quick to move to other structure nearby.

I'm no expert but you asked how I would do it. :)

You guys are the best. Thanks for all the great advice.

If you're willing to play along, how about we try another. This one is much deeper water. Same thing - Aug 1st, looking for eyes, pike and SMB.

You have got to be working the big island and three little ones to the north. But where - on the deep main lake side, or on the mainland side in the 20' range, or depends on the wind?

Are you going way up into the bays like the 60' deep one on the southwest? How does such a deep bay change your tactics versus the shallow bay on Jackfish? Less topwater or just topwater right up along the bank? Are you bouncing leeches closer to the bank or working raps around the 20' contour a little offshore? Maybe staying out by the pinch point where it meets the main lake?

Where are the eyes in a deep lake? Still in that 12-20' range (which puts them relatively close to shore in some places), or going deeper because they're always hugging the bottom?

I'd find myself cruising the shoreline points and turns at around 20 ft, liking the points that the campsites at your map's east side are on, too. Plenty of promising areas here, but I know that the bay at the SE of your map has a 5 ft mid lake hump that has produced some walleye. I'm not so sure that your deep bay is actually 60 ft as far back as it shows. My Gamin's Upper Midwest chip has it at more like 30.

What are you using for your pics? Scans of maps, or screenshots of some software?

quote schweady: "What are you using for your pics? Scans of maps, or screenshots of some software?
"

It's screenshots that I very quickly made from http://voyageurmaps.com/map6zoom.html

Granted these are some pretty popular areas in the bdub, but is there anywhere you haven't been out there, schweady? What's it take you, maybe 10 seconds to figure out where they're at? It's impressive.

I hear you about the 60' probably being more like 30'. That would make a lot of sense. I work a lot with topo surveying and have found that the USGS contours aren't really all that accurate when you look at a very specific area. I would assume these contours were from lake soundings, which would hopefully be a little more accurate. I should compare to the DNR lake maps sometime.

Here's a screen shot from Navionic Hotmaps Explorer. It is a pretty imporessive program. For about $20, you have contour lines for nearly all lakes in the US.


My cut/paste into Paint is a bit fuzzy. The real screen view is not fuzzy at all.

Fun with maps... I should have recognized the Voyageur series' look.

Here's a look at South Arm in a quick screenshot from Garmin's BaseCamp running on my iMac. The contours come from the Garmin Upper Midwest Fishing Guide chip, essentially the same data as the now-defunct Garmin LakeMaster series.

Here's another shot. It shows some more details.

I love maps. I had to look, so here's the DNR lake finder map for the area. It also disagrees with Voyageur and shows a 30' depth on the southwest bay, just like schweady's garmin.



That Navionic map is really neat. I like the level of detail with the extra notes.

Many of the LakeMaster maps -- and in turn, many maps found on the UMFG chip -- are taken directly from those DNR drawings. Better than nothing, but not always 100%.

This looks like a great idea for a new thread, show us your maps and what chips they are on.

quote Mad_Angler: "Here's another shot. It shows some more details.
"

Awesome. Thanks.

quote toddhunter: "

quote Mad_Angler: "Here's another shot. It shows some more details.
"

Awesome. Thanks."

Given the details on the Hotmaps Explorer map, I would definitely hit the two submerged islands. The one rising to 4' is probably hardly ever fished since most folks wouldn't know the exact spot without a depth finder...

One trick... let out your anchor with 8' of rope. The anchor will be suspended in the middle of the water column. Paddle slowly towards the likely spot. The anchor will hit bottom when you get close.