Contour Maps Made Easy (1971)
Editor Don Woodruff takes a detailed look at the best areas to focus your efforts on in a typical lake by using contour maps. Fishing Facts was one of the earliest proponents for anglers using these maps to help them eliminate empty water and locate key fish holding structure. With Hi-def mapping software available these days, everyone can find the obvious structures in a body of water, so locating nuances (“sneaky spots”) has become much more important.
FISHING STRUCTURE 1️⃣ - This is a long bar, fairly shallow on the east side, with a gradual sloping descent to deep water on most of the west portion. On the northwest tip, however, the contour lines come close together, dropping steeply from 5 ft. to 40 ft. Somewhere on this northwest tip, the schools of fish in that area will have their migration route. Here with one exception, the fisherman should concentrate his fishing time.
FISH STRUCTURE 2️⃣ - Here is a good structure because there is only one potential migration route from the deep water hole of 50 ft. All of the schools of fish using that section of deep water for a sanctuary, will migrate to that area. Fish WILL NOT move across wide expanses of gradual sloping shoreline. If a fisherman caught a fish in the area marked (A), he can rest assured that it came around the lake from the "scatter point" in area #2. That fish was probably one of dozens that actually moved up. As a structure fisherman you can see the benefit in concentrating your fishing in area #2, presenting your lure or bait to not one, but dozens, maybe hundreds of fish, instead of waiting and hoping for one or two fish to scatter from the migration route, eventually finding their way to wherever you might be.
FISH STRUCTURE 3️⃣ - This is the classic underwater island, a high knob or raised portion of the lake bottom. Frequently these structures are small, some measuring in feet rather than in yards. For this very reason, you should check them out carefully. Many, if not most fishermen, may not even be aware of their existence, providing you with virgin fishing as you would only expect in a fly-in area of Canada!
FISH STRUCTURE 4️⃣ - A typical finger-like bar, attached to the shore, running far out into the lake, then dropping suddenly to the deep. These are probably the easiest structures to find, and the greatest fishing pressure is usually to be found here. But don't write it off! Because it is far from shore, most fishermen without depth finders cannot locate the break to deep water, and many fishermen do not feel at ease fishing mid-lake structure. They have been brought up to the tradition of fishing shorelines. Without that physical presence of the shoreline, they cannot feel at ease or have confidence in their ability to catch fish… On a structure such as #4, be alert for breaks, and migration routes along the entire periphery of the structure. Although this map would indicate the break is on the tip, at times it will be on the sides, not near the end of the bar.
FISH STRUCTURE 5️⃣ - This is just such a side migration route. More than likely, both areas #4 and #5, would be migration routes for two separate schools of fish, because of the distance between them. If casting artificial lures or live bait, I would suggest anchoring your boat in 5 to 10 ft. of water, making your cast to the deep water area. When your lure or bait hits the water, feed line freely from your reel by hand so the lure sinks straight down, (not swinging like a pendulum back towards your boat). When it has reached bottom, take up your slack and start the retrieve up the break or structure.
FISH STRUCTURE 6️⃣ - This one seems to be a good potential structure because there is no better structure in that area. The break is not as sharp as I would prefer to fish, as is #7, but it is the only noticeable break in the area, and fish in that section would use it.
FISH STRUCTURE 7️⃣ - This is similar to #4 in that it is a finger-like bar structure. It is the sharpest break in the lake and one I would certainly check out care-fully, starting in the hot months of summer and throughout the fall fishing season. Because of its deep break, this should be a particularly good structure to fish in the late afternoon and early evening, as its steep break provides early shadows from the setting sun, allowing the fish to move up earlier.
