Rock shoals

[HUKDONFAWNIX]

Sometimes I have the benefit of fishing with a fish finder, sometimes I am fishing "blind".

 

How do I find underwater rock shoals in both situations when fishing for walleye?

 

Thank you in advance for your help!

[Dara]

With no finder, I just use the bottom of my motor...it finds them

[Raf]

yep, lower units are shoal magnets

[Twocoda]

with no finder ...you could always walk along side the boat till you cant touch bottom anymore....

 

or

 

 

 

fish where the other boats are fishing

[cynmar]

Hydrographic maps if you can get them.

[Twocoda]

Hydrographic maps if you can get them.

 

fishfinder will cost you less

[alexcba]

piranha max 160 is goin for $161 at bass pro.. i use it, no issues finding structure.

[ld17]

what you can do is look along the shore line and see what's there. Often you can find rubble or boulders that start on the shore line and move into that water. GPS with a chip is another good way. Search the net on the lake your going to fish. There might be some history on the lake that can give you a clue as to the structure on the bottom. Good luck

[BillsTheBassMan]

I agree with Alex here. You're best to spend the < $200 and just get a cheap model. Your standard hydrographic map costs around $35+ tax. That's kind of gross. You can often find maps on here from generous members, but if you can get a finder for $160 why not just do it!

[lunkerbasshunter]

what ld17 said about looking at shorelines. You can often find steep drop offs, rocky areas if you match up with the shoreline. Another way is to drag a heavy lure or weighted lure along bottom until you get snagged. if you feel pulling on yoru line its weeds, if you get a montser snag then its rock most likely. or some kind of structure anyway lol

 

a fishfinder is the best most time saving method if you dont have a lot of time

 

cheers!

[OhioFisherman]

Look on line? might be different where you fish, most of the lakes here are man made and some sort of map is available for most of them. What is on shore can give you an idea of what is off shore, a rocky point going into the water usually means the rocks continue out away from shore.

 

Burning a blade bait, like a heddon sonar above the rocks can trigger strikes, guess it looks like fleeing bait fish.