Hello,
I am new to bass fishing. I just purchased my first boat earlier this year. It is an older boat (1988 Challenger with a 90 horespower Mercury). It is a good little boat and my sons (7 &9) and I have been learning about boating saftey, how to mix gas and oil, and how to quickly start a cold 2 stroke motor while other folks are waiting to put in. : )

We have also been trying to learn to fish for bass. We want to try and fish for large mouth or spotted bass. I have been searching the web for fishing tips and how tos. There seem to be many out there. However, one of the frustrating things is deciphering all of the terminology about where folks are fishing. Such as: fishing humps, points, creek mouths, etc. Does anyone have any good links to websites that would show a beginner what these things are and how to find them? i.e. Diagrams or illustrations. I figured if I wanted to "find" fish it is probably a good idea to become familiar with Lake anatomy 101.
Thanks for any help or ideas.

Hi Challenger,

Welcome to the boards and congrats on your first boat (best of luck with it).

This site has some nice photos of points and a couple of humps that are out of water: [url=www.martinsmap.com]www.martinsmap.com[/url]

Here are some photos of creek mouths:




You best friend is a contour lake map... once you understand how to read them, you can find "underwater structures" by looking at your map and using a sonar unit.

Some simple explanations:

Point: A point is a piece of land that extends out into a body of water. (Typical points can be seen by looking at the shoreline)

Submerged Point: A piece of land that extends out into a body of water, but is below the surface.

Island: An isolated piece of land that is completely surrounded by water.

Hump: A hump is basically a submerged island.

I will stop here and see if anyone else would like to add some additional info...

Brendan

Hello challenger. Welcome to bassin usa. This forum is great and ask questions and you will get answers. I have found that reading bass resource.com is great info on Largemouth Bass. And trust me the more you know about what you are trying to catch the better. If you can understand what makes a bass tick its easier to catch. Thats all the help i am goin to offer cause that is a ton of reading right there. I read all that stuff and it made me a better fisherman. Hope this helps

Thanks Bendan and MbBass. I appreciate the help and link to Bassresource.com....you are right there is a lot of information there.

I am definately going to purchase a contour map of the lake closest to my house and spend some more time reading. I didn't realize there is a "science" as well as an "art" to becoming a better fisherman. I never thought I would be going back to school....but at least this time I won't mind doing the extra credit assignments.

Talk to you soon...

No problem... studying bass is much more fun than anything I studied in school!