Prespawn Preparation

The video details a systematic approach to locating potential prespawn areas using Google Earth.  Important points:

• This approach will work on any body of water anywhere you have historical Google Earth images that show areas that are either drawn down at times or where the water is clear enough to reveal shallow structure.
• Ditches, drains, channels are all important to the equation.  Not just as travel ways and migrations routes, but also because they represent the deepest water in that immediate area.
• “Dune tops” are referenced repeatedly in this video.  They are really just submerged islands, that could be made up of rock, sand, much, etc.  Their significance is that they represent the shallowest water in the immediate area.
• The connection between the shallowest stuff and the deepest stuff gives me my quickest break or transition…it is the steepest in other words.

Organizing like is shown in the video does a few things for me:

1. Gives me a visual of an area of the lake or river that I might be lacking even if I think I know it well
2. Allows me a level of precision that is hard to achieve on the water
3. Lets me create a plan of attack to help prevent me from wandering around
4. Creates a cycle of planning, fishing,  and evaluation
5. Helps me understand why I catch early spring fish where I do.  That allows me to develop theories and ideas that I can put into place on other bodies of water anywhere in the country.