A lot of fishermen make the mistake of applying a good technique or pattern that works on their home lake to every lake. It’s a waste of time in most cases. Lakes have a lot of similarities, but they also have a lot of differences. Take manmade lakes versus natural lakes, for instance. In a manmade lake, you’re going to be dealing with current. In a big natural lake like Okeechobee, current isn’t a factor. In a river, there are other things in play. Deep mountain lakes don’t fish the same as lowland lakes with broad shallow flats – and so on. So, developing an idea about the type of lake you’re fishing is critical. First, analyze it and then apply what you know about fishing to it. If you take the top 100 FLW Tour pros – they have all the answers about how to catch fish. The hard part for them is applying the right answers to the right questions about a body of water so that they can find fish. Nobody can make the correct decisions every time, but for starters you’ve got to stand back and look at that lake or river and figure out the nuts and bolts of it before you can fish it properly.

—- Chevy pro Jimmy Houston, Cookson, Okla.