LET’S TRY SOME NEW WATER
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By: Jeff Gustafson
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n October 2021 my brother Ben and I decided we would sign up for the One-Man Lake bass tournament, taking place on the last stretch of the English River before it dumps into the Winnipeg River in Northwest Ontario. It is a big body of water with a good reputation for big bass so we were excited to get out there and try our luck. I always tell people that if they want to become a better overall angler they need to constantly fish new water. That, and don’t just go fishing on the nice days, fish in all kinds of conditions. We all have places where we know we can catch fish and that’s great but if you only fish those spots, you can get into a rut of not keeping up with new techniques or finding the next group of untouched fish.
This year I have been running the new Humminbird VX cards and they are awesome. Highly detailed with some unique new colour palettes that make it easier than ever to see fish holding structure on the maps. The Ontario version of this card covers most of the more popular waterbodies in the province. They make it easy to navigate and find places to fish. I did find some general mapping of One-Man online but it was limited. When we arrived to prefish for a couple of days we were given a map by the tournament organizers that had safe trails drawn on it to get around to different sections. We used those for general travel and then just went slow when we were venturing off the beaten path.
little over an hour north of my hometown of Kenora, I had never fished there before. Living where I do, we’re lucky that we have access to a lot of different waterbodies. Since we had never fished this water before, I just used my routine approach that I do Some people don’t like to put their boats when I’m visiting new water for an Elite in water that is uncharted but I love it. Series event in the U.S. I like that I can probably find places where fish have never seen a lure on these fisheries because they don’t get the pressure and none of the structure is marked for everybody to fish. If you’re patient and you put the time in to look around with your electronics you can always find little rock piles, weed clumps and other cover that holds fish.
If you are going to a new body of water, you can try doing an online search on that particular waterbody.
Even though the One-Man section of the English River is only a
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Just part of our winning catch at One-Man lake.
Over my career fishing in the U.S. I have been faced with fishing a new body of water many times and have developed somewhat of a routine. The first step is finding maps if available. I learned my way around Lake of the Woods with a paper map in my hand and when I started traveling I would always buy a paper map of the places we would fish. Today, I seldom get the paper maps anymore because we have such great mapping available on our electronics. Just Fishing . 36
Ben Gustafson with another from One-Man lake. Fall 2023
