Understanding Lake Maps

With all the gadgets and contraptions that bass fisherman use today its easy to get ahead of ourselves and skip important steps when approaching a new lake. Even with GPS, mapping chips, and a network of friends I still spend a lot of time pouring over maps before venturing onto a new body of water. Many anglers have abandoned the paper map in favor of more “modern” options, never stopping to check which is more accurate.

Though I run GPS on my boat I’ve never forgotten the paper map. I still carry maps on the boat and reference them constantly. For this reason I was quite pleased to get an email from an angler asking for an explanation of lake maps and some of the associated terminology.

For this explanation I pulled out the first map my hand landed on, it happened to be Lake Fork, Texas. Though I have not spent a great deal of time on Fork I have been there enough to get a feel for the lake and an understanding of its features. Hopefully this video will shed some light not only on Fork but on every fishery you encounter.

I expect more on this topic in the future from Adam Hinkle, a regular contributor to the site. I’m sure Adam will have a different approach and it will be fun to see how the approaches vary. I look forward to your feedback.