Fish locating strategy?

[jvitiel]

I’m mostly new to fishing so please help me with the ‘drill down’ process if you can.

I have limited knowledge about where to fish in the local bays but this is my proposed strategy for finding an area as quickly as possible. Please tell me what is wrong - or more importantly, what is missing - from the following. Assume that there is no local or up to the minute info available

1) Look at charts and read up on places that are likely locations - understanding that each day/hour is different.
2) Troll those areas and keep an eye on the sonar.
3) At the first sign of action decide between tighter trolling and drifting/following

I’m thinking that there is a step between 1 and 2 where you might want to run across some of the likely trolling areas identified in step 1 and look more closely at the sonar and birds.

Understanding that birds are more easily evaluated from afar, is it worth running over a bunch of potential trolling grounds to look at the sonar before picking the best one? Can you even see Stripers etc. on a newer sonar at scouting speeds?

Thanks much for any insight that you can provide.

Best,
John