How do you find your back lakes?, I don't want your spot, I want my own

What are some of your tricks for finding and fishing back lakes? I know that a lot of people that use stuff like fish on-line to find lakes that hold fish, or at least should but how do you actually find where and how to fish them. There's tons of people out there that don't use sonars and many of these small lakes don't have maps or if they do, they're from the 60's or 70's. Any tips? or just keep trying until I find somewhere by luck?

What are your limitations?

google earth, FishOn, 'back channel' contacts on LSO.

Trial and error. Maps. Online info. Stocking lists. Hunches. Lack of accessibility.
Getting skunked lots. Talk to guys. Try and estimate who's lying to you. More work(travel) can mean better results. Or worse results! Haha. Try places everyone else overlooks. I would say from my experience just going and trying. Don't tell the world where you're off to. Or where you've been. Years of checking around and exploring, and I still don't have 'guaranteed spots'... it is fishing after all, and the adventure is half the fun right!?

If no one tells you, it literally takes a lifetime. To find it on your own, use the tools, drive insanely far and be prepared to get skunked......alot. And remember, just because you went out of the way and got skunked, doesn't mean the lake isn't good. Its fishing and even good lakes take a couple visits to figure out.

I was at a guys house, he was an older gentleman selling some yard equipment, I ask him about the lake out back he says 'there's never been fish in that lake'.. A few minutes later I ask him about all of the pictures on the mantle which mostly show the house and property and I ask ' all of those pictures from the property' and he says yes. In the middle of those pictures is him, much younger, holding a 30+" pike. Its now our favorite/close back lake for big pike.

Google maps is your friend. Look for road access, cross this with stocking lists, look at fish population reports, talk to lots of folks, lots of small sporting goods stores and dealerships are good places for gossip, or just run into someone selling yard equipment.

I wish I had more time to explore some of the back lakes that we know of or at least the ones we havent fished in 20yrs.

As "crappie" as it is,,,, leg work and time investment is what its gonna take.

ya i like to fish a lake 3 times befor i give up on it

i have had luck with rainbows thanks to sparkys tips
but i have now been trying to get splake and have yet to get one
i like the learning and figuring what works part of fishing

First time on back lakes we like to troll at first, gives you a chance to check out the lake structure, if you go through any weedbeds you can stop and pitch a few casts into it, mark it for next time. You can cover a lot of the lake in a short time as they are usually smaller lakes. Identify the area you want to fish, look at satelite maps of the area and start your legwork.

Stocking lists are a great place to start. Even though lakes are stocked does not guarantee great fishing. As someone else said give a lake three chances before you give up on it. I think you have to enjoy the exploring part as much as catching fish or you won’t last .
As far as techniques are concerned most of these lakes will not have online info available. It’s a simpler kind of fishing which is most of the charm. Drop a lure to check the depth,troll the perimeter to check structure,use polarized glasses to see structure or drill a lot of holes.
Good luck in your search because when you do find a lake that becomes special to you there is no feeling like it and the search is the fun part.

Winter...unless you have a plane, winter and a good snowmobile are your ticket to finding and fishing backwoods lakes.

Set a goal...my fishing partner and I try to hit at least three new lakes every year. If you don't make a point of it, you will end up in the same old spots every time.

KEEP TRACK!!!Keep track of all pertinent information about a lake when you go the first time and try a couple times. Weather including, Barometric pressure, and time of day. Hopefully you will pick up on some patterns.

I'd have to dig it out as I forget what it was called, but I had a "book" that was all maps. Fishermans Atlas maybe? Most lakes of any size were marked with what was in them and whether or not they were stocked. That book coupled with stocking lists became our bible. We learned to go by long/lat. rather than lake names for the stockers and to fish lakes just for the hell of it. We found our own little jem by doing just that. The lake was close to a highway, but not visible. There was another lake right next to the highway (visible) and that's the one everyone fished. We were going through old stocking lists and saw that the "hidden" lake at one time was stocked with rainbows, but hadn't been for some time. Nothing else was listed for it. We hiked in and tried it one winter just to see.. it was full of splake. And perch. Ministry had been stocking it but not putting it on the lists. So ya never know...

We hiked into and fished lots of lakes we'd never seen before. It was fun for us. Even if we got skunked or found out it was a dud, it was another off the list. We had high hopes one weekend for one little lake that had streams leading into and out of it. Book said rainbows and specks. We started hiking in before dawn, started drilling holes and found out it was just a mud patch. But when we hiked into one and hit it good based on a whim, a guess and our own experience fishing different lakes (once we laid eyes on it), it was better than Christmas morning.

I don't want to derail the topic too much, but I do wonder why the MNR would want to stock a lake and not make the information public. I thought the point of stocking lakes was to create more fishing opportunities.

I think this used to be a much bigger "problem" than today with Fishonline. I know of a few lakes that were stocked without public notice and mostly because of political or professional links between cabin owners and MNR officials. Also, Lodge owners do not want "public" pressure on "their" lakes.