The trolling motor talk naturally brings us to casting angle. Sometimes you don't have much of a choice -- trying to fish a dock uphill is not going to happen -- but most of the time you do.

Most of the time I attempt to fish uphill. For example I'll get the boat up to the side of a point and cast as far as I can directly in front of it. This is usually the best cast for that spot. Sometimes, if the bank is too steep, or too shallow, fishing uphill isn't as practical and I'll switch to sideways.

Then again, some of my biggest bass have come casting directly at the shore and reeling out into open water.

One interesting aspect of all of this is topwater baits. Fishing uphill with wake baits is far more important than fishing uphill with, say, huddlestons. You can often get away with cranking sinking baits in open water, but quite often you just won't get bit on a wake bait unless it's fast approaching the shoreline, or some other obstruction.

Fishing near trees? I have no idea.

Happy new year!