Summer Bass Fishing - Deep or Shallow ???

[FlipR70]

Stratosman wrote:

>>My question is why limit yourself to one or the other?

My problem is that I have been limiting myself to mainly shallow water fishing in the past an I'm trying to change that. The goal (for me) of this post was to try to put together a lot of info on deep water fishing and try to get out of this rut to learn something new and, hopefully, give myself some new methods to put fish in the boat.

I wanted to say a "Thanks" to everyone who posted info.

Waiting for ice-out,

FlipR70

[delmuts]

even on those hot sunny days bass can be found shallow in weeds, along /under docks and trees. to start looking for deeper bass; the easiest mite be to find a pt. that tapers into deep water. try the different depths to find where they are holding at.if you locate weeds that are deeper, try over, around, and in them. check a map ,and do some criusing around, keep an eye on you locator.you will be looking for depth changes, structure( weeds, wood, rocks)when you find them, then form a game plan to fish them. lures can be spinnerbaits,jig,carolina rig ,or a crank bait.keep an open mind and have patience.

[Stratosman]

FlipR70-

Good plan man! I know it is hard to get away from the routine and try new things, but the reward is always well worth the effort.

Lunker- This dependson time of the year, post spawn look for areas adjacent to spawnig bays, usually the first major structure out from a spawning area, ie, hump, bar, breakline. As summer progresses, bass will filter into all areas of the lake, the key is to fish what we will call high percentage structure, say for instance you have two points, one with cabbage and coontail, but maybe the other has a few boulders or a gravel bed somewhere in the mix, the second point would be a high percentage spot. And any point that juts into the main body of the lake or near the deepest portion of the lake should not be overlooked. Inside turns, changes in weed type, bottom content, ect are all spots to key in on, don't just blindly fish a weedline, study the weedline and watch your electronics, position the boat right on the outside edge and make cast parallel and quartering into the weeds, make a mental map of how the weedline lays out, was there an inside turn or point that you were not aware of? If so, now you have a high percentage spot, probe these areas thouroughly before you move on, pretty soon you will have a mental picture and if you fish the same body of water enough you should have a milk run and a list of spots you know should produce, your knowledge can then be applied to new bodies of water and before you know it, you'l be yanking bass off the weedlines. Maybe cover some water with a crankbait, hit some fish then slow down and pick off a few of the less active ones. Remenber, bluegills are a large part of a bass' diet, so keep your eyes open also for forage. so anywhere you have schools of small bluegills, the bass won't be far behind. Study your lake map, highlight some spots that you think should hold bass, then hit those spots, try to learn something new every time you are on the water and you wil become a sucessful deep water angler.

[sami0115]

here is what my game plan will be for this summer...

i have a bunch of spots that i fish for bass shallow. i am going to move out to deeper water just adjacent to those spots and look for structure (humps, changes in bottom, weedline changes, etc.) if the theory stands that bass generally are not roaming fish, then they should be stationed just out from the spots that they move to for shallow water activity.

would this be a place to start to look for deep water bass, what do you think??

[Deitz Dittrich]

Sami-Yes that can be a good plan.. al song as there is something to that deep water.. IE Point, inside bend, decent weedline...Rock and so forth..Just remember, "DEEPWATER" does not hold fish.. some sort of cover does!.. same as with shallow water.

[delmuts]

aaaah man ! all this talk about open water techneqes( sp); then looking out the window at all of the snow, is getting me depressed ! i do have another qestion/opinion on a rod and reel/line set up. i normally don't fish crank baits much ( although i have plenty of them) and plan to make myself do this more this year. qest. my two R&R set ups are a 6-6 MH with #20 mono and a 7' med. with braided line. with out buying a new reel for my cranking rod, which one would you go with ?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Del- most of my crankbaits rods are 7'.. I have a few that I run shallow cranks are than at 6'6" and one that is 6' for working square lip cranks around docks and such... I think your best bet is going with the 7' med and take the braid off and go with a 10lb mono... just my opinion!

[Dan Wood]

del - the 7' Med. is your better option. Cranks with smaller hooks tend to pull out of fish pretty easy, thus Med. and even Med/light actions are preferred. A lot of guys use glass even for a more forgiving rod tip - I prefer the sensitivity of graphite so I can feel rocks, weeds, etc. I use 7' Med. action for cranks most of the time.

[Dan Wood]

Deep or Shallow?

Lots of great information here... There are no hard set rules for fishing. Deep AND shallow is my best advice. Be as versatile as you can - that holds true for whatever you are fishing.

I probably spend about 50% of my time in "deeper" water. Certain lakes and conditions warrant it more than others.

High fishing pressure in the shallows is one obvious thing that can slow a shallow bite and force you to go deep to catch good fish. Everyone has confidence fishing shallow, so this is an obvious advantage to fishing deep in itself.

Weather systems moving in can move fish deep as can available forage, available cover, water clarity, water temps, fishing pressure, etc.

A good percentage of the time you aren't fishing the same type of fish deep vs. shallow (this obviously isn't a rule - certain conditions as noted above will move fish from the shallows). Many bass that are shallow, stay shallow and are orientated to cover all day (not just during low light). Deeper bass are generally more of a free roaming fish that often will shool together to hunt. Rather than hunkering down in cover and waiting for food to come to them, they are out and about looking for food. Think of the shallow bass as a big lazy hog sitting under a lily pad or under a log all day. They can't be seen, the water is cool enough in the shade.. They have plenty of bait in the shallows.. They sit and wait for that frog to plop on their head or that dragonfly to touch down above them.. Schooling deep bass on the other hand go after their food - often patrolling weed edges or any type of structure that will hold bait fish. These fish feed in schools and are generally a much more active fish, because they search for their food rather than waiting for it to come to them.

[st.crioxfishin]

A bunch of good info here.

I am trying each year to learn how to better fish the deeper water. Last year I think I got the t-rigged soft plastics in the deeper water down, its really amazing how many fish you can pull out of the depths at times. This really helped me out in my first ever tournament. I startes out fishing shallow and got my limit. The cover i was fishing in the morning didn't have much except reeds and rocks. Once the sun got high in the sky in the afternoon i wasn't getting as many bites. So i moved to another bay with deeper drops, I fished this with a t-rigged worm and picked up 2 more fish that culled 2 of the ones in the well. This really helped and just shows how great deep water bassin can be. Its frusterating at times, but stick with it, once you start to get some confidence its great.

This upcoming summer i was planning on trying to learn more about fishing deep water with crankbaits. Any advice that would help? I've got the basics, but now i just need to start getting confidence. Any info would be awesome. thanks

[Beef46]

Guys, I just wanted to say. Without reading a 200 page In-Fisherman Bass book, this is some of the best information I believe I have ever read on Deep Water Bass fishing. Very plainly put and easily understandable.

Thank you all for the great information.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Beef your right, it has been a very fun post. Up untill about 8 years ago, I as primarily a shallow water dude. It was a friend of mine that showed me the Dark(ok.. bad joke.)

The biggest thing to remember when you are deep water fishing.. is it really doesnt matter if you have 50 feet of line out and most of it is horizontle(ie Shallow water) or 50 feet of line out in deep water.. ITS STILL ONLY 50 FEET OF LINE! Make sure your still casting to a spot, dont just make random casts!

Best of luck all of you on your new persuit of deep water!

[Stratosman]

very bad...

[Deitz Dittrich]

Wasn't that bad!!

see it was a play on words. .and I made a funny with the whole light dark thing. and I uhhh.. yeah ok.. it stunk!

[Stratosman]

when you gotta explain it....

[TNFL]

I got my "scout" yesterday. The kids like playing with it even out of water.

How about them fancy reel bottom maps. Do they show a lot of potential spots on spots? Or is it easier and funner to just check a long weedline.

[Deitz Dittrich]

TNFL-yes the reel bottom maps can point out turns in weedlines and such which can be good places to start.. but they cant tell you where bottom transitions happen or when weed growth changes...

[TNFL]

Might have to get me some of those too.

How do you find time to fish when you answer so many questions? Do you have a wireless laptop in your icehouse?

Seriosly, I'd like too thank you for all the help. I bought some ice buster bobbers and some #10 demon's last night. I hope other people that use this site appreciate it and recognize some of the sponsors!!!!

[Deitz Dittrich]

TNFL- I do most of my fishing on the weekends... I am a school teacher and have my summers off.. so I fish about 6 days a week in the summer... I am however driving to canada just for the weekend for some walleye action this weekend... Cross your fingers for me that I cross some walleye eye on a hookset!!

Your welcome, glad I can help and thank you for supporting A FM sponsor!!!

[bklimek]

I think many of us start out fishing bass in the shallows. We know they are there because we can sight fish them and we have caught them there since we were knee high to a grasshopper when our parents use to take us out fishing for panfish. Most of the time it is easier to fish because you can visually see the structure (pencil weeds, logs, docks, etc.) and frankly it might be a little funner because it is more eye appealing and faster paced. However if you haven't fished deep structure you are missing out. Deitz has hit the nail on the head and covered almost everything. It is tough to make the transition until you start catching fish in the deep structure and gain confidence. When I made the transition I for one felt it was a waste of time. I didn't think I was casting to anything and assumed there was nothing down there. It does depend on the lake but for the most part your deep structure will hold more quality fish. Yes you will get some pigs in the shallows. However I haven't run across many logs/docks where I can pluck a 3-4 pound plus fish, pitch into that same spot and pluck another one out? When you catch one in the depths throw a marker out and fish that area a little more thorough. Take the information that Deitz and others provided and the rewards will be great!

[Beef46]

PS. The Bass in my avatar was caught in 30' of water on a three way rig with a circle hook and a 8" sucker minnow.

(Trolling for pike)

Who'd a thunk it???