Deitz, take it away! plz. anybody else 2!

[french_lake_kid]

I need help catching bass deep. I fish a small lake in rice co. as my name explains. I've never caught any bass deep on this lake. And up til recently, I haven't needed to but the dock bite is dead. The slop bite is non-existent for some reason. And with murky water lately the weed line has for the most part disapeared also. I've fished shakey-heads, drop-shot , D.T.'s, carolina rigs, roller's too but nuttin but a few sheepies. There is 1 nice rock hump and a few main-lake points I fish ALL spring and early summer 4 eye's and do good but in 3 years have caught 1 8" bass. I plan to start fishing small tourney's next summer and I need to learn this very important tactic. Any clues hints ect. would be great.

[Deitz Dittrich]

First off, not all lakes are good deep bass lakes. Plain and simple. I can think of a few in my area, that if your fishing deep, your wasting your time.

If your lakes is one of those lakes, I dont know?

Deep water fishing is really not that hard.. Finding deep water fish is the hard part. You need to do your best to locate some good areas. Points, inside turns, and rocks seem to be your best areas. As for lures, Carolina rigs/stupid rigs, Jig Woms and texas rigs seem to be your best options. Dropshot and Crankbaits will also catch some fish.

Are you speaking of French lake?

[french_lake_kid]

Yup

[Deitz Dittrich]

If you can answer a few questions for me. I'll look at a lake map.. Not sure how accurate the lake maps are.. but might give you a few spots to start...

#1 at what depth do the weeds end? And do you know what weeds are there? Coontail?

#2 what is the major bottom content?

Of the 2 questions, the first is the most important.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I just looked at a lake map, there look to be some possible spots. A few very nice looking humps, points and a couple of nice looking inside turns. And depending on where the weed lines end, some fun looking saddle areas as well.

[Sproguy]

F.Lake, I will throw my two cents in on this as well. If it I am not mistaken French Lake has a good population of Muskies in it? I am curious what Deitz and the others think but I have always had trouble fishing deep bass with moving baits on lakes with Muskies. My theory is every time one of their buddies chases something he looses his life from a Muskie. I have only had luck using slow moving baits and the so called "prime" areas often don't hold fish. I believe smaller lakes with Muskies the "prime" areas the bass get chased off of them and have to use "secondary" areas.

Don't get me wrong I would still follow what Deitz has said but if the point doesn't work try working up one side of the point along the weedline as perhaps the Muskie's have set up shop on the tip which would be the "prime" area. The thicker clump of grass on an otherwise boring side of the point could be the "secondary" area that I mentioned.

I am very curious what others think. With the exception of Minnetonka I have seen far to often that it seems the Muskie Lakes don't have bass willing to chase. Just a theory, would love to hear what others think.

[french_lake_kid]

Sproguy, good point. I was starting to get the same idea. I would say that the main weeds would probly be coontail. The weedline earlier this year was in 9-12' but has now moved up to 4-5'. The main bottom is probly sand.

[Deitz Dittrich]

ohh boy.. muskie lakes.. throw all rules out.. and just fish! Deep basss on muskie lakes are very hard to pattern, you can catch them out there, but on a consistant basis can be tough!

Fish tight.. the bass always got thier backs to something in lakes heavily populated by the ski... which can help at times as they are more predictable.

[kt]

Like some others said, fishing deep isn't that difficult it's locating the fish that is tough. One thing that i will add is that once you catch a fish deep, don't be afraid to pound the area. A lot of times if you catch one there are several more in the area. Also, don't be afraid to experiment with different lures. I don't know how many times ive caught a fish in a spot on a jig and then not caught anymore until i switched to a worm or something else and vice versa. Fishing deep on muskie lakes can be a blast. I know a lot of guys who have caught some nice muskies while throwing jigs to the deep weed edge.

[Deitz Dittrich]

after some thought I slightly retract some things I said.. Forest Lake sounds as though it is similar in water clarity and also has a good number of muskie.. Forest is known for its shallow bite, but often holds some of its better fish deep.

[french_lake_kid]

I'm headed out pretty soon and will try the dreaded deep. Thanx 4 all the info. I'll be back 2moro a.m. with the report on how it goes.

[st.crioxfishin]

sorry to somewhat highjack the original post, but what about bald eagle... plenty of muskies, stained water, would I be wasting my time deep in this lake?

[ocf1]

You stole my question, lol.

[Deitz Dittrich]

bob- Ive done alright on bald deep.. but if you prefish and find a deep pattern, dont EXPECT them to be there again during tournament day. But I have had some very good days deep there... Like I said in my last post, I kinda retract my original comment about muski lakes.. WBL is another, love fishing deep out there.

[french_lake_kid]

Just got back...Fished last afternoon till about 5:30ish then went back out around 6:30 and then til 9. And then again at 5:05a.m.. I started fishing a very shallow 3' weedline that has a 2' break right under it. Finally, thanx to you guys for the info and building up my confidence. And to luckycrank for the spot. I caught 8 largies somewhat deep. Or at least off the bank a couple-100 yards. 2 of them came on a white chatterbait, 5 on an A.T. 1/8oz. mushroom head and a 4" junebug pulse-worm, and 3 more on a shakey-head. None were big but it gave me confidence to go fish other "deep" spots.

[luckycrank]

HEY FLK, HOW MANY OF THEM MUSHROOM HEADS YA HAVE I'M CURRENTLY OUT. COULD I POSSIBLY BUY A FEW OFF YA!

[french_lake_kid]

I have 3...

[st.crioxfishin]

Hey thanks Deitz, I have a club tourney out there on saturday. Prefished last week and didn't even bother going deep for very long with the stained water and muskies. Found plenty of fish up shallow, but if it doesn't pan out going deep could be an option.

[ocf1]

St croix let me know how you did. You can email me at [email protected]

[st.crioxfishin]

I will try and post about it this weekend sometime