Do you know how to catch bass in deeper water? I surely do not!

[AverageJoeFish]

copied from our blog - averagejoefisherman.blogspot.com

Have you ever wondered what it looks like to do sixty miles per hour in a bass boat? Well this picture is of Average Joe Fisherman Tim as we are cruising at sixty miles per hour in about four feet of water! I think the picture sums it up nicely, don't you?


Dude! Grab the wheel!!!!

The day started off like any other Saturday. I was out and about with my family when I received a call from Average Joe Fisherman Tim telling me that he had a hot tip about a location where we were sure to slay the bass. Well, not really slay as all of the Average Joe Fishermen practice catch and release.


Three hours to catch one fish and your smiling?

Never one to turn down an invitation to go fishing I asked "When and where?" While I was on the phone with Tim, I was giving my wife that "Can I go fishing PLEEEEEEASE?" look. Once I had the "ok" from the boss, I was off. After about an hour drive I met Tim at a local marina only to find that a walleye tournament was finishing up. After a little delay, caused by the tournament, we were rocketing across a very large body of water. Tim was watching the depth finder like a bald eagle watches for prey. At precisely thirteen feet of water Tim killed the motor. We excitedly grabbed our fishing poles, jumped up on the fishing platforms and immediately realized that we have no idea how to fish a large body of water! Especially when we are three miles from shore and cannot see the structure we are fishing. We threw everything we had in our tackle boxes at the fish. Soft plastics, pig and jigs, spinner baits, crank baits, you name it, we threw it. Guess what we got for our efforts? Nothing, nada, zip! Just another day in the life of an Average Joe Fisherman I suppose.

After all of our attempts proved to be futile we packed up and headed closer to shore. Guess what we saw there? Carp. Not a single bass until Average Joe Fisherman Tim pulled one out of some reeds. I am still not sure if that fish was really there or if Tim pulled it out of the live well, hooked it to his spinner and tossed it overboard while I wasn't looking! Pretending all the while like he knew there was at least one bass in the area we were fishing. Tim, if you are reading this, I would not put it passed you!

As the evening began to wind down I managed to miss a strike on a top water lure. It surprised me so much that I believe, after trying to set the hook, I might have been reeling backwards for a moment. Yup, that's how I roll! As if getting a fish to bite isn't hard enough, let's reel backwards! Needless to say, I did not boat that fish.

Tim had a little excitement while fishing a top water lure. A large fish swirled below the lure and was looking intently at it. Tim gave it a little twitch and the water exploded. The fight was on! After a glorious battle Tim came eye to eye with a large... wait for it... dog fish! Man those things are ugly!


Ugly, ugly, ugly!

Finally, on our way back through the marina where we launched from, I caught a largemouth bass! Well I'll be, the sun even shines on a dog's behind some days! But, since I am an Average Joe Fisherman, you should know that the bass was not large enough to be considered a "keeper." Oh well, I outsmarted that fish. It might have taken me over three hours of fishing to do it and it might have been small, but I won! Mission accomplished!



Have you ever successfully fished bass in deep water? If so, how?

[motocross269]

I am still learning deep water fishing...I have spent a little time as a coangler and have drawn some great deepwater fisherman..
I have seen a few common denominators...
Electronics expertise is probably first and foremost...A couple of guys that I have fished with can not only tell you if it is a fish on the graph but what species and what it had for lunch....
Next is time...From talking to some of these deepwater specialists they put in countless hours driving around looking for schools of baitfish, bass and fish holding structure...
Then comes patience and confidence....I fished with a guy that spent all day in 35 feet of water waiting for the bite to come to him...It did and he got a top 5 in a major tournament...
I don't think there is a magic wand that is going to make you a better deepwater angler...It is all about puting in the time and gaining the experience that can only be had on the water...

[SethV]

Fishing deep water requires 2 things, good electronics and time. 

My 2 year old Z21 has 310 hours on the big motor, most are idle speed - side imaging time.  You really will have a tough time being consistent today without SI.  It really has changed the prefish game.  I don't use it too much on tx day, but in practice it is huge.  The other aspect to deep water fishing is knowing how to read and use your "2D" sonar.  If you just turn it on "auto", you are missing lots.  Once you dial it in, you can tell what kind of fish is below you (drum vs smallie) - and even the mood the fish is in.  From post-spawn until fall, about 90% of the fish I weigh in are fish I see on the graph before I catch them.  Its almost like "power fishing" deep water.  I run the T/M on 40-60 until I see a fish, then stop and catch them - often not even casting until I see a fish.

[Bender]

I am by no means a deep water expert but I do spend most of my time fishing deeper. To me it really depends on the lake and figuring out what is holding fish. There are so many factors that even determine what is considered deep. Most of lakes near me in Mississippi only get to 15-20' maximum and I have struggled finding fish in deeper water. In the lakes where I used to live in New York 120' was common. On those deeper lakes it was easy to identify objects on the sonar and drop down and catch the fish from 15'-35' down. The one thing in common with both places is the lack of vegetation which make reading the sonar a lot easier.

The lakes around Michigan are so varied that it is difficult to make any general statements. You can go from Whitmore that is 65' deep (where I've caught bass in 32') to Kent that is mostly 8' deep with lots of structure in 15 minutes and in between are places like Appleton Lake that is a barren sandy bowl of a lake. The critical component is time on the water so that you can learn how to identify what is holding the fish and where they happen to be. I try to keep this in mind all the time and throughout the day ask myself if I am doing what I should be doing. For this reason attacking a new lake can really be tough. And then there are they days that the fish just don't want to eat much of anything even when you do find them!       

[djkimmel]

I don't like fishing deep. But I have tried to force myself to get better at it. More so when I still fished a lot of tournaments (I don't like the word 'donater'!!) I learned some idling around up on Charlevoix and Torch Lakes looking for schools of bait on deep flats - 20 to 45 feet deep. Worked sometimes, but I only like it when I really found a good school.

That was a while ago. Quite a while ago. More recently I did a lot of deep fishing in the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers. Tried to fish vertical or cast when I could avoid the dreaded drifting and dragging.

Like anything - practice and determination help a lot. And I would add an underwater camera to the mix. That leaves little to the imagination on somewhat clear water. I use a Seaviewer. Best on the market by far.

Now I mostly go around looking for more shallow lakes to fish Except when I get bored again (a common problem with me) then I might move out past the scary 1st break again...

[AverageJoeFish]

Awesome!  Thanks guys.  That is some good stuff there.

The Average Joe Fisherman

[Skulley]

Deep is a relative term.  It is all deep.  You don't hear people say that they were fishing 8 feet shallow.  You hear them saying that they fished 8 feet deep.  Over the years I have become pretty good at fishing deep or should I say deeper than 20 feet.  It goes right along with that Geico commercial the word win or something like that. 

I think is all about being as versatile fisherman as you can.  So a versatile fisherman has to have the mind set that it doesn't matter how deep the water is.  If you can see the fish on the graph, then you can catch them.  I use that mind set every time I go out.  I have seen anglers get deeper than 20 feet and their confidence goes all to heck.  Always remember that bass like structure as well as cover on the structure.  You never really see that many anglers fishing deep.  But then again, how deep is deep.   


BD                 

[djkimmel]

That's deep...