Although this is a long thread and I ended up reading it 4-5 times already, I hope the discussion on deep fishing continues. I think the polls would lean towards the shallow anglers for the very reason Roadwarrior mentioned earlier, more anglers are in their comfort zone when hunting hawgs in shallow water. I remember a time when I felt intimidated fishing deep, but with help from a couple of experienced old timers, I forced myself to go deep. I failed really bad at first, (lost a lot of jigs and cranks) but once I mastered topo maps and sonar and targeted those areas mentioned earlier (deep structure adjacent to points, etc) my luck changed. During the summer of '06, I landed 262 LMB between 5-8 lbs in 15'+ water. (McGee Creek Lake and Broken Bow Lake in SE Oklahoma for those who want to experience deep water) Although landing those big ones along the shore is fun, there is nothing more satisfying than pulling them up from the deep. I've really enjoyed reading this thread and I hope it continues.