Deep or Shallow in Fall?

[the reel ess]

Given those two choices I'll always choose shallow. Let's say you have a jon boat or a kayak with no electronics. In that shallow water you're going to drag some baits by some fish. But this time of year is shallow time for me. It's the last chance for the year for me to get a big gal in less than 5 or 6' of water. But skinny water bass will be shocked more easily by bitter cold snaps.

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, Jermination said:

guys if you come across fish shallow, no matter what time of year, they are usually there to eat and are normally the most aggressive fish in the lake. once they come up shallow for the fall(especially back in creeks), they are there until the winter arrives. Throw the kitchen sink at them and create reaction bites, they'll eat something eventually

Dont a lot of folks catch em dirt shallow all winter long down on your favorite lake?

[WRB]

Deep or shallow is always a decision to make. 

What do you all call shallow water? Deep water?

I garantee everyone has a different idea what is deep, shallow may have more agreement.

Tom

[Jermination]

44 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Dont a lot of folks catch em dirt shallow all winter long down on your favorite lake?

as long as there are some sunny rocks nearby

 

i caught 8 keepers saturday morning in an hour and half in < 3 ft of water

 

[CrankFate]

6 hours ago, WRB said:

Deep or shallow is always a decision to make. 

What do you all call shallow water? Deep water?

I garantee everyone has a different idea what is deep, shallow may have more agreement.

Tom

Shallow is 1-3 feet deep. Deep is 15-20 feet deep.

 

I did see a few decent fish scatter as I walked up to the water, maybe 18-20 inches deep. Surprised me because the water isn’t clear and they’d be invisible if they didn’t scatter. I found the bait. Late season quarter size baby panfish. A favorite food around here. I was using a Ned rig Hellgrammite at first because I’ve caught SMB there, they are very rare around here. No luck with anything. Except ruining a few fresh new rigs on the scattered rocks. The water was not clear, but it was as clear as it ever gets at that pond.

6 hours ago, Jermination said:

as long as there are some sunny rocks nearby

 

i caught 8 keepers saturday morning in an hour and half in < 3 ft of water

 

There were sunny rocks nearby, but the water was too clear. When I walked further down the bank and looked back to where the rocks are, for the first time ever, I could actually see all of the rocks and even the smaller jagged, grapefruit sized rocks. Strange because I could see them from far away looking at them from an angle, but they were barely visible up close.

[Jermination]

13 hours ago, CrankFate said:

Shallow is 1-3 feet deep. Deep is 15-20 feet deep.

 

I did see a few decent fish scatter as I walked up to the water, maybe 18-20 inches deep. Surprised me because the water isn’t clear and they’d be invisible if they didn’t scatter. I found the bait. Late season quarter size baby panfish. A favorite food around here. I was using a Ned rig Hellgrammite at first because I’ve caught SMB there, they are very rare around here. No luck with anything. Except ruining a few fresh new rigs on the scattered rocks. The water was not clear, but it was as clear as it ever gets at that pond.

There were sunny rocks nearby, but the water was too clear. When I walked further down the bank and looked back to where the rocks are, for the first time ever, I could actually see all of the rocks and even the smaller jagged, grapefruit sized rocks. Strange because I could see them from far away looking at them from an angle, but they were barely visible up close.

hey man if the water is too clear or slick put a worm on a swinghead and swim it in. seems to help with the finicky ones when it is dead still or clarity is more so than usual. a general rule i go by is if it is too clear for a crankbait throw a chatterbait, you will catch the same fish

[the reel ess]

On 10/28/2019 at 2:51 PM, WRB said:

Deep or shallow is always a decision to make. 

What do you all call shallow water? Deep water?

I garantee everyone has a different idea what is deep, shallow may have more agreement.

Tom

It is certainly relative. To me deeper than 8' is deep. I catch 90% of my fish shallow, if that's the line of demarcation. 

[TnRiver46]

Where i live the shallow banks are 18-20. The deep ones are 35+. Last night i had my boat almost touching the bank getting my buddys lure unstuck and it was 24 feet under the transom with the trolling motor hitting rocks 

[CrankFate]

Well, the temp is 38 right now, would’ve tried now, but had to take my son to the dentist and then take my wife to the endodontist, back to back appointments. Hopefully, I’ll get to give it a shot—deep water—tomorrow.

[Catt]

On 10/28/2019 at 1:51 PM, WRB said:

Deep or shallow is always a decision to make. 

What do you all call shallow water? Deep water?

I garantee everyone has a different idea what is deep, shallow may have more agreement.

Tom

Shallow or deep is relative to the body of water you’re fishing.

 

On the Main lake of Toledo Bend shallow is 15’, in the marshes I fish deep is 4-6’.

[Fairtax4me]

On 10/26/2019 at 9:08 AM, Pickle_Power said:

I caught some quality fish last weekend on a 5 acre pond on a spinnerbait, and the water temps here are definitely colder.  It has been near or below freezing overnight for a few weeks with highs in the 40's and 50's. Most of the fish were caught on the breakline between 2 feet and 7 feet.

 

That is what I can add from my recent experience.

Similar experience here. Caught over 20 in an hour fishing a 10 acre pond last week. Spinner bait or swim bait in shallow water over grass or near wood cover. 
I had started with a 3” swim bait, and caught about a dozen pretty quick, then changed to the spinner bait for a larger bait, and that brought a couple bigger bites. Including a 4.5lb out of less than a foot of water. 
This was very clean water, mid 50s surface temp, and we’ve had midday temps in the upper 60s to low 70s, and low 40s overnight temps for a couple weeks now. 
 

Throw Something that swims. When the water starts to cool off bass get fired up and into feeding mode when they know the winter is coming. 

They will very likely be in all depths of water in a deeper reservoir, which can make them difficult to find if they decide they don’t want to eat that day. 
A smaller pond, they will more likely be in shallower water and will be willing to chase down and hammer a moving bait. 

[Dens228]

In keeping with the pattern I've been having, caught a few on a jerkbait at around 5 feet deep, and then caught a 20" bouncing a lipless crank off a rocky bottom next to a steep drop in 20 feet of water.  Surface temp was 48.

Total cloud cover and very windy so the surface temp wasn't going to warm up today. 

[WRB]

Years ago when Aaron Martens statrted his B.A.S.S. Elite tour career  I ran into him at a local tackle shop and everyone was asking him how fishing eastern lakes were verses our western lakes. Aaron stated the biggest difference he has to adjust to was fishing shallower in majority of the lakes. 

The majority of western lakes are deep structure with steep banks that drop off quickly into very deep water so the bass live and suspend at specific depth zones, usually around 20' being average. Deep water is something deeper then 20', shallow water being something shallower the 8' on average.

As I write this in November the bass in the lakes I fish are about 3O' deep on average depending where the Threadfin Shad schools are located.

Tom

 

[TriStateBassin106]

On 10/26/2019 at 10:52 AM, Luke Barnes said:

I've been wondering the same thing. I'm a pond fisherman so not as deep of water, but wondered if they would move off the banks to the middle deepest spots of the pond and if I should cast to the middle instead of the banks more. 

I fish ponds here similar to you in New Jersey, yesterday me and my cousin wen't fishing at a local reservoir that was twice the size of my usual ponds. the air temperature at it's highest was only like 53, 4 hours and we didn't get anything, the water temperature there was reading 61, I tried jigging and finesse spinnerbaits and didn't get anything. this past Friday I went to a pond I frequently fish and managed to get 2 on a spinner bait and 3 more on jigs. it was about the same conditions except the air temperature was around 58. 

 

I think in the winter time and late fall it's probably better to fish ponds if you don't have a boat and can track them down easily. 

[scaleface]

Yesterday there were no fish showing up on the deep point  but there were a lot of fish showing up at 25 foot out in the middle of no-where ,  strange . I skipped fishing deep .water temp  48 degrees . Caught 23 bass , 20 on a spinnerbait , in the grass  Four  were over 15 inches with the largest being 3.75 lbs . 

[bazzelite19]

Id say that depends on water clarity. Stained/muddy water will call bass and shad up shallow more generally. In clearer water they may be deeper, like 10-30 feet. Fall is still a time that most bait/bass are scattered about until they group up more come winter. Some fish wont leave deep water if they live there and some of the larger shad dont actually leave to the creeks. Many of the creek dwelling shad are young of the year shad. Most bass in a typical lowland lake should be in that 1-8 foot zone.