Question about steep banks leading into deep water with minimal cover

[Cdn Angler]

This is a scenario I often encounter, but have never had any success catching fish.  Typically it'll be a rocky hillside leading into the lake and then almost immediately a huge drop-off slanting down 20-40 feet (basically a long underwater hill mostly vertical).  I've looked for fish against the rock wall super shallow, tried to fish the bottom (rocky but flatter) and hoped for cruisers mid-column.  Never any luck.  There's rarely any brush/timber or even boulders in this scenario. 

 

Is this likely to be dead water? That's my assumption and I now skip these spots, but I'm not sure if I'm missing something or should permanently write them off? 

[cyclops2]

Sounds like a " just passing thru " while looking for or chasing food place.  If shaded a lot ? No plankton food chain exists.

[T-Billy]

One of the lakes I fish has long stretches of bank just like you describe. I've spent hundreds of hours cranking and dragging rigs down them over the years. It's all about the spot on the spot. A change of some sort. A spot where the slope flattens out for a short stretch, a little cut in the bank, a pile of rocks, a change in bottom composition, a pile of wood etc. I put in the time to fish it all, now I have a milk run down the lake fishing those little productive spots between long stretches of unproductive water.

I always try to approach from downwind so I can easily stay off of what I'm fishing as these isolated places often produce multiple fish. 

[PressuredFishing]

It's worth a try, I've found fish really like dropoffs and the contour of the bottom itself seems to be structure itself foe fish, with that said it it's just a steep drop-off and nothing else I personally wouldn't stay around too terribly long.

[Basser2021]

I have an area on a smaller lake near me like you described.

It's about 25 feet deep and I just slowly crawl a jig or work a crankbait through the middle and bottom water columns.

I can't speak for the spot on your lake, but I wouldn't completely write it off as "dead" just yet

[scaleface]

In this situation any lure can be effective . To cover water in such scenarios  , my favorite method is to start with a  diving crank . Parallel  Cast right at the edge , the closer the better   . Then use a texas rig to mop up anything that I encounter that is different . Anything .    

 

I have had success with lots of different crankbaits on those type of banks  .

[geo g]

Usually the topography above the water line continues into the lake below the water line.   When fishing a new lake I always scan the banks to check this out.  In your scenario I will fish a wacky worm parallel to the bank and slowly move out to deeper water until I find fish.  Let it fall deep, and then snap it off the bottom and fall and settle again.  
Or fish a crank bait parallel to the bank.

[TnRiver46]

Most lakes around here are 30,000 acres of what you described. Steep cliffs are my favorite places to fish and we have miles and miles, I certainly wouldn’t call it dead water 

[cyclops2]

Bingo 

 

 A couple lakes with vertical rock faces near me always have schools of fish for the bass to chase & eat successfully.  BUUTT   The schools locations VARY WIDLY  any day.

[AManWearingAHat]

I wouldn't say dead water, it depends on conditions. My last out of state trip we were fighting unseasonably warm water. Only place we found active fish holding was suspended on the structure you just described.

In that case, for me anyway, fishing it semi vertically worked well once we found the band the fish were suspended on. In this case because the bite was slow, down sizing was very successful. I didn't bring in a single fish on the baitcasters that whole trip. 

[T-Billy]

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Most lakes around here are 30,000 acres of what you described. Steep cliffs are my favorite places to fish and we have miles and miles, I certainly wouldn’t call it dead water 

Roughly 20-30x the size of the lakes I fish. Y'all got bays bigger than our lakes. 

[TnRiver46]

29 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

Roughly 20-30x the size of the lakes I fish. Y'all got bays bigger than our lakes. 

It all ends up in the Ohio river too haha

[the reel ess]

We used to fish a part of the lake that was like this when I was a kid. We called it The Rocky Bank. Basically an immediate dropoff to 30 feet or so. If there's a laydown or a cut in, then there's a chance to hold fish. But most of the time there was nobody home. We would occasionally run across stripers, white bass and crappie there though.