Finding Fish Offshore

[KSanford33]

I wanted to start a thread I thought could help several other fishermen here, so I thought of the biggest issue I run into: finding fish offshore. I'm a reasonably capable fisherman going after structure and the like near shore, but when fish are deep, I always have trouble. I know to look for steep drop-offs, but outside of that and submerged structure, it's kind of cast and hope.

 

So I wanted to get the input of the people here. What do you do to find fish offshore?

[scaleface]

Points , humps , saddles and channel ledges . Thats pretty much all I look for and they are easily located . I find the depth by looking for a thermocline and dismiss all water deeper and looking at the depth bait fish are relating to . Where I'm from , the lakes are full of shad . They are very fragile and die easily . They search out the depth that they are most comfortable in  .  Bass  often set up for ambush near that depth on the structure mentioned .  Schools of shad are usually easy to find with sonar  in deep open water . I know that is pretty simplified but thats what I do and am successful at it .

[cyclops2]

Different rules for BIG & DEEP water.  Think just as if you were a new born bass. Then a larger and larger bass. Where would you travel to and avoid both fish & non fish predators ?  That will remove a lot of areas completely.. Buy a subsurface map of the lake. Some have symbols of different types of bottoms.  I use it to help on dead days.

[roadwarrior]

16 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Points , humps , saddles and channel ledges . 

 

 

                                                   

[Deleted account]

Find the offshore ditches...

[KSanford33]

42 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Points , humps , saddles and channel ledges . Thats pretty much all I look for and they are easily located . I find the depth by looking for a thermocline and dismiss all water deeper and looking at the depth bait fish are relating to . Where I'm from , the lakes are full of shad . They are very fragile and die easily . They search out the depth that they are most comfortable in  .  Bass  often set up for ambush near that depth on the structure mentioned .  Schools of shad are usually easy to find with sonar  in deep open water . I know that is pretty simplified but thats what I do and am successful at it .

Excellent answer. Now let me ask you to expand on it a little. How do you find a thermocline? I know what it is, but I'm not sure how to find it. Also, I live in the northeast, so our fisheries were made by glaciers, so we don't have any channels (that I know of), but I definitely look for points and random humps. Also, I look for any of the above near where a creek feeds into a lake. Thank you again.

[scaleface]

1 minute ago, KSanford33 said:

Now let me ask you to expand on it a little. How do you find a thermocline?

It will form after the water warms up and is easily seen by the sonar . I dont know if they form in glacial lakes   . I would think so .

[Team9nine]

This book has all your answers whether natural lake or man made reservoir.

 

Hint: Natural lake structural features (bars, humps, saddles and reefs).

 

[gim]

Not every lake has a thermocline.  Something to keep in mind.

 

I struggle with the offshore bite too that often involves fishing deeper water.  Good electronics and a knowledge of how to use them and interpret what you are seeing is a big advantage.  I'm still trying to get better at that.

[Team9nine]

10 minutes ago, scaleface said:

It will form after the water warms up and is easily seen by the sonar . I dont know if they form in glacial lakes   . I would think so .

? Thermoclines form on most of our natural lakes (glacial lakes), though there are a few “two story” lakes where the thermocline isn’t restrictive to deeper fish movement. These are typically lake trout and cisco lakes. 

[KSanford33]

10 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

This book has all your answers whether natural lake or man made reservoir.

 

Hint: Natural lake structural features (bars, humps, saddles and reefs).

 

Thanks, I'll definitely look into this.

[Bankc]

14 minutes ago, KSanford33 said:

Excellent answer. Now let me ask you to expand on it a little. How do you find a thermocline? I know what it is, but I'm not sure how to find it. Also, I live in the northeast, so our fisheries were made by glaciers, so we don't have any channels (that I know of), but I definitely look for points and random humps. Also, I look for any of the above near where a creek feeds into a lake. Thank you again.

Increase the sensitivity on your sonar until you start seeing a lot of noise.  If there's a thermocline, you'll see a definite line of noise starting at one depth, most anywhere you look (though it can vary slightly in depth from spot to spot in the lake).  

 

One thing I've noticed is to keep water clarity in mind.  I fish a lot of dirtier lakes, and when fishing deeper, offshore, I find that you often need to go with bigger and louder baits than you would in the shallows.  It gets harder for fish to locate your bait in deep, dirty water, and it gets hard to hit your target as the water gets deeper (especially if there's some current).  So the strike zone narrows as the difficulty to hit it increases.  So I like to throw things like crankbaits, spinnerbaits and such that allow me to try over and over again rather quickly.  I find T-rigs and Jigs, even with rattles, aren't as effective.  Though if the fish aren't in a very active mood, then sometimes you have to go with the jigs and T-rigs, drop shot, etc. and just try your best to hit them on the nose with it.  

 

Now if the water is clear enough that the fish can still see relatively well in deeper water, then it's not such a big deal.  

[TOXIC]

Generally depending on species of bass, they prefer different habitat.  Also “off shore” doesn’t always mean deep water.  I’ll reference smallmouth on lake St Clair since we fish “off shore” 80% of the time.  With smallmouth, any bottom irregularity or structure like deep weed lines, wrecks, rock piles, channel edges, bottom composition and some local knowledge like underwater pipes that run the length of the lake and intakes will hold fish.  Depth does play a role but in St Clair you can be in 10-13 feet of water 2 miles offshore.  That means that everywhere you can find a depth change and ultimately the depth the smallmouth want to be in plus add in any weedlines rocks, etc., and chances are you find fish and be able to replicate it in multiple spots.  Largemouth are completely different on St Clair and normally not our target species but we do catch a lot of them If the smallmouth are in the 4-7 foot range and holding on weedlines.  Point being every body of water will be different as well as your target species.

[MickD]

Toxic finally mentioned weeds as structural elements that are attractive even in deep water, where there are weeds deep.  I've usually found smallies out away from the weeds 10-50 yards, but weeds are definitely an attractive deep water structural element for smallies.

[Luke Barnes]

I'll mix things up and ask, what about from the bank and especially in ponds. Ponds big enough that you cant cast to the middle so some spots will be unreachable.

[A-Jay]

3 hours ago, KSanford33 said:

I wanted to start a thread I thought could help several other fishermen here, so I thought of the biggest issue I run into: finding fish offshore. I'm a reasonably capable fisherman going after structure and the like near shore, but when fish are deep, I always have trouble. I know to look for steep drop-offs, but outside of that and submerged structure, it's kind of cast and hope.

 

So I wanted to get the input of the people here. What do you do to find fish offshore?

While threads that dive into this rather extensive subject always have some great and applicable information in them, so much of it is either super general or extremely specific to certain bodies of water. This can make applying much of it effectively pretty tricky.

At least it was for me. 

Too many important pieces of the puzzled just can't be covered sufficiently here. 

IMO, if one is really committed to 'learning' this one.

Back the truck all the way to the beginning.

Read some of the more popular books on the subject - cover to cover; a couple of times.

A good one has already been mentioned here.

Being able to pick out and perhaps more importantly, eliminate water based on seasonal pattern, by reading a map/chart can be an important aspect of this. 

Might want to familiarize yourself with what the bait is doing & when. 

All of that happens both on & off the water. 

I have no problem admitting that I am barely a novice in all of this,

but I have gotten better over time.

Which is what this takes.

Might be why so many bassheads admit to this being something they have struggled with.

Putting in the time & effort usually pays off.

Has for me.

Fish Hard

A-Jay 

 

 

[Bird]

Other than points which are easily seen, I only fish offshore maybe 10% of the time and do it like I've always done......locate structure and fish and throw out a buoy.

[padon]

do your lakes have weeds? in alot of northern lakes you dont have to fish much deeper than the deepest weeds. the fish will relate to those weed edges all summer. the trick is figuring out which weed edges. weeds on STRUCTURE is a good place to start. for instance a shallow bar that reaches our with deeper water all around. the weedline on the end of that. or on a tapering flat that at one area buts up against a steeper drop. one misconception, logs , rocks , stumps whatever are defined as COVER. changes in bottom elevation or steepness of drop are STRUCTURE. that is all explained in the book you were recommended.

[Team9nine]

3 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

While threads that dive into this rather extensive subject always have some great and applicable information in them, so much of it is either super general or extremely specific to certain bodies of water. This can make applying much of it effectively pretty tricky.

At least it was for me. 

Too many important pieces of the puzzled just can't be covered sufficiently here. 

IMO, if one is really committed to 'learning' this one.

Back the truck all the way to the beginning.

Read some of the more popular books on the subject - cover to cover; a couple of times.

A good one has already been mentioned here.

Being able to pick out and perhaps more importantly, eliminate water based on seasonal pattern, by reading a map/chart can be an important aspect of this. 

Might want to familiarize yourself with what the bait is doing & when. 

All of that happens both on & off the water. 

I have no problem admitting that I am barely a novice in all of this,

but I have gotten better over time.

Which is what this takes.

Might be why so many bassheads admit to this being something they have struggled with.

Putting in the time & effort usually pays off.

Has for me.

Fish Hard

A-Jay 

 

 

 

Terminology also plays a huge role in the confusion with this topic, and 'modern' or changing definitions over time only exacerbate the problem of trying to convey knowledge. It's already happening in this thread. Just MHO

[gim]

5 minutes ago, Bird said:

Other than points which are easily seen, I only fish offshore maybe 10% of the time and do it like I've always done......locate structure and fish and throw out a buoy.

Same.

 

Except for the buoy part.  My last one got sniped about 10 years ago.

[cyclops2]

Lets not forget the rapid changes caused by water level downward changes. GONE are the weed beds for years. Less water also affects the concentrations of chemicals & Ph of water.

They wipe out favorite fishing spots AND the food amounts available.  Cleaning up and eliminating  septic tank nutrients is a HUGE factor of areas suddenly going bass less in a year or 2 for no reason.  Everything is at risk  with the climate cycle we are in right now.

[A-Jay]

8 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

Terminology also plays a huge role in the confusion with this topic, and 'modern' or changing definitions over time only exacerbate the problem of trying to convey knowledge. It's already happening in this thread. Just MHO

Agreed ~

It may be like attempting to bake a cake using 5 different recipes.

Especially when the same ingredients are all being called something different.

A-Jay

[WRB]

Finding bass locations near or off shore isn’t different, just more difficult without above the water visual landmarks.

We talk about structure and cover ask yourself why? The answer is simple habitat that holds a food source and provides a sanctuary. This applies to every body of water with Black Bass populations. Each bass species has a preferred habitat that suits their needs.

Bass are bass but each different species prefers different locations. Northern strain LMB prefer a wider range of prey types from small terrestrial animals including frogs, lizards, salamanders, birds, mice, rates and wide variety of small fish and larvae. 

The habitat that supports LMB prey usually has aquatic vegetation and structure elements that provide ambush site.

Smallmouth bass are more selective with prey types like crawdad, small fish, worms, leeches, large insects and larvae.

Smallmouth roam more hunting prey then LMB.

Map reading and understanding what you are looking is essential to be successful off shore. Understanding the preffered prey source becomes critical. Off shore has more pelagic prey fish then near shore and fewer terrestrial critters in most lakes.

Seeing underwater requires, map reading,  sonar and using your eyes to detect water color changes that indicate structure deep changes, aquatic plants, water temper changes. Colder water is more dense then warmer water, this creates a thermal break attracting predators and prey seeking a comfort zone.

Sonar can display thermal breaks including thermoclines.

Life depth zone is also critical to the off shore and near shore angler to focus your efforts. 

Mistakes many off shore anglers make is fishing unproductive depths, usually too deep. 

Tom

 

[BassinCNY]

3 hours ago, Team9nine said:

? Thermoclines form on most of our natural lakes (glacial lakes), though there are a few “two story” lakes where the thermocline isn’t restrictive to deeper fish movement. These are typically lake trout and cisco lakes. 

A friend invited me to go lake trout fishing on Owasco Lake last fall. Owasco is one of the smaller finger lakes and is right next to Cayuga. The thermocline was at about 70 feet. The baitfish were at 60 feet and the trout were at 80. The temps were 64 degrees at the surface, 62 at 60 feet and 49 at 80 feet.

[KSanford33]

35 minutes ago, BassinCNY said:

A friend invited me to go lake trout fishing on Owasco Lake last fall. Owasco is one of the smaller finger lakes and is right next to Cayuga. The thermocline was at about 70 feet. The baitfish were at 60 feet and the trout were at 80. The temps were 64 degrees at the surface, 62 at 60 feet and 49 at 80 feet.

I live a little east of the finger lakes, but I grew up in Elmira, so I've fished Seneca, Keuka, and Cayuga a lot. I've always found them incredibly hard to fish offshore unless you're trolling.