Offshore bass fishing in summer – the easy way!

[Glenn]

 

[Pat Brown]

Excellent video Glenn.

 

This summer I committed myself to offshore fishing and plan to do the same thing this winter!

 

It can be incredibly fun when conditions set up for it!

[Catt]

That's what I do, just at night 

[WRB]

Crank baits and worms but no jigs?

Tom

[Glenn]

He uses tubes instead of jigs.

[WRB]

We each have our own pet lures to target off shore structure.

Mine start with jigs for a few reasons; I can cast a jig a long distance allowing lots of coverage. Crawdads are often prime forage on off shore structure and jigs replicate dads perfectly.

Tom

[Darth-Baiter]

i ask because i dont know.  "offshore"  is that the correct term?  we can find deep water right next to shore, right?  the key trick is deep waters, no?

[TnRiver46]

Deep water next to shore is not off shore . That’s a bluff 

[galyonj]

You're a bluff.

[Pat Brown]

You can fish a bluff a lot like you would fish an offshore steep face on a hump or off of a flat.  Lot of the same techniques and wisdom apply.

 

Find cover on those steeper drops that hold bait fish and adjust your presentation to the depth they're keyed in on.

 

People can fish 30 ft of water in the center of the lake and 1 ft of water at the back of a creek the same way and catch fish.

 

But I think that understanding that offshore fishing is about identifying these underwater locations that draw fish in is maybe the reason it's a separate thing.

 

It's more of a maps/electronics/structure deal.

 

Shallow is more about visual targets.

[Catt]

27 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Shallow is more about visual targets

 

Shallow offshore could be 15'.

 

Offshore structures to me are not connected to the shoreline. 

[WRB]

An island a few hundred yards is off shore yet has visual shore targets to fish. That same island covered with water isn’t visible and now called a hump that may only be covered with 2’ of shallow water and fished the way as shallow shore water.

The difference is the island or hump is off shore. Islands are visible and sometime draws anglers to go out and fish there. The hump isn’t visible and over looked by shore oriented anglers...out of sight out of mind. 

For decades the outside structure wasn’t fished by modern bass anglers. Old timers who trolled lures fished those areas more often and in fact Buck Perry figured out how to effectively fish structure.

I knew bass located off shore from experience and looking at topographic maps to locate those out of sight areas. Sonar was a tool to find these areas easily and very few modern bass anglers looked over their shoulder where off shore structure with bass were being ignored...but not by me?.

Today anglers have been educated and sonar units can scan making it very easy to find bass off shore.

Tom 

[Darth-Baiter]

i LOVE humps, and yes i am still talking about fishing. 

[FishTax]

What's interesting to me is at my local lake, last time out it was pretty busy but I only saw 2 people fishing offshore, and one of them was looking for crappie. That is pretty typical from my observations. Most of the locals just burn the banks, even the ones with bass boats loaded with electronics, and I can hear them cussing all across the lake at how bad the bite is, etc. 

 

I think next time out I may challenge myself to stay offshore the entire time out. Even with a crappy old 2D sonar unit and transducer that has seen better days and can't even pick up a brush pile unless it's a full size tree, I know where some offshore places are.. 

[Smokinal]

7 hours ago, Catt said:

 

 

 

Offshore structures to me are not connected to the shoreline. 

Me as well

I prefer to fish offshore as much as possible. There's just something so rewarding when you spend time on your Si, mark some spots, turn around and fire to them and catch fish; that's what keeps me out there.

[BFS-Angler75]

Love the tips. Dog days of summer have set in at my home lake. Gotta love how it started halfway into my vacation. Water is really hot in the shallows. I started off this week catching them there, but I'm not feeling them in those areas anymore. Given the heat, I can definitely say they've gone offshore, but I've never been effective at offshore fishing. 

 

Going to give it a shot this Sunday as I'm taking a break on Saturday to do some maintenance on my boat and tackle. Planning on trying the tips in the video, along with a C-rig to see how well that does. 

On 7/20/2023 at 3:20 PM, FishTax said:

What's interesting to me is at my local lake, last time out it was pretty busy but I only saw 2 people fishing offshore, and one of them was looking for crappie. That is pretty typical from my observations. Most of the locals just burn the banks, even the ones with bass boats loaded with electronics, and I can hear them cussing all across the lake at how bad the bite is, etc. 

 

I think next time out I may challenge myself to stay offshore the entire time out. Even with a crappy old 2D sonar unit and transducer that has seen better days and can't even pick up a brush pile unless it's a full size tree, I know where some offshore places are.. 

 

Yeah thats me lol. The water could be 90 degrees and you'll still see me up in the shallows firing off at the banks and shallow structure for hours on end. Then I'll get upset and return to the marina and talk about how bad it is lol. 

 

This summer I definitely want to break that habit. The dog days have set in where I fish, so offshore it is. Going to try a jig, T-rigged big worm, and a C-rig to see what that does for me. But like you said, pretty much everyone at my home lake burns the banks unless they're crappie fishing. 

[GoneFishingLTN]

On 7/19/2023 at 8:11 PM, Glenn said:

He uses tubes instead of jigs.

I missed the tube? I’ll rewatch