Establishing depth of fish

[AustonW]

I’m confused as to establish what depth to locate offshore bass. As I understand it now, I look to see what depth range the bait is at and start there. My confusion comes to where to go from there. Say bait is holding around 10-15 ft. Am I looking for offshore flats that top out and that depth range? Offshore points that top out there or above that range? I fish eufaula in Alabama and have caught bass offshore before but I think it was luck more than anything else. Also does there need to be deeper water nearby that said point or flat? Thanks for all the advice. 

[WRB]

Imo a flat without some structure like rocks or stumps or deeper channel creating an edge isn’t off shore structure fishing.

Lake Eufaula as I recall has good off shore structure up towards the dam on the left side where points extend nearly 2/3rd across the lake towards the right side and drop into a deep main lake channel. The several underwater points have deeper water on both sides, ideal off shore structure to learn.

To answer your question you want deeper water with structure that intercepts the depth of the bait fish.

Tom

 

 

[AustonW]

If it does have those points, I’m completely missing them. And that very well could be my problem. I have no confidence that where I’m looking holds fish. I’ve been out with guides before and have paid attention to where we have fished but have never been able to replicate it. I almost think I’m looking at spots that are too deep. 

[Darth-Baiter]

time to buy a Garmin GPS watch @AustonW!:D

 

"yawn..i wonder what time it is.....(tap a button)?...when are we gonna hit your next favorite spot?"

 

serious reply?  as you fish, you will just kinda home in on the fish.  some of my best bass-runs were a result of me just casting out to some random spot in a random direction for a random reason.    i found one spot trying to cast out past a loose spot on my reel spool.  i was trying to clear a mild loop in the spool.  i casted out, worked the tiny loop..and BOOM!   i stayed off shore and cleaned up.  

[Catt]

3 hours ago, AustonW said:

Am I looking for offshore flats that top out and that depth range?

 

Change that to any offshore structures!

 

And again that's where you start.

[AustonW]

Thanks Mr. Catt. I may be going about this completely the wrong way but I never try fishing shallow as I have never been out with anyone that was a shallow water fisherman and I don’t know where to begin to start beating the banks. I’ve devoted all my trips to offshore fish. 
One more question, is it possible to have a thermocline this late in the year? I was on the water yesterday and noticed a very distinct line on sidescan in the water column at around the 25ft mark. I noticed in 30ft plus of water. But I didn’t notice it on my down scan. Any ideas?

[Catt]

2 hours ago, AustonW said:

One more question, is it possible to have a thermocline this late in the year?

 

Not knowing your bodies of water but yes it is possible.

[Pat Brown]

I agree that without knowing your body of water, it's very difficult to give you any advice. But I will say that in general this time of year fish are starting to migrate back into the shallow muddy water as it is the last remaining warm water on the lake/river system/reservoir as winter sets in.  Once that warm water goes away and the surface temperatures bottom out, fish tend to group up offshore on deeper structure near their shallow haunts.

 

What that structure is and what kinds of cover they're relating to and whether or not they're active is subject to change at any point in time.

 

I really like fishing nasty rainy days and warm sunny days with a stiff breeze this time of year.  When winter sets in, I like stable and sunny and no wind.

[Tennessee Boy]

A lot of good advice here.  I will add one thing.  It can take time to find good offshore spots.   If you don’t find fish in a place where you think they should be,  it doesn’t  necessarily mean your thinking was wrong.  I would suggest that you plan to spend several hours graphing different spots,  then go fish the ones that look the most promising.  The fish may be on points in 15ft of water but that doesn’t mean they will be on every point in 15 ft of water.

[Woody B]

Look for brushpiles, stumps, rocky areas ect along with the geography you're looking for.  Look for ledges too.   It's my belief that some bass are nomadic, and just travel around all the time.  Other bass tend to stay in a general area.  If you can find a stumpy point near a ledge with some brushpiles in a channel below the ledge there's probably some bass in that area.   

 

I need to learn more about the habits of bait fish.   If I'm struggling to catch bass I can usually find some by following balls of shad around until something attacks them.  Usually the action/attack occurs when the bait fish get near a brushpile, rockpile, or stumpy area.   The bass are waiting at this cover to ambush a meal.   

[TnRiver46]

Places I catch fish offshore: the edge of the river channel

 

That’s seriously about it for me, but that does leave hundreds of miles of water I will never explore in a lifetime, just like eufala 

[einscodek]

20 hours ago, AustonW said:

I’m confused as to establish what depth to locate offshore bass. As I understand it now, I look to see what depth range the bait is at and start there. My confusion comes to where to go from there. Say bait is holding around 10-15 ft. Am I looking for offshore flats that top out and that depth range? Offshore points that top out there or above that range? I fish eufaula in Alabama and have caught bass offshore before but I think it was luck more than anything else. Also does there need to be deeper water nearby that said point or flat? Thanks for all the advice. 

If you have electronics follow the baitball and note where the larger arcs are positioned and just follow the ball casting thru to the depths of the larger arcs.  Forget about the structure just follow the ball for schooled bass.  3" blade bait bucktail underspin jig whatever your pleasure.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

^^^ That's all I do, and it works excellent 

 

Just because there's bait doesn't mean there predators actively feeding on them, graph around until you find spaghetti and bait.  

[RHuff]

If I see a large or multiple schools of baitfish on my graph in say 12-14ft of water suspended near the bottom, I would locate areas at 12-14ft where a creek channel meets the main channel, long points, or ledges and look for some type of cover in that area such as brush, stumps, rocks, or grass that bass will be holding near. 

 

The depth you see the bait will clue you in to the depth to look for the "cover" on the "structure". 

 

Locate as many areas like that as you can and fish each one of them until you find the bass.

 

If you find 8 spots like that mark them with waypoints and fish one and move the next and repeat the cycle.

 

8 spots fished 3 times each is 24 different spots ( I say different because time of day and changing conditions makes them different) you've fished.

 

If you can catch one solid fish off 5 of those 24 spots you have a nice limit. 

 

I don't know of any other way to rephrase it other than that.... 

 

On the other hand, if you see baitfish up high in the water column in the early morning, on overcast days, late in the evening, and you see fish under the bait balls you better try to cast at the bait because that is active bass feeding on baitfish at that time... 

 

 

Granted - saying all of this and doing it is two different things..  but that is what I try to do

[TnRiver46]

If only the fish knew they were all supposed to be at the exact same depth across the entire river 

[WRB]

The OP is fishing Eufaula a big Alabama Hill Land lake with a lot of off shore good fishable structure. It’s a very long time since I fished Eufaula but every creek arm has good areas and the lower lake you can’t go wrong with lots of long underwater points. 

I understand Eufaula has lots hydrilla today but the structure doesn’t change. Big lakes pick an area and learn it, now my choice was the lower 3rd of even smaller area near within a few miles of the dam.

Big lakes turn over slowly and if they are pulling water down multiple thermoclines can develop, meter the bait depth that’s is the life zone and target that depth.

Tom 

 

[RHuff]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

If only the fish knew they were all supposed to be at the exact same depth across the entire river 

 

 Not sure if that was sarcasm or a joke, but nobody said every fish was or is supposed to be at the exact same depth across a body of water. It's crazy to think that they are. We're just trying to help each other learn how to key in on high percentage areas that can help people learn to catch more and bigger fish, and the method I described above is one of many ways to do that.

[WRB]

The tongue in cheek statement is closer to the truth than it appears.

To quote a knowledgeable source “every time we think we have these green fish figured out they prove to us we don’t” Bill Murphy.

Tom  
  

[dodgeguy]

On 11/20/2023 at 1:38 PM, WRB said:

Imo a flat without some structure like rocks or stumps or deeper channel creating an edge isn’t off shore structure fishing.

Lake Eufaula as I recall has good off shore structure up towards the dam on the left side where points extend nearly 2/3rd across the lake towards the right side and drop into a deep main lake channel. The several underwater points have deeper water on both sides, ideal off shore structure to learn.

To answer your question you want deeper water with structure that intercepts the depth of the bait fish.

Tom

 

 

We were fishing a location on Candlewood lake in Connecticut. Last Sunday and catching fish on a spot in 38 feet the size of a car. It has a dropoff from 10 feet close by. Smallies were grabbing bait fish off the bottom. Blade baits were the ticket. You would never know the spot was there unless you found it by accident.It produced 9 smallies in 20 minutes.

[TnRiver46]

7 hours ago, RHuff said:

 

 Not sure if that was sarcasm or a joke, but nobody said every fish was or is supposed to be at the exact same depth across a body of water. It's crazy to think that they are. We're just trying to help each other learn how to key in on high percentage areas that can help people learn to catch more and bigger fish, and the method I described above is one of many ways to do that.

Sorry I’m a life long smarty pants. My way of “helping each other” is saying assume nothing. Most any day you can catch them on top then 20 feet down minutes apart. The title of the thread is “establishing depth of fish” and the first thing that came to my mind was “wouldn’t that be nice.” Even if you mark a fish 20 feet down, it could swim up to the top and blast a shad before you can cast. Then once your topwater lands in the water it’s 10 feet under doing something else. Fish are fast and typically on the move 

[Catt]

15' +/- 3' 😉

[WRB]

14 minutes ago, Catt said:

15' +/- 3' 😉

17’+/- 5’😎

[dodgeguy]

On 11/20/2023 at 1:38 PM, WRB said:

Imo a flat without some structure like rocks or stumps or deeper channel creating an edge isn’t off shore structure fishing.

Lake Eufaula as I recall has good off shore structure up towards the dam on the left side where points extend nearly 2/3rd across the lake towards the right side and drop into a deep main lake channel. The several underwater points have deeper water on both sides, ideal off shore structure to learn.

To answer your question you want deeper water with structure that intercepts the depth of the bait fish.

Tom

 

 

We were fishing a location on Candlewood lake in Connecticut. Last Sunday and catching fish on a spot in 38 feet the size of a car. It has a dropoff from 10 feet close by. Smallies were grabbing bait fish off the bottom. Blade baits were the ticket. You would never know the spot was there unless you found it by accident.It produced 9 smallies in 20 minutes.Guys have to remember they may mark bait alls and fish but still not get bites. When the water is cold the bite is off more than it's on. We had a 20 minute window to work with.

 

[Catt]

9 hours ago, Catt said:

15' +/- 3' 😉

 

How many of y'all undersrand why?

[Pat Brown]

On 11/21/2023 at 9:53 AM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

^^^ That's all I do, and it works excellent 

 

Just because there's bait doesn't mean there predators actively feeding on them, graph around until you find spaghetti and bait.  

 

 

I do find that a lot of times the predators really activate when the bait balls drift near edges of structure offshore.  If you have a hump or ledge or tiny little depth change underwater, that's a good place to target carnage zones.

 

A productive pattern for me is when a light breeze is blowing for a day or two, I'll anchor in 17 feet of water off of a point with my back to the wind and cast a jig or crankbait up to 4-5 feet of water 150 ft away and slowly work it down the drop.

 

Some days I need to anchor up shallow and cast deep.  Some days they're on the side that's protected from the wind.  Some days they're up on the structure.  Some days they sit in the current.  It's fun!

 

You can treat offshore structure that's not visible like a point but it has a lot of sides instead of just two.  Sometimes the best spots are underwater points coming off of offshore humps.

 

The bass set up on the drops waiting for the bait in the current.  Usually at or around the depth of the bait.

 

I think if you have vegetation on Lake Eufala (per @WRB), you'd definitely want to be around some of that and find where it intersects hard cover on drop offs around bait.