Deep Bass

[fishybidnes]

Hello,

This is my first post so please bare with me. I have been fishing a deep clear lake and couldn't find any fish. A buddy of mine brought an underwater camera and we found fish out on points stacked thick as thieves. That's the good part. I now know there are fish there, but I can't , or rather haven't caught any yet. So this is the problem. I don't have every lure in the store, but I have a little of every color, type etc worms cranks jigs and all the rest. What I don't have is a clue of what to use next. How do you chose colors, style of worms, and what presentation to use? I used texas, carolina, split shot with no takers.

The fish were about a foot or less off the bottom just cruising around. Here's the weird thing, there were all varities of fish there. Walleye, bluegill, some small baitfish, it was really neat to see, but depressing in the fact there were no takers for any of my offerings. There was some structure out on this point-some tree limbs, rocks, and it looked like some sand. We were probably 30 feet off bank and the depth was 14 ft. To the side it dropped to 40 - 60 ft.

Anyone here got any suggestions please let me know. I plan on hitting the lake a couple of nights this week trying to find that "majic" bait.

Thanks

[Jig Man]

For that depth I use tubes, salt craws and jigs most of the time.

[fishfordollars]

I try to match the lure to the color of the bottom or surrounding vegation. If it is a sandy bottom I will start with a lure that is close to the sand color or a pumpkin. If there is a lot of vegation I will start with a watermellon and go from there.

[WRB]

14' is not necessarily deep in clear water, the 40 to 60 foot break is diffinately deep!. If you were sitting on top of the fish, they know you are up there and more than likely that shut them off. The fact that pan fish and game fish were milling around together also indicated the predators may not have been feeding at that time.

Finding bass doesn't always equate to catching them, at that moment.

Now that you know the spot well, you should be able to approach it quitely and stay 50 feet or so off the top of the structure and cover.

If the lake has a threadfin shad population, suggest using shad colors; translucent smoke with purple/chartruese highlights and or silver/gold flakes in a soft plastic 4 1/2 to 6 in worm. Shad colored deep diving crank bait that runs 12 to 16 feet, spider type jig in the shad colors or a structure spoon in silver/gold.

The combination of the above should trigger strikes in any clear water; 10 feet+ of depth of light. If the lake doesn't have shad, then go to the greens or purple with red/blue high lights to mimic batfish in general.

WRB

[roadwarrior]

Welcome aboard!

8-)

[Crestliner2008]

Find the fish as you have been. Anchor. Shut off ALL your electronics and sit tight for 10 - 20 minutes. Be very quiet! When the environment has settled down, lower your DROP SHOT with a 4" finesse worm. Twitch it a few times....let it be still....twitch it again....then hold on!

[Captain Chaos II]

Knowing that they are there is most of the battle.......I'd love to be able to see em in my water.  Good idea on the shutting off the sonar, drop shot.

+Welcome Aboard.

[fishybidnes]

Thanks for all the help.  I was thinking about doing the drop shot the other night but got tired and went home after hours of no luck.  I am heading out tonight and hopefully this will work.  Also gonna try the sit and wait approach.  We were sitting right on top of the fish so that makes a lot of sense.  I'll take a sandwich with me and eat before I start.  Will post if anything works.

[fishybidnes]

No fish, blew something in the driveshaft of my motor.  I was almost 100 ft from spot I was going to fish when the motor completely went to crap and would not stay in gear.  Spent the next three hours going four miles back to dock.  Momma said there would be days like this.  Thank everyone for their help, hopefully I can hitch a ride this weekend and try some of the techniques you guys gave me.  Good fishing to all.