Finding fish on deeper structure.

[Boo]

Any tips on fishing for deep structure fish,i.e spoon jigging or deep cranking or carolina rigging. I'm pretty much a shallow fisherman. I seem to have a hard time finding fish other than shallow cover.  ???

[clooney]

Sound like you may have answered your own question.  I'll add drop shoting and jigging!

[Cephkiller]

I have good luck fishing a deep crank in the warmer months, but this winter pattern fishing is tough!  I've read all the articles on this site and many others about jigging, spoons, etc., but I just haven't had any luck since December, except for a power plant lake and that doesn't count.

If you don't have a sonar unit, you can use a deep crank or a C-rig to feel your way around the bottom, though.  That works pretty well when I'm fishing smaller lakes in a john boat without sonar.

[roadwarrior]

Try a Gitzit. If there are fish on or near the structure, tubes usually get their attention.

[scbassin]

I assume that you are fishing a larger body of water & have a depth finder. If it'a big lake you should have a GPS also. Get a good map of the lake. With that & your depth finder start looking for points, humps, depressions, old road beds ect. Once you find one mark it on your GPS & fish a carolina rig weather you mark fish or not. Use a couple of different size leaders before leaving. If you catch no fish go back to it 4 or 5 times. Go back to it at different times of the year also.

[Boo]

Okay. So fish it whether you mark fish or not.  Didnt know that.

[mullman]

How do you fish the Gitzit?

[fishin_fool]

you can fish a tube three different styles texas rigged,weighted hook wiith the weight inside the tube,or dropshotted

[Glenn]

http://www.bassresource.com/fish/gitzits.html

[Chris]

If you mark fish at 10 ft on a hump you want to throw a crankbait that will run about 14 ft. You also need to make a cast that will give your lure enough room to get down to that depth. Its a game of angles. So much line out on a cast with a depth range of a given crankbait on x lb test line. Now figure in the at what point of your cast will the bait loose depth to reach your boat. Some baits reach their max depth in a hurry some slowly get there. Spinnerbaits and other drop baits can be counted down. To figure out the fall rate cast your lure to a known depth and count it down. If you using a jigging spoon drop it next to your depthfinder and watch your graph. You will see a solid line arch. When you reach the depth hop the spoon to make sure its in the range you want. With spoons try to keep your bait above the fish not under them.

[Boo]

Thanks! ;D THe lake that I normally fish doesnt have a detail map of the depth changes, humps, channels, points, etc. Is there any way to tell just by looking at a shoreline which areas are productive water i.e points.  BY the way what is a creek or river channel. Is a creek channel the middle of a creek arm on bottom. I always here about fishing creek channels but really dont know how to find them.

[5bass]

In a lake there usually is one main river that feeds in and other smaller "feeder" creeks that run in throughout the lake.The main river channel was at one time-justthat.A river.Then at some point a dam was built and the land surrounding the river usually on both sides was flooded.The channel is the old river bed,the deepest point in most lakes and often real easy to find.Just get a good contour map and you should be able to see the main channel without any problem.Good places to fish are where the channel runs into or just past a point,or humps in the channel or where the feeder creeks dump into the main channel.Also the bends in the river channel are often where bass stack up,sometimes on the deep side(outside bend) and sometimes on the flat side(inside bend).....

Take note that some of the smaller creeks have a channel that may only be 5 ft wide,but there will be a ditch there that you can recognize on your fish finder.This time of year it is a good choice to find and fish these smaller channels.The bass will follow these small channels to the backs of these creeks to spawn.And 9 times out of 10,the smaller creeks hold the warmer water.

Dont catch 'em all...

[Gatorbassman]

you answered that one yourself.

[Boo]

Dangit! Why make big things out of small things. :-/ So a channel is basically a ditch!

[ernel]

river channel is where the river use to flow freely before the river was damed. A ditch is alot smaller and did not normally have water flowing constantly. If it had water flowing through it constantly, it would have been called a creek, stream, branch, or brook. Ditches are created in a lake by falling water and then covered when the lake returned to normall levels, or were man made before the river was impounded. (Ie: along road beds or a  farmers fields for irrigation.) Also the ledges are more defined on river and creek channels than ditches. The ledges are nothing more than the river/creek's original bank before impoundment.

As far as fishing whether I see fish on the LCD, I prefer to see balls of baitfish if I am going to fish an area. If the bait are there the bass are not far from the area either.

Yes you can tell what is under the water by what is on the shore line. If the shore is rocky, then chances are there will be rock under the water as well. If you see an old road bed going in to the water, you can normally follow that road bed under the water with your graph by following the hard bottom. (small thin dark line showing for bottom return on the LCD)