Deeper Water

[fishinTexas]

I am a new poster to this site. I have been reading the forum for months now and must say I love this forum. It is great to get all the different experiences and try them out. Special thanks to roadwarrior, I always seem to catch a fish when using his advice.

I have read quite a bit about going to deeper water this time of year. How deep? I am in the panhandle of Texas w/ no depth finder. Is there a certain water tempature range that I am needing to locate?

[Nick B]

Well with no depth finder you will have to find them yourself. This time of year you can find fish at all levels; shallow, mid-range, and deep. Depending on the body of water will determine how deep "deep" is. You may have to deal with a thermocline.  If you can find shallow cover you should do well there.

[roadwarrior]

All right, let's keep it simple.

First of all, this time of year we probably need weight to get down to where we want to be. I don't fish the Senko, Ika or Fat Ika with weight. So, for me its either a Gitzit, Kut-Tail, Kreature, lizard or jig.

I might try some primary points, but I generally fish secondary points for largemouth. Start quite a ways out and work both sides of the drop, you'll be able to feel it without much trouble.

Next, channels of the old tributary creeks that now are coves. I would start way out where you think the old creek emptied into the river. I bet there's no one else out there to bother you! You may look like a nut, but sometimes this works. Move in from there. Again, I think you'll have no trouble feeling the drop.

My next suggestion is obvious structure: submerged timber, rocks, ledges and especially docks.

That's all I know without the help of electronics.

[Chris]

Here is something I do even though I own 2 depth finders. Watch the bank more important watch the trees that are in the water. Pay attention to the angle that the trees are laying in the water. This will tell you how much of a drop off you have next to the bank. Now you look at the thickness of the trunk of the tree and look on the bank for the same size trunk and figure out how tall they are. Now you know how far the laydown comes out and about what depth your looking at. If all you have is a temp gage drop it down and watch the temp. When you get to a depth where its the same for a extended period of time ( like at one ft its 90 degrees, 2 ft 89 degrees, 4 ft 87 degrees, 5ft 85, 8ft 85, 10 ft 83) The depth where you have the same temp from my example 5ft to 8ft deep is the thermocline.

[Rebbasser]

Good tip, Chris.  To add a little, if you are in flooded timber, look at which way the trees are leaning.  If you have two leaning towards each other there is a good chance there is a creek channel between them, and fish the side any tree is leaning towards-there might be some busted branches at the base that have broken off and settled on the bottom.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

I snorkeled my lake about 3 years ago,.best thing I ever did.