WHERE TO FISH ON POINTS & CREEL CHANNELS

[jcbass]

 IM TRYING TO LEARN THE BEST WAYS TO CATCH THOSE SUMMER TIME BASS IN DEEPER WATER, BUT I'M NOT REAL CONFIDENT ABOUT FISHING POINTS. WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR IN A POINT AS FAR AS DEPTH? MAIN LAKE POINTS OR THOSE SMALL POINTS BACK IN COVES NEXT TO A CHANNEL? ANY HELP PLEASE! I ALWAYS READ ABOUT HOW GREAT THEY ARE, BUT NOT FOR ME. I JUST NEED SOME KIND OF TIP THAT WILL AT LEAST MAKE ME FEEL LIKE THEIR ARE AT LEAST FISH IN THE AREA WHERE IM FISHING.

[Shad_Master]

"Deeper" water is a relative term and depends on the depth of the lake, pond or whatever.  The primary purposes for "deeper" water for bass is to have somewhere to pull off to when needed.  As you probably know, fish tend to spawn on shallow flats (again a relative term) and then pull back after the spawn.  They really don't travel far from their spawining areas and will often comeback into these areas through out the summer and fall to feed.  I have been struggling with this some myself and recently read an article where Mark Davis was talking about where to fish in a lake that you are not familiar with.  He said he will always try to identify the spawning areas, regardless of time of year and then start pulling back until he finds the fish.  The he will target areas at similar depths as he travels around the lake.  I'm sure others will have more advice and I will watch to see what suggestions you get.  Thanks for the question, it's a good one.

[bass109]

If you havent caught at lest a small bass when fishing all around the area that you fishing in. Best that there is no bass in that area but bluegill, and other small sunfish like that might will be. ;D

[bigbill]

Ok I mainly fish from shore and my two favorite spots are rocky points and a weedline along side a channel.  First you have to keep hitting these spots too.  If there's no baitfish there's not much action going on.  The bass do follow the bait.  I fish the points in different directions too. Sometimes I will cast on top of the poit in the deeper water and bring my lure right up on top of the point.  Or I will angle my cast across it making my bait appear like its getting away into the deeper water. Now long side the weedlines and channels I will cast my lure right along side the weedline in the channel to try to draw out a strike from the weeds.  Most of my action in these two situations has been in low light conditions like early mornings and late evenings.  It seems as it gets lighter the bass move to deeper cover.  I use crankbaits and spinnerbaits mainly but as it gets lighter i switch to a carolina rigged senko type bait and fish the deeper channel.

Its not luck in fishing its SKILL!!!!!

[DDbasser]

jcbass,

I've really been struggling with this one myself.

I've been fishing shallow all year long and have been catching quite a few fish, only problem is they keep getting smaller the hotter it gets.

So this past Sunday I went out to one of my favorite lakes, average depth is around 30 feet, I found some deep water secondary points right off the creek channel water at the bank was about 3ft and dropped off into 20ft lots of baitfish (shad).

The wife and I caught 10 bass off one point all small about 14".

So now I'm not sure what to try next I know this lake has some true hawgs in it so I guess I'm going to try some main lake points in 30 ft of water.        

[texasbass1]

I usually look for the longest point in the area, this way you can fish the different depths until you find the fish. As stated deep water is relative, if the fish are use to a large flat with lots of cover a ditch 2 ft deeper than the flat would be deep water. Finding the activity level will help point (pun intended) you in the right direction

[Nick]

You could help us by identifying both the water color, and available depths, if you are fishing from a boat, and the dominant forage in this lake. If this is an impoundment, I would check out several points both in the main river and the larger creeks with my depthfinder looking for both baitfish and cover and other small features such as rock piles, fingers, vegetation, or boulders on the points that could hold bass. Provided your lake is a fertile fishery, these points will be fine to fish especially if any wind or particularly current is moving past them. Good depths could be from a few inches to 30 feet depending on the clarity of the water you are fishing and the depth of the forage. I would use both crank baits and jigs and worms to cover these areas deeper than 10 feet. For the shallower bass particularly early and late, a topwater or spinnerbait would be a good choice.

[CallMeTheSeeker]

latly i'v been fishing shallow, though i think we're missing out on the bigger fish in the lake.  it's been hot here in MI and fishing shallow we've been mostly catching small bass in the shallows.  We've played around fishing out towards the middle of the lake with crigs(tho it seems like we're not as well equipped as we should be since we only have spinning reels.  We have caught one or two bass in the deeper waters..and they have been bigger then most of the fish we've been getting in the shallows.  

i have 2 main questions:

1:  what is the best way to find the fish in deeper water without a fish/depth finder(since we dont have one)...tho my buddy that lives on the lake knows roughly where the drop offs and such are...but not much at all as far as bottom structure goes.

2:  Can we effectivly fish crigs with our spinning gear?  ATM we've been using 3/8 oz weights(figured lighter was better with the spinnign reels)..Also my spinning reel is heavy weight on a medium weight rod...i broke my cheapy mh rod.

thanks much

-Seeker