shallowest depth without spooking fish?....

[photocycle]

Question....

On average, what would some of you say is the shallowest depth you can be at without spooking fish right BENEATH your boat? (let's say your only moving around with your trolling motor)

10ft? 15ft? 20ft?

Thanks!

[flippin]

i ushually stay in 10fow in clear water  shalower if in dirty water

[photocycle]

Well.. its Minnesota waters to be exact.. which 90% are green/murky... usually have 3-5 ft visibility.

[flippin]

i would go shallow then

[sal669]

Question....

On average, what would some of you say is the shallowest depth you can be at without spooking fish right BENEATH your boat? (let's say your only moving around with your trolling motor)

10ft? 15ft? 20ft?

Thanks!

You plan on fishing right beneath your boat ???

You can have your boat in 10 ft of water and fish in 1 ft of water, or the other way arround.

Trying to save some $$$  by tying your line to the tip of your rod? ;D

[Jeff C.]

I can not answer that directly..

But I fish a lot of shallow water and what I do is....

when I head to water under  10 feet. I always move in slow

and always cast out way in front of the boat !! when I get to shallower water less than 5 feet if I am not carefull I will see the bass head to deep water before I can get to them.. I hate that. when We say. wow did you see that one !!! :'(

as it shoots buy the boat to deeper water laughing at us all the way !!!

[photocycle]

You plan on fishing right beneath your boat ???

You can have your boat in 10 ft of water and fish in 1 ft of water, or the other way arround.

Trying to save some $$$  by tying your line to the tip of your rod? ;D

No... but there something called "vertical fishin/jiggin" that I plan on doing more this summer... just would like to know what kind of depth I'm safest at without worrying about spooking away all fish and wasting countless hours of trying.  :-/

[Guest muddy]

You have to be very quite, by that I mean especially if you fish in an aluminum hull boat like I do. I have spooked fish in shallow water such as you describe, by simply dropping split shot on the bottom of the boat, the sound goes right through the hull and the fish head out or just plain get spooky. Even a trolling motor prop and some say, I am no expert on this but I have read here that even Sonar may tip off fish

[Tin]

Last year I was fishing a spawn tourney on a lake that youu can see bottom in up to 14 feet. We were working a shallow flat in about 4 feet of water, I look down and see a nice size female on a bed at the last second and we end up motoring over her. I figured I would make a big loop and come back to get her. We go over her and my buddy in the back of the boat sees her and she is still on the bed. He drops a senko down on yop of her and she ate it. Was our biggest fish of the day at 4.16  

[Jeff C.]

What I have noticed is..

if they are bedding they hold titer and do not spook as easy

as they do if they are just feeding in the shallows..

also,'

I have an aluminum boat too,, and I have carpet in the bottom,

helps a ton.. for noise..now the hooks some time get caught in it

but for sound its great and worth some snagged hooks.

Jeff

[photocycle]

aah.. well ok, here's more of a background...

I been reading a lot about using flashers (vexilars, etc) in open water.

Turns out it's starting to be popular again with bass fishers. But when using this technique, you're mainly vertical fishing because your targeting structure for the most part.

So I was just looking for an idea of how deep you can usually be at without scaring the fish away (within the premise of like a 20ft diameter around your boat). Obviously water clarity/visibility comes into play -- which I listed previously that water visibility is usually 3-5 feet at most.

My boat is fiberglass by the way (since you guys seem to stress on boat material).

Thanks

[Guest muddy]

OK . When I was fishing with a more experienced guy, my buddy Dan, when we were in water less than about 10 to ft deep he marked the structure and told me to past a little past it and fan cast to work the whole structure, he manuvered the boat in several positions. Zel did ore or less the same thing when i was with him. One of my goals this year is to try and use my depth finder more and learn how to use it better than i do

PS I had carpet in the boat, it was oof in one part and thats where i dropped the shot, Ron was gonna throw me outta the boat. We are redoing it this year with wood and carpet on the floor

[scbassin]

I fish mostly shallow water,10'or less. I have found this to be true. Position your boat so any shadows fall the opposite direction that you are fishing. Shadows tend to spook fish. Trolling motors will spook fish! In 5 or 6' or less use a push pole & go easy. I have an excellent pair of polarized sun glasses so I turn both my depth finders off in less than 5'of water. I also make a shorter cast to the cover so when I hook up I don't disturb a lot of the cover having to go get the fish or pulling him through 20' of grass chasing everything for 50'. I fish the area around the boat throughly before moving the boat. If it is windy &  your boat is moving around use 2 anchors so your boat don't swing, remember shadows. I stand while fishing so I have to really watch out for my shadow as it is longer. I watch for the osprey diving when they are catching fish in the shallows so will you, just be quiet.  

[Catt]

If I'm fishing 10' or less a depth finder or flasher is pretty much useless since structure is no longer part of the equation. I occasionally fish the marshes of Southwest Louisiana which average in depth around 14-26 and is close to gin clear so to compensate I make long casts well ahead of the boat.

[scbassin]

Why is structure no longer part of the equation in 10' or less?

[Catt]

Shall I say it's still part of the fishing equation just no longer part of the searching equation with a depth finder cause I can find it easily with my lures.

[Bassnajr]

Pick up and watch the KVD 3 pack DVD from BPS. (best $10.00 fishing wise you can spend IMO). He talks alot about moving in shallow water. Slow and steady...don't be on and off the TM up and down with the speed.

Hope this helps...

bassnajr

[RoLo]

Actually bass are pretty cool customers and are not as skittish as trout for instance.

The answer to your question depends on your approach and the underwater visibility (water clarity, cloud cover, time-of-day).

In muddy water, I have often caught bass directly below the gunwale in 5 feet of water (Farrington Lake, NJ).

Naturally, you can't drop your thermos on the floor of an aluminum boat and expect to do this ;D

Roger

[Catt]

To barrow a quote Silence is Golden  

[Pegleg]

I usually fish shallow most of the time. Its tough when you have a 8 yr. old grandson in the ole alum. boat but we're workin on being quieter. When he drags his tackle box acoss the bottom of the boat and all we see is wakes leavein the area and then he trips over his bottom lip cause he's sad the fish spooked. I catch lots more fish when I'm by myself but its not as much fun. :-/

[GatorBK]

I use an aluminum john boat sometimes . If you attach a peice of carpet across the bow of the boat to keep waves from slapping the bow it makes a world of difference.

I got a little 10 ft gheenoe I can sneak up on fish in just a couple feet of water and I can get within 10 feet of them before they spook.

I have to sneak up on gators which is much harder than sneaking up on fish . The gheenoe makes all the difference in the world

here is a picture of a gheenoe and a link http://www.gheenoe.net/

[Willzx225]

If I am understanding you correctly, it seems as if you want to present your baits (ie. drop shot, spoon, etch) vertically and wonder how shallow you can get before the fish become aware of your presence.  It seems as if you are talking about dropping your bait instead of casting it.  I personally have been doing some drop shotting in water with 5-7' visability and do not feel like I get as many bites when vertical fishing depths less than about 15-18'.  With the visability being less in your body of water I would feel comfortable to as shallow as probably 15'.  Must shallower than 15' and I really feel that you need to be casting instead of vertical fishing.  JMHO

[fishizzle]

I'd say 12-15' is a safe start for vert fishin

[Guest muddy]

Structure in less than 10 feet of water,is how I catch at least 1/2 my fish at Mauch Chunk. I also find this to be true on a lot of the natural lakes I fish and because they are sometimes covered with weeds ( Humps) and are in dark,stained water I would miss a lot of them, because a lot of natural lakes do not have maps and if you are searching with a bait you will probablly miss them