deep water fishing

[Kimble08]

Hey everyone... I was wondering what your thoughts would be on bass fishing deep water anywhere from 100 to 300 feet deep... I am getting in a tournament in april in summersville wv and that is the round about depth and I am used to fishing in about 30 feet water and was needing some ideas on how to fish deep waters and what seems to work best.. thanks for the help

[Blade-Runner]

?

Troll with downriggers and spoons. I guess the only time I've ever fished below 100 feet in freshwater is going after lakers...

I don't think I've ever fished the 100 to 300 ft. range on the bottom even in saltwater.

Are you talking about fishing for suspended fish out in open water in a deep impoundment? What are you doing?

If you do hook a bass that deep, I hope you can de-gas the son-of-a-gun or he might just bloat out or explode in your bass boat.

[Crestliner2008]

I'm assuming you are referring to a warm climate lake like Mead or something similar. What "kind" of lake are you going to fish? What is the water temps normally at this time of the year? What kind of forage do the bass feed on? Where is the thermocline normally at that time of the year?

These important questions have to answered before anyone can give you a a logical response. The bass will not be 100'+ deep, typically. Unless it's one of those So. CA big bass lakes. Can't be more specific until we have more information. Sorry!

[dacrawdaddy]

I live in Summersville about 2 miles from the lake and can tell you that it will not be necessary to fish that deep. The date of your tournament will have more to do with your presentation than anything.

You have to keep in mind that the lake is drawn down 70 feet every fall to accommodate the spring snow melt and then refilled the month of April. If your tourny is early April then blade baits such as silver buddies and drop shots fished on points and rocky ledges will work. If your tourny is late April when the lake is full or nearly so, a 4" fluke fished around shallow cover is hard to beat.

Watch out for floating debris because this lake is full of it as the lake fills, some areas become inaccessible due to floating logjams. Some fish can be caught on spinnerbaits and flukes around the floating logjams in 100 feet of water which is an unusual pattern to say the least. This is not a dependable pattern because some years there is not as much debris as others.

The lake does have some big smallmouth but most tournaments are won with small bags of keepers. Rarely see a 5 fish limit more than 8 lbs. Lastly, there are no shad in the lake. Main forage is shiner minnows and crawfish which should help with your bait selection.

[Btech]

WOW thats DEEP - Sorry I cant help .... Do bass Live that deep? or even go that deep?

[roadwarrior]

I fish some extraordinarily deep water at Bull Shoals using

Lucky Craft Pointers. Although the water is deep, that doesn't

mean the fish are down there. Generally, find the baitfish and

you have found the predators.

8-)

[J Francho]

Even if there were bass that deep, they're not, you'd be fishing a catch and kill tournament.  Good luck.  Some of the Finger Lakes here are 600'+ deep.  The bass are in 0 to 40' of water.

[WRB]

Most of the lakes in SoCal are 100 to 300 feet deep. You simply need to determine at what depth the bass are using, usually close to the initial thermocline layer. Use you sonar unit to meter the thermocline depth or ask you local DFG/DNR person who works at the lake. 35 feet is fairly common depth, you need to figure out your lake at the time period.

Fish outisde main lake points, islands and hump that interscet the thermocline depth and you be near bass.

Drop shotting is an excellent presentation, structure spoons, underspins and jigs all work well for deeper water areas.

WRB