What method do you use when you want to quickly cover deeper water.

[32251]

I am more of a bank beater, and know that I need to learn how to test deeper water say in the 10-20' range, especially in the Winter.

When you want to canvas an area quickly at these depths, what tactics are used....lures, lure speed, casting techniques, lake positions etc.

Will a Carolina rig work?

What do you guys do when your looking for a bite in deeper water.

[D4u2s0t]

If I want to cover alot of water quickly, I will use a spinnerbait or crankbait.  Spinnerbaits are very versatile for this, because they can be fished at any speed and any depth.  They're also easier to use in cover.  If I know how deep the water is, I'll use an appropriate crankbait.  I don't have a set way I use the baits, ever.  I will try various techniques, keeping mental notes of what is working and what isn't.  Then i'll keep doing what works. 

[Catt]

What method do you use when you want to quickly cover deeper water?

Topographical maps, Satellite imagery, Global Positioning System, Depth Finder

[Gangley]

I would assume deep diving cranks and spinner baits.  Drop shotting is a great deep water fishing method, but it is slow, carolina rigging as well.

[J Francho]

What method do you use when you want to quickly cover deeper water?

Topographical maps, Satellite imagery, Global Positioning System, Depth Finder

I'm with Catt here...pic your spots before you head out on the water; make a plan.

Start with your graph set to 83 kHz.  When you find some fish, switch to 200 kHz or blend mode.  Marker buoys and way points help a lot.  Any bait that sinks or dives will be fine.  the fish will let you know what they want.

[microman]

spinner, crankbait,or quickly runa aworm or curly jig

you dont really need to cover deep water, bass willallwayss move into the shallows to feed, but in the winter larger bass do this less often

[WRB]

If you are shore bound you have very few options. The presentations will be up hill; from deeper to shallower water regardless of what you are using. The type of lake, pond or river affects where you can fish, due to the terrain limits your available shoreline.

Bass can be in 20' of water and run up to the surface to strike a lure, without any problem, so the depth you plan fish isn't an issue.

I would focus on soft plastics using whatever rigging you like, speed will not be fast, as you are walking.

A good surface lure or wake bait is another good choice. Spinnerbaits or chatter bait and soft jerk baits can all be worked up hill without loosing too many lures.

WRB

[32251]

Not shore bound, but tend to beat the banks endlessly.

[Randall]

In summer, fall and winter when the fish are stacked up often I don't use a bait or lure so much to cover deeper water but just use my electronics to scan deep water spots. I can ride over a spot in a few minutes and tell if its worth fishing. I covered a few miles of a Lake Horton yesterday under trolling motor power just riding over deep water areas yesterday and found only two spots of probably thirty I went over to hold active fish. When I found them I already knew I would get bites and could fish a slow moving lure on more specific spots since the depthfinder looked like this. Most of the fish in this school were crappie but we hooked two big bass and a few small bass out of it as well.

If the fish are more scattered in deep water a heavy jig, big spinnerbait, swimbait or a crankbait are my favorites.

[Catt]

Can't catch what you can't find

[SportMN]

Like many.. the finder can really help.. this was my first year with SI(bird 997) and can tell you it has really helped my deep water fishing. 

while i'll agree with many that a deep crank or spinnerbait works.. it really only works if the fish are active... I personally like to drag a c-rig quickly along the bottom..

[WRB]

Misinterpreted bank beater for shore fisherman.

You are not alone over 90% of bass fisherman can't get more than a cast away from the shoreline.

Bass are predators and never far from their preferred food source. If the bank offers food and shelter, the bass may stay there. However in most lakes or reservoirs, the bank isn't where the food source or shelter is located, year around.

I bought my first Lowrance red box, the unit that came out before the green box, in 1959. Being able to see the depth of the bottom and locate underwater islands or humps changed how I bass fished. Instead of fishing what I could see above water, I could now see underwater.

The bass haven't changed much over the years, we just have better sonar to find them easier.

Why handicap yourself and only fish shallow shoreline target?

WRB

[32251]

I personally like to drag a c-rig quickly along the bottom..

What is the bite like when you do this??? Pulling the heavy weight on the C rig will cause a lot of stops and grabs and such dragging on the bottom. Do you pause the rig or do you keep it moving quickly?

[Fishing Rhino]

My favorite technique, at the moment, is swimming a drop shot.  You can cover more ground than fishing it with the usual method.

It works very well in vegetation.  I leave a tag end of about four feet at the hook.  Set the sinker in the middle.  If you grab vegetation, move the sinker down until you snag it only occasionally.

If you aren't snagging the plants, shorten the distance between the hook and the sinker.

I use 6 pound test mono, or fluoro.  My thinking is that braid will impart too much of a jerk rather than a subtle twitch to the bait.  If you have toothy fish like pickerel, I use a twenty pound fluoro leader, with a foot and a half or so between the knot and the hook.  Longer than that and I have a tendency to reel the swivel through the eye at the rod tip.

Make long casts.  Allow the bait to settle, then retrieve with a wrist flick.

Grip the rod loosely and flick the rod to move the bait.  Use just enough force to get the rod moving, then let the momentum of the rod impart the action to the bait.  A medium or medium heavy rod should work fine.

I don't have the touch to feel the subtle differences between the rods, and either seems to work well for me.

The flick retrieve seems to be more effective when you start with  a little slack.  By the time the slack is out of the line, the rod should be moving on its own.  Your hand is along for the ride.

If the sinker snags on the bottom, just keep flicking.  Most of the time it will come free.  It allows the bait to remain in one place which at times is what the fish want.

I use a 1/0 wide gap octopus hook.  The smaller finesse hooks don't seem to have enough "bite" when using thicker baits like the Flappin Hog, and the very thick Fat Ika.

I lost a lot of smaller fish on the smaller hooks.  It wasn't a problem with the larger fish for some reason.

It takes about ten or twelve of those flicks to get a full sweep of the bait using the rod to move it.  Go back to position one, reel in the slack, and start twitching again.

Mix it up.  Try varying the retrieve, you may find something that works better for you. 

You can also swim the drop shot while drifting.  It won't cover as much ground as a spinner bait or crank bait, but it is very effective in vegetation.  It also works in rocky bottom, but it really shines in grassy, weedy patches of bottom.

At least that's been my experience during my first year of using the drop shot.

The three best producing baits have been the four inch coppertreuse Strike King finesse worm (they last forever), the Yamamoto Flappin Hog, and the Yamamoto Fat 3 3/4" Baby Craw.

The Flappin Hog has accounted for most of my better fish, but if they are short striking, the Baby Craw seems to solve that problem.

[RoLo]

Since the 1960s, I don't recall fishing any waterbody without first pre-selecting the trial sites.

Conduct a chart survey at home by scrutinizing the contour lines for spots where key depth lines

diverge and/or converge (flats & drop-offs). Pivotal depth levels will vary sharply

according to fish species, seasonal period and current pool level (the last one's a sleeper).

In the 60s and 70s we had to rely on hardcopies like K&H Maps, Top Spot, Kingfisher, NOAA, etc.

At first I used RDF, then Loran-C for many years and finally GPS after they unskewed the signal.

Today of course we all have electronic maps, which makes our job much quicker and easier.

Using contour analysis, it's possible to eliminate 85% of the lake's area in a matter of minutes,

without every seeing the lake.

Even so, an "onsite survey using your depth sounder in conjunction with the GPS

is always necessary to confirm the bottom contour. Discrepancies between the chart

and the real world are rampant, moreover, many subtleties are uncharted (some of the best).

When on-the-water, you'll also have to evaluate the "cover" at every trial site,

a vital part of the elimination process.

If you're referring strictly to lure coverage, you will attain the greatest area coverage

by "Trolling" or "Drifting", where one cast may substitute for a hundred.

Roger

[TrailerHook]

I personally like to drag a c-rig quickly along the bottom..

+1 Contrary to what a lot fo people think, a c-rig doesn't necessarily have to be fished slowwwww to get good results. It all depends on the mood and disposition of the fish. They will tell you how fast to work it or any other bait.

[b.Lee]

As KVD would say, Spinnerbait.

[BobP]

It's late fall, but any time of year I see a sonar pic like Randall posted, I break out a jigging spoon!  Nothing catches active fish grouped in one spot faster.

[Randall]

It's late fall, but any time of year I see a sonar pic like Randall posted, I break out a jigging spoon! Nothing catches active fish grouped in one spot faster.

I agree. Here are two fish from that school that I posted the photo of. We also had one larger than these that broke off at the boat as well. All caught on the spoon.