Transitioning Throughout The Day

[Ledhead]

Usually when I go fishing, I hit the water about 6 or earlier if I can. Until about 9, I always have some decent luck in a few coves/boathouses/creeks/points that I know that are all around 5-9' deep. As soon as it starts to heat up, I just can't buy a bite. I'll throw topwater, cranks, senkos, t-rig trick worms, spinners...they just won't hit anything.

Common sense tells me to move to deeper waters, but I'm just not very experienced fishing deep. What sort of places should I be looking out for? Right now I'm working with some fairly old electronics that make it difficult sometimes to locate any structure, but I'm trying to get some cash to upgrade. What sort of lures do you use? Obviously deep running cranks but what else is good?

Any help I could get would be great,

Thanks

[Jigfishn10]

Depending your water temps and day (cloudy or clear) there could be a number of different places. If your fishing bright sunny days, then I would say go target practicing, meaning in cover, under docks, shady areas, etc. Cloudy skies with a front moving in, they may be in the same places just mentioned or they could go out to the first breakline in deeper water. JMHO.

[flippin and pitchin]

Go deeper, depth wise and or deeper into the available cover. When the low light period is gone, they seek safety in depth or cover. Even a shade line at times is enough. My local lake is shallow and has a lot of pads that border the shore lines. During low light or when it's cloudy and windy, the bass will roam. Once the sun penetrates the water column or it gets slick, the bass move to the heaviest cover and hunker down because there is no deep water to access. It sounds like your instincts are pretty well on. Try deep in the cover and then deep, as in outer break lines. A frog and a football jig could be the deal. You'll find them.

[Catt]

Today on the Big Pond: Mostly sunny & hot, high near 99. Heat index of 105. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

Tonight on the Big Pond: Partly cloudy, low around 75. South wind around 5 mph.

Last weekend during a major day tournament 56 of 104 boats weighted zero fish!

Sometimes it pays to night fish

[WRB]

LMB prefer low light to feed, it gives them an advantage, so they are more active during dawn and dusk periods. It's alot easier to catch active bass, they respond to several different presentations and lure types.

Bass are not active all the time, they tend to be inactive and not feeding for several hours each day.

You need to change how and where you fish to catch bass that are not actively feeding.

There are several schools of thought on this subject; slow down and saturate an area with precise presentations like flipping or pitching into heavy shaded cover. Go deeper and fish the breaks where bass maybe more actively feeding. Power fish by ponding the shoreline cover targets at a faster pace to cover water.

I fish deep structured lakes and prefer to fish the outside deeper structure at the depth I can locate bass or bait fish with whatever works*.

I would suggest picking areas close to where you catch active shoreline bass and move out into deeper water following a major point to start with.

Get yourself a good 1' to 2' elevation map of the lake where you fish and look for underwater humps or other sharp breaks and fish those, if they are near the depth of bait fish or intersect a thermocline.

Ohter wise pick one of the other choices; cover water, saturate heavy cover.....or fish at night as Catt mentioned.

Good luck.

Tom

* lure types depends on the what the bass are feeding on; crawdads, start with a 3/8 to 1/2 oz football head jig with 4" Yamamoto twin tail hula grub in crawdad colors. Bait fish like shad; same lure in shad colors, or structure spoons, 1/4 to 3/8 oz drop shot rig, doddle (shake a T-rig) rig or split shot rig 5" to 7" worms in bait fish colors. Whatever you can effectly present to the bass at the depth they are holding.

[brushhoggin]

i know your pain. anyone who wants to fish a deep, summer pattern without any decent electronics, are relegated to blindly probing deep areas in hopes of feeling your jig or whatever scrape up against a limb or some sort of structure. but it requires unending patience to scour the deep for cover like that. being a hundred degrees makes it that much more tedious. but when you hook up, theyre usually bigger than your average fish. i always maintain a level of confidence if there is some sort of creek channel nearby. the ole' etch-a-sketch sonar will at least be able to show you erratic depth changes

[Jigfishn10]

Good post brushhoggin!

[scrutch]

Today on the Big Pond: Mostly sunny & hot, high near 99. Heat index of 105. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

Tonight on the Big Pond: Partly cloudy, low around 75. South wind around 5 mph.

Last weekend during a major day tournament 56 of 104 boats weighted zero fish!

Sometimes it pays to night fish

Catt, If you were forced to fish in daytime (in THAT tournament) what areas would you have targeted?

[RoLo]

I'll never understand why anglers believe that deep-water fishing is any harder than shallow-water fishing.

When you're fishing in deepwater, you can fully exploit your electronics, and can pinpoint structure, cover and baitfish.

When you're fishing in shallow-water, everything is scattered laterally, your electronics have limited ability, and visual interpretation is restricted to above the water line. To me at least, it's the difference between a dog rambling around a hayfield, and an eagle surveying the terrain from a lofty perch.

Roger

[Catt]

I know exactly what you mean Roger; I’ve been looking into buying a Lowrance® DownScan Imaging™.

These are actual Customer Ratings & Reviews

"this is a depth finder not fish finder. pain in the rear to use. shows bottom, but no fish."

"It is a good product for seeing the structure and underwater areas you don't know are there. BUT, it is not a true fish finder! Actually there will be no fish symbols or archs.

“down imaging that is not so good in water that is 10`or less in depth. pretty much all you can do is look directly under you.”

scrutch, I spent 5 days on the lake prior to that tournament & all my day time fish were caught between 5:15 am – 8:00 am & again after tournament hours. The sweet thing about knowing the lake like I do, being able to fish it as much as I can is I pick & choose my battles.

I would not have chosen that one

[WRB]

Catt you posted a photo of an outside hump (exposed underwater island) during low water conditions last year(?), that looked ideal if it had more water on it now.

That is the type of structure with wood to target. I'm too old to fish 100+ temps with no wind and would wait for better conditions, like night time.

I don't own a Lowrance Structure Scan unit with both down/side scanning, however have fished using it and you can see individaul fish suspended on the side scanner in cover in 5' of water, which is shallow to me. The fish show up as dots, not the traditional arcs.

Way off topic.

Tom

[RoLo]

I know exactly what you mean Roger; I’ve been looking into buying a Lowrance® DownScan Imaging™.

I figured if anyone understood, it would be you.

I"m glad you mentioned Lowrance, that's the brand I'm considering as well

Roger

[Catt]

WRB, that spot is awesome but sadly it has less water now than when that picture was taken.

Roger, what’s your mamma’s name?

Ledhead, some summer days you’re better off staying at the camp or going out earlier before daylight or fishing well after dark.

Don’t be afraid of the dark…be afraid of what hunts in the dark