Having Trouble

[AvidAngler]

So recently ive purchased a canoe and have been fishing in a lake thats right across from my house. Ive been out multiple times without any luck finding fish. ive been searching for underwater structure and cover but there almost isnt any. also when i go deep into 45-60ft of water, there are fish everywhere. but on every guide/tip/help thread i read, it says to fish in 10-15 ft of water. why would i fish in 10-15 ft of water where fish aren't being found. and if i do try to fish the bass in 45-65ft of water, what bait and tackle should i be using? how heavy should my jigs and drop shots or should i even be using jigs and drop shots since its practically april. any help would be much appreciated.

[NorcalBassin]

Welcome to the boards! You may want to go with a drop shot set up if going that deep. Good news for you is that they'll be aggressive and a lot more shallow within the next 2-4 weeks. As far as jig weight goes, I'd probably stick with a 1/2oz if going 40-45 ft, 3/4 if deeper. I've had zero luck throwing heavy jigs in gin clear water, which is pretty much the clarity for every lake in your area.

[smalljaw67]

In the spring most bass will begin to move toward shallow water in preperation of spawning. During that time they will stage at different spots, what you need to do is find out where the fish spawn at and then you can back track their migration route and intercept them. The thing you need to look for is structural changes, not cover, although cover on some sort of structure is the best. Cover consist of brush piles, laydowns, weedbeds and things like that, structure consist of changes in the lake bottom like drop offs, creek channels, ditches and depressions, When the fish begin to migrate they usually follow a route moving from deep water to shallow water by way of following structure, they may use points or drop offs as a place to stage, look for shallow areas that have quick access to deeper water, long tapering points are a great place to start the search. You can tell a lot about the fish that are deep just by looking at how they are relating to structure, if the fish are suspending in 45' of water while in 60' they will be hard to catch but not impossible, jigging spoons are perfect for that scenario but you'll need to rely on your fish finder. I aaume you have a fish finder if you are determining the fish are deep, you also need to determine if the deep fish are bass or perhaps another specie, generally the way you do that is by seeing the size of the arcs or fish i.d. depending on the type of finder you are using.

[AvidAngler]

i have a very cheap fishfinder. its a 170 by piranna or something like that. dual beam. but its very simple. that helped a lot though thank you. i guess a good chunk of it is just learning the lake too. im sure ill catch some fish in good time. and ill try to figure out where they spawn but i have no idea where to start. all i know is the lake has two forks that connect to biggish streams.