Bass in deep water

Question
Hello, how are you doing? I have been fishing at lake that is very deep and very clear. We have been having a hard time catching fish. We have been sitting in deep water fishing back to the 10 to 20 foot water. We have been using texas style worms, shaky head, Carolina, crank baits and before it get dark top water. During the day we may catch 1 or 2 on the worm and at night pick up about 1 or 2 with top water. We are thinking about starting fishing at night to see if that will help any. Do you have any advice on what I can use or anything that may help catch more bass? The temperature here is in the high 80抯 and low 90抯. That is one reason we are going to start fishing at night because it should be cooler at night and we think the fish may be more active. Any help that you give will be appreciated.

Thank you for your help

Answer
Good morning "C"!

Cool question! I lived in Chesapeake Bay for a few years as a boy and have hundreds of memories! I wish you had mentioned the actual lake you were fishing that I might give a more target specific answer. Fortunately, 90% of my bass fishing is in waters just as you have described.

Let's focus on fishing in the daylight hours first.

It sounds as though you are picking at stragglers rather than finding a decent concentration of fish. What you must remember is that bass are schooling fish. They also have a daily routine. This routine is known as a daily migration. The fish move from their deep water sanctuary, where they spend most of their time, and can also be caught, to the feeding areas and back, along very defined routes. Just like you and I follow a map on paper from street to street and town to town, they move from sanctuary to feeding areas, moving from a deep ledge or rock pile for instance, to a stump to a small drop-off with a rock, to another rock pile. At some spot along the way, they disperse to the feeding area. This is know as the scatter point where they move off to feed in small groups and often solo "stragglers". The fish you are likely finding are these stragglers. That is fine and well as long as good numbers of those fish are dispersed along a section of shoreline you are fishing but you just won't find that "honey hole" that produces fish after fish with you moving very little unless you do a whole lot more investigating.

When you have caught a single fish, continue fishing the area where you just hooked the first. If it doesn't produce, move along the point, section of shoreline or other area you have chosen to and see if you catch a few others. If you are working a section of shoreline, for instance, work both directions until you stop getting bites. All the while you should be observing the changes in the contour and features of that stretch. Often, you will identify a feature like a large rock then a tree stump, then a laydown (fallen tree), or a pile of smaller rocks. These are the "road signs" that will clue you into the route the fish take from the deeper water to the feeding areas. Once you have isolated some of these features, you will be able to fish the route or highway the fish are using and begin catching far more fish on a regular basis.

The most important tool, that is extremely useful to help identify these routes is a good fish finder..."structure finder" would be a better name. While some anglers use the electronics to find the fish they hope to catch, it is really used more to find the structure the fish are holding on or relating to. This is how you map an area to figure out exactly where the migration route is and then confirm the area along that route the fish are holding. Start with your observations of the shoreline features and land contours, then confirm your hunches by progressing out off the area the fish you have taken were located and look for underwater features that prove to be the markers on the route the fish take from the deep water to the feeding areas. Remember the "scatter point" I mentioned earlier? This is also very often the "gathering point" where the fish school back up and move back into the deeper water once again.

I have seen some talented bass anglers that were certain they knew the spots along the routes and they would camp out on one of those spots, (even in tournaments), until the fish moved through it during their daily migration and these guys have scored BIG! As for me, I don't have the patience to wait...I gotta find'em! So as you might guess, I move around the lake from point to point or cove to cove in search of an easily identified route and put together a pattern that takes advantage of the active fish on it and hit them hard when I find them. More often than not, I can produce decent numbers of fish.

You should approach night fishing of the bass just as you would day fishing. While the bass will often take advantage of the low light of dusk and dawn to feed more actively, this does not mean the bass will feed any differently at night. You still need to structure fish and find where the fish will be at any given time. One awesome thing about night fishing the Largemouth is that the fish are a bit less likely to be spooked and MANY large fish are more easily taken. I have taken fish to eight or nine pounds on topwater baits, (like spooks, buzzers and jitterbugs), that have taken the lure right next to the boat...not so common in the daylight hours! But noise and light that is not natural to the fish may still put them on alert and cause them to be tougher to get to bite.

A few other considerations you need to make while fishing the deep, clear waters of your lake: line size and lure colors.

Your techniques are all solid ones...continue to use them during the day and night but try these tips:

Fish lighter line during the day...not as important at night. In my clear water lakes, I most often use 6 or 8lb. line and if I have to go heavier, I make sure I am using fluorocarbon. I rarely use braids except when flipping in heavy cover...even though thin, they are visible.

A tried and true rule of thumb for lure colors, plastics included, is that in gin clear water, use lighter lures in the daytime, ("matching the hatch" or forage the fish will most likely be feeding on), and the darkest lures you have at night. At night I have had great success with black jitterbugs, spinnerbaits and larger, black plastic worms (8-10"). These rules also apply with the color of water you are fishing. Dark waters...dark lures. Lighter waters, lighter lures.

As for temperature...air temp means nothing to the fish except that when it is hot out, it causes the water temps to climb as well. Most of the bass will find the temperature they prefer to hang out in, but wherever the food is, they will go there and feed, then return to their "comfort zone" so to speak. One tip to remember is that when the water is warm, the fish are more active and will tend to take a faster moving presentation than they normally would in cooler water...try burnin' baits through an area you thing is holding fish...then slow it down a bit until you get a fish to take... make the lure look like an meal that knows it's in trouble and wants to get the heck out of there! Then...hold on!

So "C" (trying to abide by your choice to remain private in the settings), I hope you will take the time to apply these ideas to you next number of trips. If you practice them frequently, especially mastering the structure fishing skills, you will no doubt catch far more bass than you have ever thought possible and FAR more consistently!

Best of luck, now get out and fish!

- Mark