# Fishing deep (fresh)water



## NKlamerus (Jan 4, 2016)

Spent some time on a large lake in Oregon yesterday, lake maps have it at 210' deep when it's full, but it is at least 80' low right now. 

Either way, definitely never fished vertical bluffs in 50' of water before for largemouth and smallmouth 

20' from the bank and the back of the boat is in 53' of water 

Other than a dropshot or heavy jig, I'm thinking a spoon or blade bait might be ideal. 

Anyone fished that deep before for smallmouth and largemouth?

Did catch some smallmouth on a Ned rig, trout as well surprisingly


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## etrade92 (Jul 30, 2015)

I have experience with this. A good graph is your friend to key in on schools of fish. A drop shot is a really good rig to fish these depths but often will get below the school. Get up or down stream and make a long cast with a small gay blade or a 1/2oz jig with small swimbait, and just be patient as it sinks in a slow arch through the school. If you've got biceps of steel you can get the Strike King 10XD crankbait to about 32' by kneeling and reeling, but it is work.


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## lsucole (May 7, 2009)

I used to fish a lot of bluff walls in Arkansas on Lake Hamilton . In my experience, fish tend to suspend at a certain level up and down those bluff walls. A good graph will show you where and it will change each day ? We had great success with small jigging spoons and 4" Charlie Brewer Slider worms which we "counted down " to the fish !


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## jwilson1978 (Mar 23, 2021)

NKlamerus said:


> Spent some time on a large lake in Oregon yesterday, lake maps have it at 210' deep when it's full, but it is at least 80' low right now.
> 
> Either way, definitely never fished vertical bluffs in 50' of water before for largemouth and smallmouth
> 
> ...


Holy crap. Do large mouth go that deep up there. Never saw any bass (Large mouth or spots don't have smallies) here more than about 25 foot mabe a spot at 30


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## jack2 (Mar 19, 2010)

i used to fish for the small mouths up on lake martin. they were on the rocky ledges but weren't but about 20-25ft.
definitely hard to feel the bite.
jack


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## hjorgan (Sep 30, 2007)

trolling deep divers? Mann's stretch or the strike king as noted above. I've done that to locate schooling bass and bass in a kinda deep lake (Lake Tuscaloosa)


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## jwilson1978 (Mar 23, 2021)

hjorgan said:


> trolling deep divers? Mann's stretch or the strike king as noted above. I've done that to locate schooling bass and bass in a kinda deep lake (Lake Tuscaloosa)


If you can catch fish in that shit hole of a lake consistently you are good! Bass masters quit coming because its so bad. But the ramp is across the road so my stupid self keeps going.


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

Little late weighing in, but yes, definitely can catch largies and spots that deep. I used to catch them in 80 feet of water in one of the deeper rocky lakes I fished in North Carolina. Etrade92 said it - good graph and knowing how to use it will help you tremendously. 

When they are near the bottomave had success with a heavy Carolina rig with a floating soft plastic of your choice - we used to use a lot of RoboWorms and trick worms.

In addition to drop shotting, vertical jigging an Acme Kastmaster spoon has produced for me as well, especially if they are suspended, which they often will be in those deep bluff situations. Don't forget to pull out the old Ratl'trap and vertical jig that too. I've caught big crappie doing this also. 

Letting the lure fall on a semi-slack line as described above can also be deadly - if you don't feel anything hit, but the line stops falling too soon for the depth, set it!


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