How shallow is too shallow?

Fishaholic · August 22, 2005, 09:24:42 PM

Lately, I've been taking some pretty fair fish and the deepest water I've been fishing with aggressive fish has been 2 feet, with the 2 best fish coming out of 10" of water...a 30" northern pike and a 17.5" largemouth.

When I used to fish another backwater area of mine (wife is scared for me to go in alone anymore due to physical demands) I'd regularly catch 4 and 5 pound bass in 6" or less of water underneath thick mattes of duckweed.

Today for example, I took a 13.5" bass out of 6" of water with a duckweed matte and lots of timber nearby, and had a couple good strikes (probably pike) in 1.5 feet or less of water with patchy duckweed.

Most of the people I've seen complaining about no more fish to be caught there are fishing 4 feet or more of water...interesting huh?

So, how shallow do you normally fish when it gets hot? During cold fronts? During or post heavy rainstorms? After a Thunder/Lightning Storm? Hot and humid days? In the Spring? In the Fall?

Pferox · August 23, 2005, 03:59:12 AM

We've been in some places checkin for skeeters and have seen BIG bass charge the shore for baitfish, and end up finnin around like Saltwater redfish do.
That may be as shallow as 4 or 5 inches, some get a little too shallow and they start to thrash to get back to deeper water.
I just cant remember what time of year it was, proly around spring when most of the spawn are small yet.

When it gets hot, we see catfish come up onto inches of water around weeds and stuff checkin out what has washed up around em. This usually happens on cooler summer days, when the skys are overcast.

Celliach · August 23, 2005, 10:15:02 AM

Right now the deepest holes in my river are only about 4 feet deep. The majority of the river is less than a foot. While I'm not catching as much as I do in the spring when the river is higher, I'm still getting some nice fish now and again.

Fishaholic · August 23, 2005, 08:37:40 PM

I fish a creek similar to what you describe...mostly about a foot deep with an occassional hole or trough that drops down to around 3 or 4 feet, and if I do a lot of walking, a few good holes over 5 feet...but this time of the year what I look for when the creek is low is trees growing right on the edge of the creek...and I mean right on the edge, not a foot from the water, not even an inch from the water...right on the edge...trees like this usually have undercuts underneath them in their root systems...definitely a lunker magnet!

The other place I look for fish is in the pools just below the rapids and riffles...last year around this time of the year I took a 14 pound steelhead from such a pool.

silversalmon · September 08, 2005, 11:09:09 AM

Our grayling look at this time of year and break up for realy shallow water to get there final feedings in for the winter. Throw out in abut 2-3 inches of water that has a good current and you will nail one

Fishaholic · September 08, 2005, 11:14:36 AM

Cool! that's got to be an awesome site

silversalmon · September 08, 2005, 11:49:44 AM

It is Fish, they look like small salmon, cept they are on a feeding frenzy

If you look in my gallery where my boy is holdin that fish on his line, that is how deep it is

daygo140 · September 08, 2005, 01:09:44 PM

I fish both at the same time actually. I cast into very shallow then work my rig to where there are drop offs. To be honest I catch most of my fish in 8 to 12 feet at the drop offs but I have caught a few lately in the shallower parts.

This way you can't go wrong especially when fishing tourneys. I would look for shallow water to have nice vegetation and a drop off beyond it.

Fishaholic · September 09, 2005, 08:06:10 AM

but obviously to me, you're not fishing from shore like the rest of us here then...

8 - 12 feet isn't shallow either!

daygo140 · September 09, 2005, 08:27:13 AM

Quote
8 - 12 feet isn't shallow either!

I never said it was. I don't know what I was thinking but I didn't realize this was a "shore and bank" forum.

Mike Noble · September 09, 2005, 08:40:06 AM

Thats okay daygo140. We do have a LOT of members that fish from the bank so we have a board for them to discuss all the issues and so forth for bank/shore fishing.

daygo140 · September 09, 2005, 08:43:28 AM

Quote from: Mike Noble on September 09, 2005, 08:40:06 AM
Thats okay daygo140. We do have a LOT of members that fish from the bank so we have a board for them to discuss all the issues and so forth for bank/shore fishing.

Definately a GREAT idea!!! After all that's were we all start.

NICE FISH IN YOUR AVATAR BTW!!!

daygo140 · September 09, 2005, 09:08:29 AM

Hey fishaholic,

I have noticed two things by scouring the forums. One you fish from shore and two you have at least one sponsor. How do you get sponsored from fishing the shore? Do you fish shore tourneys?

I'd like to try mabey getting a sponsor somehow it's nice because with gas prices, tourney fees, equipment costs, etc a few two tree packs of lures from a sponsor would be nice here and there!

TIGHT LINES!!

Fishaholic · September 09, 2005, 09:16:55 AM

I field test baits, promote sales, and services for my sponsors.

No, I don't do tourneys, I did do one shore tourney, and won it hands down.

I've managed to effectively promote my sponsors products and do everything in my power to increase no only their sales, but their visibility in the market. On site while fishing, I'm still promoting their products and even show other fishermen tips/tricks on how to get more out of the baits, and the intrinsic value of the baits. I provide feedback on a weekly basis, and basically will do whatever it takes to make them look great to the public consumers.

In the near future, I'm hoping to start up a shore fishing bass league for other serious bass fishing fanatics like myself.

There's several steps to getting sponsorship, I'd start with the book from FishForFree, and then check out the forum set up for approaching companies for sponsorship.

silversalmon · September 13, 2005, 12:18:14 AM

You know Fish that is a great idea

The challenge would be outstanding. Be able to only shore fish

The question though, how would we be able to keep the fish alive and un-harmed for weigh in time $:-\$ Portable live wells

Nevermind, and the next question, would GPS's be allowed or just good ol fashioned compassess

Fishaholic · September 13, 2005, 12:28:43 AM

they make special nets that will definitely keep the fish alive, GPS makes no nevermind to me, castable depth finders don't bother me either, even though I don't use either one.

There's be some limitations as to how much weight - combination of rods/reels and tacklebag you'd be allowed to carry...if it were a Catch and Release tourney, every fisherman would have to be followed by a referee, who would measure, weigh and release all qualifying fish. Unlike culling, if you caught a fish that was legal, you'd have to dictate to the referee if you were going to count the fish in your total, or take a chance on getting bigger fish.

Lots of stuff to be worked out, but I'm hoping to pull one off within the next 2 years...and, if it works, an entire season could be planned out.

silversalmon · September 14, 2005, 02:06:11 PM

It will work Fish, anything can work as long as your mind is into it. And being you, I think it will probably have great results

SenkoSam · September 14, 2005, 02:21:30 PM

There seems to be a drought in NYS that no one seems to be aware of and water levels are way down from last year. The lakes are beginning to turnover and the bottom veg. is starting to decompose, giving the water that opaque, pea soup, surface color. Under these conditions, bass and panfish are starting to stay higher in the water column and are parking their finny behinds in shallow, hard pack/ rock strewn areas and near retaining walls that border 2' flats. They are also schooling parallel to shorelines over 5' but, within 2' of the surface.

Fingerlings and midseason, sunfish neonates are forming up for their annual midlake runs out of the dying weed beds and fish sense the horn of plenty about to be offered up for their gastric pleasure.

When I think shallow catching, I think water within the top 3' of surface regardless of the depth beneath or 1-3' maximum depth near shoreline, regardless of drop offs or vegetation, neither of which is a prerequisite, as was proven by my partner and I last Sat. Spring and prefall fishing smack of this pattern and this is were most lures will get bit if they are small enough. I tend to match the size of the bountiful forage and that size is rarely more than 3" long.

As the water cools below 60, larger cranks, soft sticks and jigs do well in my areas and shallow consist of water in 5' regardless of the depth beneath.

My side scanner has been invaluable in locating shallow schools and isolated shallow bass. Sat. we caught 60 and 70 fish, mostly small bass and panfish. A 2 3/4 lb. smallie was take in 3' on a pebble flat; five bass were between 13" and 2 lbs. (Quality has eluded many an angler in NY in the last month.) Some were caught in 8" depths, others in 3' from surface and only few were caught on bottom in water over 8'. (In fact, few were seen on bottom in that depth.)

Get shallow man or lady! That's were the action is or will be!

Lipripper · September 14, 2005, 09:37:09 PM

SenkoSam great information on fishing shallow

Fish I saw one of them fly fishing programs where they had a judge following them around and they would measure the fish then let it go and keep record of the catch.

silversalmon · September 15, 2005, 10:16:29 PM

Great info SenkoSam, thanks for sharing that. A drought in New York, I grew up fishing the Niagara River and other lakes in the area. Love to fish the finger lakes and Adarondak lakes

SenkoSam · September 16, 2005, 02:14:52 AM

Yesterday, the pattern continued. Between panfish, 20 keepers and a large number of small bass, we boated over 80 fish. Crappies (many kept over 11") were in loose schools and the rest of all species were hanging over hard, shallow areas or on pad edges in 2'. The weather was superb! While lower NYS got clobbered by rain (1"), we only got a few sprinkles and had mostly cloudy skies with a few openings and light breezes.

Let me paint you a picture of the bite.
The 3 and 4 lb bass were finicky and not chasing or moving very far to investigate noise (like rattles) and the best bass were mostly caught on two stlyes of soft sticks and a red shad Power Worm. One of my 3lbers was caught on an Excalibur shallow dive crankbait, in 3'. The great majority of fish were caught on miniscule 1" crappie grubs (curl tail) on 1/16oz jigheads, that targeted pad edges or within 2' of the surface in open water. Nothing was found in water over 4'.

It always makes me wonder why certain worm styles excel over others and why certain techniques work. I figured it this way - the 4" Senko copy I make was thicker than the 5" tapered worm I used successfully in the spring. The tapered worm is best used as a jerkworm and worked fast in shallow cooler water, from April to mid June. The other worm that excelled was the Senko slim 5.5" copy I had poured in spring, but stopped using after finding that the tapered sticks were the most effective in the shallows.

The best way we worked weightless worms or using a small split shot 1' up, was to let the sit on bottom for 30 seconds and then let the boat drift slightly. The worms were picked up and carried off time after time versus working them along bottom C-rig style or dragging them like a tube. (Caught one with a tube and bullet weight.)

We could not buy a topwater bite, though the conditions were near perfect - glass on and off all day. The worm and grub bites were strong most of the time, but line watching was extremely important! for slow worming. It's almost if you had to kick these fish in the rear to get them moving, but once you did, they jumped quite a few times and ran powerfully.

The side scanner working impeccably! No forage schools - no fish most of the time - move on! It showed us right and left of the bow and allowed us to target whichever side show fish. Too bad Raymarine discontinued my scanner but new ones can still be found through various on-line sources and service is still available.

Today should be interesting and rain will certainly come by mid day and continue through the night. Could be we caught the leading edge of the pre cold front/ pre fall feed pattern and water temps will now go down, as water levels start to rise.

What a day!