winter bass fishing, how can I catch them at 45 foot deep?????

[kgbassin]

A test.....
try taking a 3/4 ounce egg sinker, start with a hook baited with a live night crawler. Your first task is to position this rig to where u can actually watch this on your electronics....(by yo yowing the rig off the bottom, bottom as a reference point) your not looking at the fish or bottom structure your learning to follow this rig...

Its important you learn to recognize this rig on your unit. You should see it rise an fall and easily follow it on your screen

Once you Can do this. Id then locate my target an bring this bait in contact with it....
Tip: keep the drifting speed to a bare minimum till u are comfortable watching your rig.

Now go after the deep water targets u suspect are fish, livebait such as minows may work better

Only on problem, my unit is n the back of my boat will it still work, and do I need to do this on switch fire mode, or down scan!!! I have seen and heard of wat u r talking about on you tube and have tried it but no sucess on seeing it on my unit!!!

[Olgrey]

Have you given any thought to the fact that if you catch a fish that deep and bring it to the surface it may very well die? Catching them that deep often kills them unless you know how to treat them.

[Moveon]

We should be careful fishing in the winter months for these deep water santuary fish populations.

[fishincreek]

We should be careful fishing in the winter months for these deep water santuary fish populations.

Why?

[rickhise]

Only on problem, my unit is n the back of my boat will it still work, and do I need to do this on switch fire mode, or down scan!!! I have seen and heard of wat u r talking about on you tube and have tried it but no sucess on seeing it on my unit!!!

I understand the complications of what u are saying. Is your unit is visible from the drivers seat, is the transducer on the back, if so you can find an watch this rig. On my boat if i keep the rod about in line with my console some 18 - 20 inches out from the side of the boat i can follow it.

experiment perhaps with an anchor letting it down an being able to follow it to the bottom.
this will let u know at what position in your boat this is doable.....

this is a target process, perhaps u understand the math of the process the angle,
with degrees an depth.

Part of using live bait is setting all this up (boat) so it comes together but u should have a doable
oppertunity

[Ky Trophy Fish]

Rick is right on about locator and seeing your sinker/bait. Everyone has a budget for their fishing toys,BUT buy the best locator you can on your budget and learn how to interpet what info you have on screen.When fishing deep water smallies,I have found if you mark fish ,you can catch some.No fish on locator ,bite will be tough to nonexistient!



The biggest mistake that I see when anglers fish for deepwater fish is moving way to fast.Slow down-keep your bait at the target depth and work the area throughly.When you mark fish on your locator ,remember it can be anywhere in the transducer cone. With my "H-bird in downscan/highdef mode,if boat is in 40 ft of water,it has a 40 ft footprint .There is no way to determine exactly where the fish you have marked is in relation to transducer except for depth.When I mark deep fish,will work a grid pattern in that area,hopefully getting bait within range of fish to induce a strike.

[Ky Trophy Fish]

Here is snapshot from Dale.Fish in snapshot are the lighter bars/blips in pic.Caught a good bunch of smallies and a few spots from this area on that day. A good thing with snapshots,you can download to computer and enlarge them for better look at the structure and any fish there.


http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/a...ish/S00044.png

[Mean Morone]

I've never caught bass that deep, but I have caught stripers in 45 ft of water using 2 inch Flitterbaits. You have to use braid for feel and for a good hook set. I would say work it slow in the winter. Slow lifts and drops.

[drjochum73]

Try drop shorting or a spoon. When you get them up make sure you deflate the air bladder, fizz, if you are putting in the live well. Good luck.

Dan

Http:\\www.evansvillebassmasters.webs.com

[kgbassin]

Try drop shorting or a spoon. When you get them up make sure you deflate the air bladder, fizz, if you are putting in the live well. Good luck.

Dan

Http:\\www.evansvillebassmasters.webs.com

Thanks to everyone for all of the information, hopefully I can try all of you all's techqines tommorowo!!! I have heard about the deflate part, but i am just fishing for fun is it okay to relase them after I catch them that deep, or should I take my time reeling them in like catfish, when u catch them really deep, to make sure that the air comes out of their bladders!!!!!

[CTFSHWHISKER]

there is hybrids in there,don't know how many are left but they did stock it,go into bardstown and see if keenes has any large minnows and drift them around and see what you get,there is a good supply of carp in there and they will school like that in the deep,i do know last weekend you did not need to fish over 9 ft deep to catch fish,crappie and bass,the main key was small baits and slow.if you do not have a permit be careful,he has been setting at the ramp if there are boats out there checking for permits.

[Moveon]

I'd say give them time to decompress when reeling them up from very deep water.

I SCUBA dive and am well aware of the gas laws and how it affects a diver. I'd think that a fish is not any different from a diver in the sense that dissolved gases in the blood stream will behave the same in a fish's blood as in a human's blood.

Deep water fishing has a risk to those fish that are caugth and released. This is more true in the hot summer months but could be equally deadly to the fish in the winter months.

If you really care about protecting the fish resources then bring them up slower and have more fun in the process.

I'm not exactly sure how long it takes for a fish to fill or deflate it's air bladder. Different species of fish have different types of air bladder. But we are talking about sm or LM bass here. They have blood vessels that surround the air bladder and exchange gases between the two. I'm just not sure of how fast this occurs.

It's something I have thought about and tried to research a bit but have not had much luck in figuring this out with any certainty.

But I'd think that the longer it took to bring the fish to the surface the better off the fish would be.

Now if you only catch a fish or two this will not do much damage to the overall fish population. But if you cach and release twenty SM bass in 45 ft of water it could have a hue dent in the SM bass Popluation in the area.

Remember that the SM bass all group up together is big schools in deep water for the winter. If they all were to die after being caught and released that would be bad. It would be bad if 50% of them died later.

So I like your idea to bring them up slowly vs the fizzing operation.

Better to be safe than sorry. Besides with the cold water they won't be fighing as hard as they would in the summer time. Cold slows down a fish's metabolism and they are more sluggish in the cold water.

Thanks to everyone for all of the information, hopefully I can try all of you all's techqines tommorowo!!! I have heard about the deflate part, but i am just fishing for fun is it okay to relase them after I catch them that deep, or should I take my time reeling them in like catfish, when u catch them really deep, to make sure that the air comes out of their bladders!!!!!