Shallow Fish

[Alex Heitman]

Has anyone been catching fish shallow in 8 ft or less in the very back of pockets where the water is warmer? I was down at the Rock last weekend and was surprised how many fish we caught that shallow. All of them were keepers with a couple of nice 5+ LM.

[Champ188]

Shhhhhhhhh.

[Berk]

Good question, but the answer might be in the details. What was the weather like - overcast, clear, rain, windy? Water temps? Were the fish relating to specific structure - gravel, chunk, timber, lay downs, docks? Were the coves you picked just outside a channel swing bluff? Early morning, mid day or night time? Were you dragging a jig or bouncing a wart off the bottom, jerk bait 5' deep, top water, or A-rig? If you caught these toads at noon with clear skies and no wind in 8' of water on a Little Cleo, you might be on to something even bigger than the "rig". More info please.

[Alex Heitman]

It didn't seem to matter what time of day it was and structure was also irrelavent also. Just as long as it was way back in the pockets where creeks or runoff came in. The wind was so bad over the weekend I just looked for an area that had protection from it. It seemed though if deep water was somewhat close to a long shallow flat in the back of the pocket they were there scattered close to the bank. The fish were not bunched up either, but I caught 4 or 5 nice keeps in each area I fished. All of them as fat as can be. This tells me the fish are exploring spwaning areas and more are going to come up early this year if the nice weather continues.

[dtrs5kprs]

Shhhhhhhhh.

Agreement.

[Tfsh4bass]

Fish usually move up in waves and there always seems to be a few crazy ones that move shallow when the water is right around 50. I fish shallow most of the time anyway but the number of bites changes depending on conditions and time of year. I fished from 1pm to 6pm yesterday around Indian and ripped a jerkbait in shallow (kept the boat in 14ish) pea gravel pockets around docks...caught 9 with 7 being keepers and had 2 blacks around 4.

[Champ188]

Fish usually move up in waves and there always seems to be a few crazy ones that move shallow when the water is right around 50. I fish shallow most of the time anyway but the number of bites changes depending on conditions and time of year. I fished from 1pm to 6pm yesterday around Indian and ripped a jerkbait in shallow (kept the boat in 14ish) pea gravel pockets around docks...caught 9 with 7 being keepers and had 2 blacks around 4.

Pretty telling report, I'd say.

[dtrs5kprs]

That it is. You would expect to start hearing from someone running grubs by the docks or getting some on a shakey head.

[Billfo]

Any chance they were chasing Spinnerbaits ?

[Tfsh4bass]

Any chance they were chasing Spinnerbaits ?

I threw a swimbait and blade in pockets but didn't have any takers...got bumped twice on a blade. I caught everything on a black/gold/orange jerkbait which is my favorite color on cloudy days on Trock or Bull. Water was 49.7 to 51.2 everywhere I fished.