Put on the Thinking Cap

[wareaglecamo]

I have no idea what your wife made you for breakfast at that beautiful White River Lodge this morning that warmed your heart to such a degree as to prompt you to release such insightful and valuable information to your amateur followers . . . but I hope she serves it up more often . . . thanks Bill:)

[Ben Gillispie]

This is absolutely unbelievable. All of it. 

[merc1997 Bo]

bill

thanks for the post.  you worded it much better than i ever could have, and i hope that more people will listen to you than me.  it has always been over the years that people will never believe what you tell them about catching bass, but you can lie to them and tell them what they want to hear and they believe every word.

in deep clear water lakes, it is not often that bass are shallow.  one other factor is do you want to fish for a single bass that is hard to get to bite, or fish an area of many bass and competition alone makes them much easier to catch.  i am not a very good fisherman, so, i always figured that i needed to be fishing where they might be easier to get to bite.

even on grand lake, that has a lot more color than table rock, i have caught lots of bass there off- shore and deeper than 15 feet.  falcon lake is another one to add to the list of catching way more bass off shore and deeper than 15 ft. than what i have caught there fishing above 15 ft.  i used to know of a few good farm ponds that only had slightly over 6 feet of water.  i can not remember ever catching many bass on the bank in any of them.  believe me, when fishing off shore, you do not have to be a casting guru.  just get it out there in the general vicinity.

bill, thanks again for the great post, and maybe the message will get through.

 

bo

[Bill Babler]

Bo, soon as I catch 1/2 as many as you have I might start thinking I have somewhat of a clue.  Appreciate the kind words.

After you all read my walleye blog today you won't think so much of me.

[176champion]

I must admit i'am guilty as charged, about fishing banks and shallow waters, i guess it's old habits that i picked up fishing in Florida where the cover was more on the bank or shallow water....Lilly pads and grass type cover on many of the lakes....this has opened my eyes more and maybe i can acquire some different fishing habits..Thanks again for all you and Champ and others as well that contribute to this site and fishing...may God Bless You all

[olbasser]

I'm old and still learning deep structure fishing.  About 20 yes ago bought some tapes from Don Dickson.  Tapes indicate that he was a student of Buck Perry, who I think was one of the original deep structure guys.  At least he sounds a lot like Mr. Babler when he talks about depth and structure.  Anyway would recommend reviewing some of this information.  At least I think it has helped me a lot.

I did spend the last couple days on weigh points on the structure Mr. Banker was talking about without any love LOL.

[Kee sims]

49 minutes ago, 176champion said:

I must admit i'am guilty as charged, about fishing banks and shallow waters, i guess it's old habits that i picked up fishing in Florida where the cover was more on the bank or shallow water....Lilly pads and grass type cover on many of the lakes....this has opened my eyes more and maybe i can acquire some different fishing habits..Thanks again for all you and Champ and others as well contribute to this site and fishing...may God Bless You all

I am right there with you. Guilty as charged. I'm not very comfortable out deep. I feel like a lost puppy once out deep. I'd love to get better at it and a post like Bill was kind enough to post always helps, as well as makes me feel like I can do it then I get out there and get discouraged. Lol

[dtrs5kprs]

If you are wanting to venture off the banks, I highly recommend the late Bill Murphy's book "In Pursuit of Giant Bass". Some of the info is a little odd, because he had a very unique style of fishing, but he was a genius at selecting, analyzing, and dissecting structure. Not just points and humps generally, but specific sweet spots on structure, and places that are key to intercepting fish as they move.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Champ188]

18 hours ago, Macsimus said:

We'll be in Blue Eye on the 1st. I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Look forward to seeing you again.

[MOBass]

I wish this board was around 15 years ago when I got my boat and started fishing Table Rock.  It was a pretty steep learning curve.  I fish a lot smarter than I did before thanks to reading the contributions of Babbler, et al.  I was so very guilty of parking the boat on top of where I should be casting to.  I made a lot of other mistakes, but that was my most common.  It's pretty amazing what you find if you take time to pull off the bank and just look around.