Kim City - Dec 13 - Deep fish with 2D

[Dock-in-it]

The deep bite has been good the past few days. Mainly using Damiki, ice jig, and slab spoon. I caught a few yesterday on topwater (in 40ft) but they were shorts so I put it down after 5 casts. 

The bass pictures are from this morning in 60-65ft.

The graph pictures are from today (60-65ft) and yesterday (40ft).

These are resident fish vs shad roamers. These resident fish will come and go from the area but it does not take much bait to hold them. These resident fish are grouped up unti 8 or 9am, then they disperse into singles and are tough to catch.

This morning I noticed a few gizzard shad break the surface where I could see there body. That is a good indication that nice fish maybe in the area.

WT 54-55

[196champ]

Very nice!

[Bill Babler]

Wow!  Thanks Dock. 

[Quillback]

That is a bunch of fish, congrats!

[curtisce]

I'm always amazed with your catches and graph pictures

[Macsimus]

As always, a most interesting post. Curious how you can differentiate between residents and roamers? Year to year, I find it next to impossible to find concentrations of fish on prior year spots and have convinced myself that they're all roamers. 😀

[Dock-in-it]

Regarding winter time resident fish (history proven locations).

Resident fish will vacate an area throughout the winter and reappear days later. So they will roam off the reservation. 

 

I just fish mornings so I do not have any first hand knowledge of how resident fish operate in the afternoon. I have fished in the winter for many years and my trips are based on wind speed and direction ( I avoid the wind ). 

These fish get educated so I recommend not fishing for them on consecutive days.

Resident locations are normally a few acres in size and some locations require more shad to keep them hanging around. 

 

A lot of these locations have trees and are on the edge of a comfort zone (like deep/shallow or trees/then no trees).

 

Winter time resident fish will be very active from daylight until 8AM, then between 8 to 9 you can see the activity start to slow down. After 9 or 9:30 it is like a ghost town on your graph. I would not scout for these fish after 8:30. You may not see any grouped up shad but there are scattered shad in the area.

If I was going to fish for 8 hours I would start on resident fish at daylight then go looking for abundant shad after 9AM.

 

These locations have an overall depth range of 30 to 65ft and that allows you to catch them suspended or on the bottom. 

Different resident locations will turn on at different times throughout the winter. Some are good in December and others might get going in January. You need an inventory that you can check in a few mile range because running the boat in cold Temps works on your enthusiasm. 

[Champ188]

Great post. Thanks for the expert info.