Water temp?
Water temp change?
sunlight?
Bait movement?
All of the above?
What else?

I get a precious few days on the water. Since I have such sorry electronics
that I couldn't see the Titanic down 20 ft, I don't want to waste them
while they are still all out deep. When do they typically come up?
(Yes I know there are always some fish up shallow, but I mean the fall feedbag
up)

Any insight?
Many thanks.

A lot never left the shallows.

I would say first cold week we have where lows get into 50s and highs in 70s they will push up with the shad.

Flood waters have a lot of them shallow already but mostly smaller aggressive juvenile bass with a few good ones mixed in, look for the first real coldsnap coming to set the heavy feast/famine bite into motion

Caught 17lbs on Toads Saturday at Rayburn in about 3 foot of water in Hay Grass...guess they are there now.

A lot of them never leave. I like fishing shallow year round.

^^^^ this^^^^^

It always amazes me that guys say fish cannot be caught shallow when it's too hot or too cold, I learned watching Guido Hibdon fish very shallow in EXTREME cold and catch large fish and same way in summer (especially in shaded areas). The dude that just won the FLW cup fished shallow and stated that he did so because everyone else was overlooking shallow water and those bass had not been pressured. The floods in Texas certainly did mess the shallow fishing up as far as it scattered fish out like crazy but they were still caught in shallow water. I went to Fork on an extremely windy day about a month ago (102 was the temp that day) and I got back in out of the wind and was catching fish all morning long in less than 4-5 feet of water on a small worm.

+1

Same here. Caught all of mine on frogs. Had 7-8 3+lbers, lost 2 good fish in the grass. And another 4-5 smaller fish.

Coach

I havent had any problems finding them shallow either. They are there now!

I know it sounds crazy - but there are a LOT of bass in a foot of water right now on Fork. Try a small red shad worm and very light pegged weight a foot above hook.

if your looking for a guessed date as to when the fall feed will be on, id say mid october til thanksgiving. it's really just about bait at this time. find the bigger concentrations of shad and you will catch them in the fall

This. Some never did, and I've been catching them on topwater (hollow-body frogs and Ribbits, mostly) all summer long. The deep fish will move back into the shallow creeks chasing the shad when the water cools.

Caught a 5lb this evening in under a foot of water. I'd say it's ok to try. Lol

Thanks for the thoughts

And

You guys who get to fish all the time......
I hate you........