Yes I fish for bass 95% of the time and occasionally crappie when I want to eat some fresh fish.

Once bass get into their summer patterns I see a lot of people fish spots on the lake. Once you find a spot with catchable fish go try to duplicate that structure all around the lake. I find myself fishing less but more efficiently now and searching and mapping more with my electronics on a trip. I know some people that will go to the lake and hit a few spots they have caught a few fish at in the past and pretty much give up and say they must not be biting today. When I go to the lake now I have studied maps and navionics app and have at least 8-10 things I want to go map and probably spend 30% of my time fishing now and 70% looking. In the past I probably fished 90% and caught less fish. In the last year alone i have found over 200 brushpiles in areas i have fished and never knew they were there, and this is in a relatively small area of Sam Rayburn I have been concentrating on.

An old time crappie guide on Rayburn told me about 8 years ago that if it was legal to use a 8 inch crappie for bait he could catch a new Lake record bass. He said how do I know this, because I have had him on on numerous times. He would be bringing a crappie up from a brush pile and that big old bass would eat him before he got it to the surface and either straighten the hook or spit him out.

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This is a main lake point on Rayburn with the river running against it on 2 sides also attached is a autochart live 3D rendering of the point. I have fished this quite a few times, never had much luck though it looks like a good place to me. Any suggestions as to how you would fish it?

Very seldom do I find the fish right up on a deep water point without some form of Irregular Feature for them to stack up on. Your big fish definitely live here; there is no doubt about that. They live deep and follow the deep water route along the lip of the channel as it is very steep to feed up. It would be a very unique situation to catch them pushing bait up into shallower water tight to the point itself.

They will be coming from their Comfort Zones in the two South Bends. The bend on the left holds the best FUNNEL POINTS and the chart says there is Trees in the bend. If there is a monster that lives here this is where she will be. She will move only as far on the route that She needs to in order to feed up then return to Her Comfort Zone. The two FUNNELL POINTS is where I would start the search and begin fishing for Her. On the West Side of the point is a Super Irregular Feature and Staging Area as the Channel makes a sharp bend providing the Irregular Feature as RED Circled and labeled.

There are so many different ways to fish this section. With the water being 25 ft on most of the RED Circled areas none of your choices will disturb the fish. I choose two ways. You can follow the feeding route on a Controlled Drift on a very calm day, dragging a Crig along the lip of the channel. You can also position your boat on Spot Lock and cast to the depths of the channel bring the rig Up-Hill to maybe give Her something she has not seen before. Position on the shallow side of each and Fan Fish the drop. Although these fish that live here have not seen much as it is on a strong wind blown area on almost a daily basis. Mark it down for a calm day and visit it often. She lives in deep water, feeds deep and spawns deep possibly in the forks of those large River Trees.

The only thing that compares to finding a deep water school of fish is, an off the chain top water bite

I've tried to become a deep water specialist over the last 40 yrs. With all the electronics and maps,if you have half brain you too can get on some good spots. It used to take extreme effort to be good out deep, and luck.

This post has some very good advice and examples of what to look for... I bow to such knowledge, well said gents. Thanks for your contributions to help broaden our outlook out deep..

Ken it was 4 yrs, Kay blessed me with the best tournament partner a man could ask for. Actually she taught me to be more open minded when fishing deep water.. I would try to "will" the fish to be where I thought they should be, that can waste a lot of time, not good in competition.
She would cast off the opposite side of the boat from where I told her to fish, next thing ya know, she's like, get the net !!!!!!. This happen more times than I'd like to admit, how many of you try to "will" those fish to be where you want them... Sometimes, you have to think outside the box.... My wife can.....
She won back to back AOY's 2 years in a row, almost a third time, in 2 different trails with 100+ boat fields, an amazing feat, and much of it was in water 10-30 foot of depth, she hates to beat the bank...

That is some good info Donald, I have mainly been fishing the sharp drop off on the sides of the point into the river. Caught a couple good ones on crank baits just noting consistent.

I have been trying to get better at the deep water fishing. I think the issue I have, I seem to catch 1 fish and then that is it on these spots. For instance, I fished a hump that was just off a river channel bend. I was able to catch a 3 1/4 lb fish, but that was it. Got it on a CR, but threw crankbait, swimbait, rattle trap. I could only get the one bite. I graphed several big heads down there, so I am pretty sure they were there. I was dragging a baby brush hog. I guess I could changed to a 10" worm, a shaky head or even a football head jig, but any other suggestions to get more bites? I went around that hump in circles, and after catching the one tried to position the boat the same and cast the same as I was when I caught the one fish.

The fish I caught was around a rocky spot on this hump. This seemed to be the sweet spot, but I need to work it more to see if there is more down there.

I feel like I am getting better at this, as I studied the maps, found some places to fish, used Navionics map to look for the steep side on those spots (all the things Donald explains). I feel like I am headed in the right direction thanks to a lot of good advice on here. Just need to figure out how to catch more fish in these spots.

I used some of these techniques this past weekend on a short outing. Used navionics app and wind direction to pinpoint the area I wanted to fish offshore. I have a new boat with minimal electronics, so I wasn't scanning for anything, just sort of picked a spot based on the information in this thread and put together a plan. In about an hour I had caught 5 fish, and the lady friend caught 1. Other times on the lake recently we had been skunked fishing all day in the heat. I appreciate everyone sharing so much information. Special thanks to Donald Harper for going above and beyond with your explanations!

All of this is awesome info with some great map pics. But you still need to graph these spots, and see if A. Fish are on them. and B. How the fish are relating to it. If they are scattered and suspended, they are normally a little tougher to catch. But can still be caught. If they are bunched up, and if there is bait present. You will whack them!

This is the way it is done today and excellent advice. I never had that opportunity in my day. All I could really do was find all the spots and fish each of them. With the newer technology I am able to find the spots much quicker and am for certain they are the best on the lake. I am sad to say this is still the way I do it; without looking for fish. I will add that it takes me working 20 of these good looking spots to find one super spot. That is a lot of fishing, when I should have been looking for fish; but when I did look for fish there seemed to be not enough even on the best spot to warrant fishing it.

I will say this I have fished many spots and caught excellent fish on Irregular Features that the depth finder did not mark one single fish on Side Scan or Down Scan. To me that is unbelievable. I will be posting another written article on "Catching Fish You Can't See On The Graph". I am having trouble finding other's experiences with this and cannot find any research. Sometimes you only see one or two fish and there will be a mother load there. This is the main reason I do not drive and look for fish on these spots. It has happened to many times to me and I am afraid that I am going to miss something great. I am a poor hand at setting up the graph and understanding what I am seeing with confidence. I understand structure, contours and maps very well. I am just not seeing very many fish on spots that are loaded with the fish that I am catching. Something is not right with this picture?? Ha..

Is that up north or down south? It does matter. Is there somewhere close where they can spawn? Also, and this is a biggie, don't look so big picture. Most people look and see one big point and then the little point out on the end. They may fish that and where the river gets close to the bank. Break that thing down into much smaller stuff. The drain running in does look good but on the opposite side there is a smaller one that won't get fished as much. Also look for small, like one line that shows a small point. And for certain there are brush piles out there, definelty hit those.

It is mid lake area, There isnt really a spawning pocket near by but it is a long point that sticks out into the main lake arm. There are scattered trees laying around down there for sure.

Is that a road bed coming in at 25 feet? Look at the funnel on the right side as a secondary feeding zone. Primary spots I would hit are the trees and sharp channel swings on the deeper side, possibly they will be less pressured than the closer in features of the point itself. I would love to spend some time picking it apart, you�ve inspired me to find features like this on my local lakes and report back!

Yes it is an old roadbed.

There's scattered trees on about everything down there. I'm not familiar with that point but I think I know where it's pretty close to. Sometimes with all those trees you have to just work them with a worm or jig because the fish will be scattered thru them, especially if there is a bunch in one area.

I looked up that place. Not what I would really call a great location but I would check it every now and then. Mainly in mid summer or if that creek Really runs out there