Good point.

Just chunk a Carolina rig for a day. You’ll get bit and then start to like the deeper “ledge”, “hump”, and brush pile fishing.
Pull up your maps on the graph and look for contour lines stacked together near a spot that you’ve done good fishing the bank. Back out and start chunkin. Start off with something easy to throw, like a 1oz weight and a zoom lizard in watermelon red. Progress to a 3/4 oz weight and something “fluttery”, like a brush hog, when you get a little more comfortable with the bait slingin. Or cast and drag a heavy drop shot rig. Fishing it really slowly, trying to keep constant contact of your weight with the bottom. Don’t hop it.

If a fish is there, you’ll get bit.

They get out in 75ft+ routinely on lakes like Travis and Amistad. There are lots of spawners still, it's only mid April. They'll trickle in for another few weeks

throw everything out of your boat except one rod rigged with a deep bait (bring a few extras in case you snag a few, also a spool of line in the event you break off and need to re-spool), this will make you chose to either go home or become a better deep water fisherman. I am living proof of this with the carolina rig some 20 plus years ago. Most people are not fishing a heavy enough weight and are not letting it sink properly!

Deep to me is 85 ft now after spending 5 years on Lake Amistad dragging a 3/4 oz football jig or a 1 1/2 oz flutter spoon, also take into account the fish can/will get the bends from this depth.

This is one of the best threads on this forum! Structure fishing is so intimidating tome because I feel like I am trying to fin d a needle in a haystack. At least banging the bank I can tell myself "that looks fishy"

Deep water is relative. Deep in some lakes like Tawakoni is 10 feet. Water clarity plays a big role in how deep the bass will be. Guide Phillip Pool's son just caught a 12.77 off a bed in 8 feet yesterday at Alan Henry.

I caught a pile of spotted bass on Table Rock in 105 feet. They weren't on bottom but you could see them stacked up 40 feet down.

Here's an obvious example to get you started. It's likely a community hole, so you might want to find something similar, but less obvious.
The first picture is from Navionics Chart Viewer from a lake just north of Ft. Worth
The second picture is from Google Earth Pro desktop (free) when the lake was 15ft low

This is would be good location to scan with your fish finder/sonar.
Bend of creek channel bending toward and intersecting a point.

In the second picture, you get a good idea of irregularities and changes in bottom composition of the point.
Where I've circled might be good hypothetical places for brush piles.

Thanks CCTX, good stuff.

Hire a good guide that is excellent at fishing deep. Well worth the money.

CCTX gave some good advice

I was once in the same boat. Lots of "bank runners" but very few good sized fish.

We decided to make a game out of it. We studied topo maps and marked what looked like good offshore structure such as humps and depth changes. We then started trying to find these places and spent time on them. LOTS of time. Some structure will hold fish but the fish will only take a lure if it is presented in a certain manner. Some places only housed lots of small fish. Others housed only a few but they were BIG fish. Some held fish early in the day, others late in the day.

Fishing offshore structure is a learned talent that can only be fruitful if you put in the time and effort. But it is well worth the time.

We had several places (old foundations) that we would sit on for 1-2 hours at times before we caught a fish. But they were always BIG fish.

It's a very satisfying thing and gets you away from the "throw and crank" habits that we all have gotten into at times.

Thanks for the tips everyone!

+1

One day with a good guide will instill confidence in you that will help you for years. James Biggs is on here quite a bit. He will take you out on your lake & show you how to break it down. He is about as good as they come at finding fish in deep water with his electronics but don't tell him I said that.

Good idea taking only rigs for deep water. I am going to do just that. When my Dad taught me to play golf he made me play several rounds with just a 5 iron and a putter to force me to play a lot of different shots from every distance.

I agree totally, great thread! I'm a bank beater, feel the need to see what I'm casting at, but want to be a better deep water fisherman

Good offshore fishermen spend a LOT of seat-time looking at a graph. That's what replaces the "see it with your eyes" aspect you mention for looking at a bank. Instead, they are looking at what is underneath the surface, visualizing that mentally, then casting to fish it. The graph will tell you when nobody is home, so you can go on to another spot to check it. I have sometimes checked a spot 4-5 times in a day before I saw it with fish on it! Once you've learned a spot's location and layout, you don't want to run over it any longer - do a drive by with side scan to check, generally speaking.