The lake I fish in KY is 115 years old. It was impounded back in 1893. You could imagine how featurless the bottom seems to be. I have always been able to locate a few fish in pads or grass, but I know the bigger fish are out there in the deeper water. What would you look for to hold the deeper fish this time of year?

Troll Mann's 30+ Or Magnum Mudbug.
They will hunt !

Go for broke! Throw out a fast-sinking BBZ-1 and troll it around. How deep is the water? Do you have a topo map? Even a little rise of a few inches could be enough to hold some fish.

I have a bbz but its the floater so its about like a topwater. The lake got down really low last year with the drought so I know of of some spots that look good but havent produced yet. Even a ledge in about 10 feet that drops straight to 20 with xmas trees on the deep side, but no fish yet. The deepest water Ive found is about 35 feet in front of the dam. But this lake has some huge bass, a 13.4 came out a couple years ago, an I have had 3 over 8lbs in the spring. Outside of spring and winter the lake is very tough though.

Sounds like it's got some great potential! I guess I'd camp out on one of those drop-off areas and crawl every inch of it with worms and jigs, nice and slow. OR, try a big 6-9 inch salwater Sassy Shad on a 1/2 ounce to 1 1/2 ounce jighead. Try ripping it off the bottom, slow-rolling, etc. Good luck to you!

Well unless the lake has some shad, or other deep water prey the fish will likey not go deep. Even if there are shad. In some cases (Tawokoni to name one) the fish do not seem to ever go deep. If there is no struacture they sure will not. You adding structure to the lake will help. But it may take many many year.

good topo map, or mapping chip for your graph. i have read a few articles about guys in KY using ledgebuster spinnerbaits(1-2ounce) to get down to the bottom and bounce them off the ledges for big bass and striper.

Sounds like you're talking more about cover The202ZX. Structure refers to the points, ridges, humps, channels, and flats (topography). The fish will usually go deep to conserve energy from a meal. Being cold-blooded, a bass can gain more from a bluegill dinner over a longer period of time if it's in colder, deeper water, than in warm, shallow water. That means it can hunt less often, and lessen the risk of a failed feeding attempt. I'd be willing to bet that even in lakes like Tawakoni, there's a good proportion of the fish that lurk in deeper, colder water, but come shallow to feed for a spell. Then again, I'm just talking from what I know on my home lakes, so it could well be different where you are. I'm usually wrong about most everything anyway!

Get out a Carolina Rig and fish those deep drop offs very slowly, cover a lot of water.....

Thats good advice. I hate to use live bait but Im considering live crawdads just to see if I can figure something out. The water is very clear and the fish are very pressured. So maybe the dads can tell me what theyre relating to down there.

Are there stripers or hybrids in this lake?Lakes that have a heavy population of these type fish,the bass usually will be found shallow.Too much competition for forage.

if there r humps u mite try a c rig or jigs also if the lake came from a pond try 2 fish in n round the poind