I am tired of not knowing how to fish bass in more than 10 feet of water. I am ready to branch out my skills. any tips to get me started on deep water bass?

Number one thing, learn how to use your electronics and find the bait. If you know where the food is, you'll find bass. I find myself forcing something all the time because it should work when I should just see what depth the bait is at, then fish whatever I can find at that depth. It doesn't have to be so complicated.

try a medium crank like a 1/2 oz hot lips express, a t rig worm, a jig and trailer, all work well in deeper water

starts with lots of map reading before you get to the lake. Then your electronics take over. After that its just fishing.

the thermocline is important as well.

Just start fishing deeper. Try deeper running crank baits, throw a C-rig, Tx.rig, drop shot or a shakey head in deeper water. Fish football head jigs in the same areas you would a C-rig. Check out the deeper ends of points. Check out roadbeds and creeks. Look for areas where a creek comes close to the structure. If you find cover on that piece of structure that is even better. Just stay out of the skinny water and concentrate on fishing deeper.

Force yourself to stay away from the bank -- it's hard to do. Once you get a few fish deep you'll have the confidence to stick with it when the bite gets slow -- which it will.

I just learned that on Falcon but it took me almost a year to get the confidence to sit out all day in 20 plus feet of water and not get too many bites. But the bites I get now are most of the time much bigger fish.

CALL JAMES CALDEMEYER 1-903-736-9888

You really need to go out with some experienced anglers to help shorten the learning curve. It can take some time to develop your skills and confidence on your own fishing the obis.

Good luck

Carolina Rig and Side Imaging. Spend alot of time with the depth finder. It's all about sweet spots on the right structure. One of the mistakes alot of people make is that they want to get a rod in the water and therefore don't really look everything over well with the depth finder.

You might want to start by first going to your favorite point that tends to produce regularly.
Then point the bow away from the bank and start looking deeper on the point in 3-5 foot intervals. At some point the point will probably fall off into a creek or river channel. Look at that break until you find balls of bait, arches, or something that looks different than the rest of the point (could be boulders, brush, trees, or a high point).
Then fish the heck out of it with a c-rig, deep crank, dropshot or whatever you like to fish deep with.
OR
Use your map to find a hump offshore and again look for a different feature than the rest of the hump. Could be a steep side of the hump or where a channel swings by or maybe the presence of bait/arches.
Then fish the heck out of it also with a c-rig, deep crank, dropshot or whatever you like to fish deep with.

Find river/creek channel joints on a map. Then identify one w/ your depth finder. If you can see some rocks or some sort of cover, you are golden. Drop a t-rigged brush hog down in there and work it slow off the edge. Hold on to your rod...

If there is no oxygen below the thermocline, how can the fish be deep?

look at something 20-30 feet tall and you will realize it really isnt that deep.

Thats what I say... lots of boats are 20'.