Let me start by saying I am very new to fishing this time if year when you have to fish deep. I went to fork yesterday afternoon in search of these fish that are apparently on road beds and points 28-31 ft deep (never have found them) but while I was fishing this road bed I saw some bass that looked like they were chasing shad on top of the water in what I figured out later was about 23'. My buddy was throwing the same c-rig and I tied on a plastic floating jerk bait. My buddy got the first bite and it seemed like a pretty good fish but it got off and then he tied on a rattle trap I ended up catching 4 but nothing over 2lbs. So after all this, my question would be do you think I did the best I could or do you think that the bigger fish were down farther and the c-rig or maybe a crankbait would have been better? Thank you for helping a very confused beginer out.

Oh, and I also threw a yellow magi for a while towards the end of the night with no success.

I read all the time that the lake Fork flutter Spoon is the ticket.

They could have been sandies too with the largemouth sitting below. Spoon or deeper crank would be my choice.

Couple of things...

The bass chasing shad to the surface will not be near the surface for long. They will go back down and hang near the bottom structure. A DD22 in a shad pattern should work well in this situation even if they are busting shad on top. The better fish will almost always be under the schoolies.

Also they could've been sand bass. A C-rigged Zoom Super Fluke will also work well in this situation. Watermelon is always a good starting point. If this won't work try Albino Shad color.

This happens around a lot of the bridges this time of year. Try throwing a crankbait parallel to the bridge supports or throwing a senko or wacky rig next to them. A lot of the bass will position next to these and wait for schools of shad to come by then attack them, that's part of the schooling action you see that is short lived. If you pull up under the bridges you will often see bait and bass on your electronics, sometimes 6-12 ft down. I will put a drop shot down there and catch many of those suspended fish as they follow the schools of shad around. Most of those I caught were not big either, most were 2-4 lbs.

Thanks guys especially for such a quick response.

I really like the c-rig flukes never thought to try that last night.