I have been trying to fish deper as well. I have found that instead of fighting the trolling motor out deep in the wind, I am clamping onto a tree and fishing 360 degree's around the boat. Then I move the boat to another tree, clamp on and do it again.

Helps me if I do this in the evening after drinking most the afternoon so I slow down and am not keyed up as much.

I don't think the fish have completely moved deep yet, like full summer, but a few are out there. I just keep trying, but I need to find more spots to fish.

Deep water fishing is not difficult at all. Study your lake map, find points were the contour lines are very close together. Locate the point on the lake and use at least 3 buoy markers, one on he tip of the point, and one on each side where it starts to fall off into deep water, try to put all markers at the same depth so you can get a visual idea of how long, wide and deep the spot is. Position your boat at the tip of the point in deep water and make 5 casts with a Carolina rigged Zoom Watermelon seed Fluke while working towards the marker on the side of the point which has the faster drop on it.

GPS this spot and then go find another one, do this on 10 spots each day and I bet you will soon uncover the mother load on your lake.

Other structure to look for are, bridges, road beds, humps, ledges, man made like house foundations, rock piles.

The key to all my great structure is ROCK, find rock/hard bottom (road beds, house foundations) and you will soooooon find the mother load.

Hope this helps.....

At 20ft deep, would it make sense to use a 1/2oz weight instead of a 1/4oz or 3/8oz for Carolina Rigs? I had a hard time feeling the bottom when using 3/8oz.

Is it better to pull the C-rig from shallow to deeper or deeper to shallow?

Wow, David! That was an excellent tutorial. I'll add submerged ponds and pond dams to that list of good deep structure. Also, for a lake like Fork that doesn't have an abundance of rock, all those pieces of structure David metioned become that much more key. From now thru summer if I'm fishing Fork or Falcon, I'm always going to be 20+, particularly from about 9am to 6pm. Once the sun starts to drop, you can follow them back up shallower.

A 1 oz will do the trick- skulltech

I learned from a long time Falcon guide to use a 1.5 oz weight for C-Rig when fishing deep. Made a substantial difference. Better bottom feel and contact, etc. Fish don't seem to care about the size of the sinker.

When I started fishing tournaments, I started fishing Deep, 15 feet plus, and the best way was to fish at night so I slowed down and could feel everything on the bottom ( I only had a flasher back then ) was never a big fan of fishing shallow. Then I moved back home and had to re-adjust my fishing to shallow and down size my equipment. Now that I am back in the south and I fish Fork alot, I am back to my Deep Water fishing, Consitantly you will catch larger fish deep. Use of maps and todays electronics have made it alot easier to fish those deep holes

Also dont abandon those deep areas early and late. I know traditionally we like to fish shallow early and then move to deeper water in the heat of the day and then reverse in the evening, but those deep spots are active then as well. Those fish feed more agressively early and late just like in shallow water.

I have trouble with positioning and creating a mental pic of the bottom.

20+ feet, 1oz. or heavier, depending on bottom cover.

15-20 ft. 3/4 oz. if the wind's not blowing.

Skull, I have a question. Are you fishing finesse baits on your rigs? No way I can cast a 1/4 oz. weight on an 18"-48" leader with a plastic that weighs 1/8 to one ounce.

Unless you're fishing a grassline in the pre-spawn/spawn, suit up with a 1oz. tungsten and make some commotion. The size of your plastic should start small and streamlined and increase from there, as the bite dictates. Been a whole lot of $$$ won rigging a 10" worm this time of year.

Oh, and generally shallow to deeper on offshore humps and stuff, but unless you've been waking them up and putting them to bed every day, you'll want to fish 360 degrees around the structure until you find the ideal line. It will change as the wind does, too.

I've been having trouble getting bit on my lake lately and so I downsized to see if I could generate some strikes but no luck. Mainly using a baby brush hog.

Great info though and makes total sense. I will definitively start using at least a 1oz. weight and give the 10" worm a shot.

Booked a trip to Falcon with Jay ( 10lbsorbust ) in late May just for that reason. I have beat the banks down there a few times and caught a few fish, mostly small. I want to learn all I can about deep water fishing and learning to use my depth finder to find the structure. When my nephew is in the boat, he freaks when you get in water over 10'. I used to be the same way, but learning that there are lots of big fish out deeper.

It�s all about visualization. Last week I was fishing perfect structure for someone new at deep fishing. It was pretty simple and easy to visualize. There was a flat running out off shore about 50 yards ending with a pretty sharp drop 10 feet at the top down to about 23 feet at the bottom. If there was no water on it would have been a little sloping hill. Find something like that and think of it and picture it in your mind�s eye for what it would look if it was on land. Get use to and confident fishing pretty simple structure like that before you start trying to perfect fishing really tough, tight structure (little steep ledges, small rock piles, etc.).

Also, take a look at the shore and see what the land looks like. Sometimes what you�re fishing is a continuation of what you can see on the shore. If you�re around a lot of hills there�s a good chance the slopes your seeing on your electronics are similar type structure only under water�this should help you get a picture of what you�re trying to fish.

When you do get bit remember where your bait was and what angle you were dragging it � it�s easy to get all excited and drift off during the fight and possibly drifting off a stack of fish.

GREAT INFO!!!!!

Good stuff.