Deep or Shallow right now

With the water still cold right now, I'd expect to see a lot of guys fishing deeper and off-shore. However, I am watching a lot of these pros fishing in less than 3 feet of water right now while the water is still fairly cold. I understand pre-spawn is starting up, but wouldn't the fish still be somewhat deep as of now? All my TFF experts out there, please help me understand why some anglers are fishing so shallow right now.

My explanation is that water temp may very well take a back seat to time of year/length of days. The pros know this from experience.

I am seeing water 57-59 and got an 8 pounder and 6 pounder this weekend, each in 5 ft or less of water. At least some of the big girls are coming on in.

Because some fish are always shallow. Always.

Water temps in N. Texas are 52ish. Fishing still very slow for me. Only thing I can get bit on is a C-rig over rocks. Fished a jerk bait pretty hard this weekend with not a bite. Caught 11 in my friends pond a week ago but even that's 1/2 what I'll get in April/May. Guys are catching more bass off my dock crappie fishing than I'm getting right now out on the lake. Depressing.

On personal note I have had more success in the deeper water lately.

I fished cedar creek Saturday. My first fish came in 2ft of water flipping. Water temp was 47 when we started. Caught rest of limit in 2-3 ft. Water warmed up to 52. I just figured any way you slice it your about a month from spawn. I’ve always found bed fish in Fork by my birthday in March. So that’s 4 weeks away. Saturday was full moon, so in my mind that’s enough to at least get them curious lol.

Agree 100% with this. On Saturday I caught several good fish in pre-spawn with 52-56 degree water. I was confident every fish we would catch would be pre-spawn. That is until my son pulls in a solid 7 pounder with an empty sagging belly and a tail that was half gone and dripping blood. It seemed she had already spawned and moved back out to a point with a ledge in 10-12' of water. Seemed way early for them to be spawning here, but I have no other explanation.

Depends on the lake, time of year, and like mentioned before... many stay shallow (10ft or less) year round.

Water clarity also plays a factor. The water is pretty stained on Eufala if you're watching the MLF event, leading them to fish pretty shallow.

My attention right now is more on water level than water temperature. If this rain brings a foot or two of water to the shallows then some fish will surly move up. Else, deep may be the best bet. This is also relative to my locations. There may be lakes at full pool and on those it’s a great time to start hitting the shallows.

There are ALWAYS fish shallow.

Fished Sandlin this past Saturday and all of our fish came in less than 2 feet of water. Water was 49 to start and warmed to 52 and the bite was better early than late. I'm sure the wind switching out of the east had a little bit to do with that. Hopefully these fronts get less frequent and will allow things to stabilize.

Eufala is a mud hole. Fish are likely to be pretty shallow in any dirty water condition.

On Rayburn they have been anywhere from 2' to 30' for a little while now.