When you want to fish all levels of the water column looking for fish, do you start fishing deep and move shallower, or the other way around?

Also, if you are going to try say a rattling crankbait, a buzzbait, and a stickbait all in the same area searching for fish, do you fish the quieter baits first, or start off with all the noise?

Thanks,

Dave

My routine is to use my sonar unit in the marina to determine what depth the baitfish and bass are at. I also look under the docks as I luanch for signs of baitfish or bass. With this information I will decide where to start, what depth and lures.

Tom

Depends on the time of day and tike of year for me. This time of year, in the morning I generally will start shallow and work my way out towards the secondary points and main lake points. Especially a point with a decently long transition from shallow to deep water. 

In the afternoon I generally start in the deep stuff scan for bait fish, check out my favorite ledges and go in from there. As always i keep my head on a swivel and as I see fish activity move in , so do I.

As far as what I start with, I've used those combinations in all sorts of variations and had good success. I think sometimes using a noise reduction bait can ignite a school, especially in the coming months. Sometimes you can catch a couple on in a school and switch up and catch a couple more with something else just because you have got them all riled up. This can change from day to day though. You hear it constantly but you just let the fish tell you what they want. Hope that helps.

I would say deep but I really start shallow just offshore!

Start on top in the morning and work your way deeper towards midday, then go shallower

I usually start shallow and stay shallow!

Look for structure. They cling to it. If it's deep, fish deep. If it's shallow, fish shallow. The bass are there...just put it in their face. Might get a reaction strike..if they don't want it at first because they aren't hungry or its not dinner time...keep trying...they'll get ticked eventually and take a nab at it for territorial reasons. Are you on a boat or bank fishing?