Out this way deep water could be 50'+! Like Tom, I have caught them in 60'. That is beyond my comfort zone to fish for them because of the barotrauma. We carry fizzing needles. My true comfort zone would definitely be 40' or less as well. Even then, I still prefer shallower than that. The thing is, fishing can be lights out fishing deep ledges in that 20-40' range!

I rarely fish for them deeper than 25 foot . I have recently caught a couple   close to thirty and the deepest I ever caught them was around 40 .  That 40 foot was a rare  one time deal on Mark Twain lake when the reservoir was one year old. It was on   a submerged highway during the fall . I have not come close to  catching bass at  that depth on  Twain  since .

The deepest I have caught a largemouth was near 30 feet at Table Rock Lake.  I catch a lot of spotted bass and smallies from 30 down to approximately 45 feet at that same lake.  I fish TR 10 - 15 days a year and it is deep and clear.  I've never seen the thermocline less that 38 to 40 feet on the lower end below Kimberling bridge when I have fished there, so it makes for some deep spoon and drop-shot fishing when the smallies and spots hang out at the end of long, gravel, runout points.  The last time I was there I found a productive gravel point and was sitting approximately 3/8s of a mile from shore catching fish in 38 to 40 feet of water.  It is a cool feeling when you can achieve success using your electronics to find these fish so far out in the lake.

 

Every other lake I fish typically has a thermocline setting up from 8 to 25 feet and I fish much shallower at those lakes. 

5.9lb green head down 35ft, below a giant school of young of year smallies in the Fall.

On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 9:27 AM, Choporoz said:

I'm always intrigued by the topics on deep structure; obviously deep means different things to each of us, especially dependent upon where we live/fish.  (I didn't want to hijack the great recent thread about deep sonar and finding fish.)  Most topics I've seen either don't specify what 'deep' is; are limited to ledge discussions; or carolina dragging at unspecified depths. 

 -I'm particularly interested in those that target LMB in 30'+ FOW.....or specifically do NOT target likely bass at 30+'.....thought processes, approaches, methods, etc.

 

Around where we live it is one extreme or the other it seems. The Lower Potomac 8' is really deep but Piney Run 20' means they are shallow. Deepest I regularly catch them is on a drop shot at Black Hills Lake Seneca in about 30-40'.

 

Allen

1. I am comfortable fishing 30+. I jig with 10 inch worms.   We caught 6 over 3.5 lbs on a ledge that dropped down to 32 ft.  My deepest is 52 ft. 

Most of the time, 15-25' is where I target "deep" largemouth. In clear water during the late fall and winter, I catch them much deeper than that. I have caught many bass in the 30-40' range on blade baits and jigging spoons, my deepest (largemouth) bass was on a 1/2oz blade on the bottom in 50'! All of the bass I have caught in greater than 30' were relating to baitfish.

 

I have only caught fish (largemouth) deeper than 30' *not* relating to bait one time. One of my best days on a local WV lake was spent catching largemouth on the bottom in 40' on ned rigs, also in cold water. The bass were sitting in Christmas trees that I helped the DNR sink. 

The water down here is not very deep on the lakes I fish, ~20' or so is most often the max, and I can't recall pinging a hole deeper than 30' or so.

 

My FF marks lots of fish (or debris) at depth but many fish are in shallower water we target them. As a bonus the peacocks are there with the LMB so we get more than our fair share of action. Snakeheads generally ignore the baits we throw for bass (unless we're throwing frogs) we can target what we want.

 

My fishing bud and I have been talking about spending a few days at depth so I'm reading this thread with a glimmer of hope at success for when we do. 

 

 

In Michigan I would say 12 to 15 feet is the deepest I've found Largemouth on Crankbaits; but routinely catch Smallmouth in 20 to 30 feet.