I've had a couple of run-ins with suspended summer fish, with no luck getting them to bite. As an example, this weekend was suspending at 10' deep in 15' water, no thermocline. Most activity and bait was between 5' and 10' deep. 2" visibility. 15' is the deepest part of the lake unless they go to the one hole that's about 22' - big area of 15' like a bowl.

Seems like they are too far up for a big worm on the bottom, and a 5' dropshot seems really unwieldy. Swimjig produced nothing, slow rolled chatterbait, lipless also did nothing. Big worm did nothing. I didn't put a crankbait through them.

 

Am I missing anything or those fish just aren't biting anything anyway and I need to move on?

Probably want to just move on. The only luck I have with suspended fish is trolling an A-Rig.

Suspended fish in the summer are a lost cause unless there's bait around.

Are you sure they are bass?  A few years ago we were in a similar situation and found a decent group of fish suspended.  We tried for a bit and gave up when my buddy who was working a spoon, ended up snagging a fish and it was a carp.

 

 

 

 

I have had luck with a tube in the same situation.  You can easily fish it between 10-15’ 

1 hour ago, camman said:

Are you sure they are bass?  A few years ago we were in a similar situation and found a decent group of fish suspended.  We tried for a bit and gave up when my buddy who was working a spoon, ended up snagging a fish and it was a carp.

 

 

 

 

I’ve also found that the fish youre seeing (I assume on your finder) could be perch, crappie & sunfish

I have caught them before but its tough . I fish  a crankbait through them but  the  crank has to run  precisely at that depth and that is hard to do . 

8 hours ago, camman said:

Are you sure they are bass?  A few years ago we were in a similar situation and found a decent group of fish suspended.  We tried for a bit and gave up when my buddy who was working a spoon, ended up snagging a fish and it was a carp.

 

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Nelson Delaney said:

I’ve also found that the fish youre seeing (I assume on your finder) could be perch, crappie & sunfish

While there are some grass carp in the lake, I'm pretty sure these are bass given they were suspending in the bait zone, and I recall correctly I saw the carp doing that carpy roll thing on the surface. I don't think there's regular carp in this lake. Maybe so though?

 

These were really thick returns.  I need to hit with DI and see if I can get a better/more clear read... mostly blobby. I watched a guy be able to ID fish on a DI, it was pretty impressive - just took some zoom and you could (as an example) tell it was catfish. Thanks though, gives me something else to check out and make sure of. 

 

I did get a line-mounted camera as a gift, not sure if enough light at that depth given the low vis. 

 

On 9/15/2020 at 4:00 AM, roadwarrior said:

The only luck I have with suspended fish is trolling an A-Rig.

You know, I threw it, but I bet I ran it too fast and was above them. I'll do it again and drag it on the bottom and move up from there. 

Assuming these are bass, maybe a flutter spoon? Cast it out, let it sink below them, then a couple of rips to get it above the fish and flutter back down through them. A hair jig can be fished the same way. There are also a few tail spinner, Little George-type lures that I've never fished but supposedly can be fished the same way.

14 hours ago, scaleface said:

I have caught them before but its tough . I fish  a crankbait through them but  the  crank has to run  precisely at that depth and that is hard to do . 

This is my experience too.  I've caught them down to 25' this way.  It's tough fishing and you have to cover a lot of water for very few bites.  I will typically troll for them once they're down this deep, as it allows you to cover more water and keep your crank down lower in the water column for longer.  You might have to try a couple of different sizes, shapes, colors, and rattle/silent crankbaits before you key in on the one they'll bite.  Jigging a spoon can also work, but I get more bites of crankbaits, probably just because I can cover more water. 

 

I typically avoid going after these fish this unless everything else has failed on me first.  It's a desperation move for me.  I find these methods catch more white bass and hybrids, but you can land a few black bass from time to time as well.