I have sucked for years at fishing offshore.. It’s always been bank or bust for me.. If I can catch fish shallow I usually fill a bag in tournaments but rarely earn a check.. Almost always middle of the pack.. If fish aren’t biting shallow then I zero.. It sucks and I want to get better.. I feel like learning to fish offshore will help me take the next step.. Starting tomorrow I am dedicating myself to catching offshore fish.. I have developed my own plan.. Tell me what you think..

 

1. Identify the life zone or thermocline
2. Scan the contour line of the proper depth of the life zone
3. Mark the “irregularities” at that depth (hard bottom, brush pile, rock pile) as many as I can find
4. Fish the Waypoints in a revolving  order until you find active fish

 

 Hopefully by the end of the day I can catch 5 quality fish that can complete with some of the guys in local tournaments around here..

 

Anything else I need to be aware of?

What kind of lakes do you fish again? 

Man made lakes in WV and surrounding areas.. 

Sounds good . I would start off with some classic structure like long extended points . Catch a few fish  to gain confidence in offshore fishing .

Manmade is all we have. The sweet spots offshore (for me) are most often the old channel edges. There are exceptions but that’s what I first started fishing when it somewhat clicked. Granted, I do way better offshore in winter than summer. In summer I prefer to go as far up river as you can and fish shallow (ish) 

The guys who have great success offshore are "professional" level fisherman.   In order to fish offshore you have to utilize technology, and do so effectively.  A fraction of Bass fisherman I've met in my lifetime truly utilized and understand sonar and fish finders.     

 

Your plan sounds solid.   

6 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

The guys who have great success offshore are "professional" level fisherman.   

 

No they ain't! ?

 

It's called structure fishing, I don't care if your fishing a mile offshore or dirt shallow, if you're successful you are fishing structure.

 

Elwood "Buck" Perry taught us offshore structure fishing. Successful anglers realized the key wasn't "offshore", the key was structure. 

 

@RHuff My suggestion would be to start where you have had success & broaden your search from there. 

11 hours ago, RHuff said:

I have sucked for years at fishing offshore.. It’s always been bank or bust for me..

 

I’ve been working my butt off all summer trying to get better at offshore. It hasn’t clicked yet. 

1 minute ago, Cbump said:

I’ve been working my butt off all summer trying to get better at offshore. It hasn’t clicked yet. 

Try it again in February 

2 hours ago, PhishLI said:

 

This is pretty much it in a nut shell for me.

He does a nice job here of breaking it down. 

Admittedly, I'm always learning something new on this deal. 

Latest detailed contour mapping is a must and

Auto Chart Live is pretty killer for places that may not have it. 

Something that really helped me, especially in the beginning and on bigger water,

was / is utilizing Depth Range Highlighting on my graphs.

When looking for fish I believe to be at a certain depth or zone

Helps me get a visual of the water I need to check, which saves lots of time by eliminating anything that may not be my focus that trip.

Clearly not 'the answer' but, can be a very useful tool. 

Additionally, IME the environmental conditions that make for a good shallow bite,

are often the same for deals off the bank.  

Regardless, I need to be able to 'fish effectively'. 

So if I can't make my desired presentation in a manner that I think will generate bites,

I usually need to rethink my plan. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

 

1 minute ago, A-Jay said:

This is pretty much it in a nut shell for me.

He does a nice job here of breaking it down. 

Admittedly, I'm always learning something new on this deal. 

Latest detailed contour mapping is a must and

Auto Chart Live is pretty killer for places that may not have it. 

Something that really helped me, especially in the beginning and on bigger water,

was / is utilizing Depth Range Highlighting on my graphs.

When looking for fish I believe to be at a certain depth or zone

Helps me get a visual of the water I need to check, which saves lots of time by eliminating anything that may not be my focus that trip.

Clearly not 'the answer' but, can be a very useful tool. 

Additionally, IME the environmental conditions that make for a good shallow bite,

are often the same for deals off the bank.  

Regardless, I need to be able to 'fish effectively'. 

So if I can't make my desired presentation in a manner that I think will generate bites,

I usually need to rethink my plan. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

 

Knowing you, re thinking your plan probably occurs simultaneously with the feed a jay plan 

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Knowing you, re thinking your plan probably occurs simultaneously with the feed a jay plan 

LOL ~ 

You know it !

A-Jay

 

59 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

This is pretty much it in a nut shell for me.

He does a nice job here of breaking it down. 

Like anyone or anything else, opinions differ, but this guy lives for offshore fishing, and puts out a ton of granular info based on his observations of doing so. Not a lot of fluff either, and talks about failures too.

I fish a deep GA lake and know where a lot of the structure is.  Man made brush piles are the main structure and they're usually in 15-35'.  If the fish are out in the middle of the lake chasing herring or shad I'm lost.

3 hours ago, Alex from GA said:

I fish a deep GA lake and know where a lot of the structure is.  Man made brush piles are the main structure and they're usually in 15-35'.  If the fish are out in the middle of the lake chasing herring or shad I'm lost.

We all have different concepts of structure vs cover. Me I consider brush piles isolated cover on structure. Brush piles are weighted down with cement blocks or something similar so weights are hard isolated structure elements. As long as the brush pile attracts prey bass will be there under the right conditions.

Map study is a good place to start. Off shore humps are easy to locate but finding isolated structure on structure with some cover elements usually requires time on the water. Study your lake then go fishing.

Tom

Well I did catch one small bass on a DT16 but the lake was acting weird today.. I took  a photo off my sonar in some of the deepest water… The thermocline was set up around 10ft and most fish were suspended in the 8-10ft zone in open water.. 

Does this lake have stripers?

There are fish tight to the bottom ( bass or carp) and obvious stacked up and moving in the middle of your screen shot. 

The thermocline is well developed and bait is balled up indicating predators are nearby or feeding on them.

Tom 

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Does this lake have stripers?

There are fish tight to the bottom ( bass or carp) and obvious stacked up and moving in the middle of your screen shot. 

The thermocline is well developed and bait is balled up indicating predators are nearby or feeding on them.

Tom 

 

Bass, Bluegills, Crappie, and Carp 

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Does this lake have stripers?

There are fish tight to the bottom ( bass or carp) and obvious stacked up and moving in the middle of your screen shot. 

The thermocline is well developed and bait is balled up indicating predators are nearby or feeding on them.

Tom 

 

Tom I value your opinion a lot on here.. In this situation are bass catchable around those bait balls in the 8ft range? I am just happy that I am starting to see things correctly!

A few things come to mind 

1) you don't have to take the whole leap all at once, just go to some of your best bank areas and ... cast the other direction. You'll start to notice some stuff out there. 

2) I've noticed a heavy worm or c-rig can tell me a lot - in particular in the places I've been fishing recently, I can find little rocky areas often no bigger than 3x3. Those spots will produce multiple fish for me. The comments above about finding what is different are spot on.

3) Figure out what the shad are up to and you can often find the bass setup near them. Example would be shad suspended over deeper water and bass hanging on the lip of a flat area that drops off. In that case, they aren't really active on the shad, but they are near them. 

4) I often get better results not so much fishing the fish I think I see on my FF, but using it to figure out some sort of pattern/place/general types of setup. Are they hanging tight near dropoffs, off the dropoff but suspended, scattered about, schooled up, etc? There's a youtube video on what bass (vs other species) look like on a FF and it helped me a LOT.

5) Try turning your (power/intensity/forgot what it is called) down on your FF - you might get some better separation on those bottom fish - Tom noticed them immediately and I probably would have overlooked them entirely.

I was fishing in a 14 foot john boat using an old Eagle fish mark 2D sonar and catching off shore fish yesterday . It doesnt take great knowledge or equipment , it just takes a little confidence and some knowledge of structure  . I use buoys  considerably, either marking a spot or tossing one out when I hook up . I always have a buoy ready to throw .

22 hours ago, Cbump said:

I’ve been working my butt off all summer trying to get better at offshore. It hasn’t clicked yet. 

That's been my focus all year long.  By limiting myself to almost solely offshore fishing, I've improved my offshore skills significantly.  I'm not saying I'm good at it, far from it in fact.  But I no longer feel metaphorically over my head when I'm in water that's literally over my head.  I'm to the point where there are days when I feel like something has clicked and I'm starting to get it figured out.  But there are more days where I'm struggling hard to beat the skunk.  I'm resigned to this year being a pretty tough year for me, so that all of the following years I'll be a lot more rounded.  

9 hours ago, txchaser said:

A few things come to mind 

1) you don't have to take the whole leap all at once, just go to some of your best bank areas and ... cast the other direction. You'll start to notice some stuff out there. 

2) I've noticed a heavy worm or c-rig can tell me a lot - in particular in the places I've been fishing recently, I can find little rocky areas often no bigger than 3x3. Those spots will produce multiple fish for me. The comments above about finding what is different are spot on.

3) Figure out what the shad are up to and you can often find the bass setup near them. Example would be shad suspended over deeper water and bass hanging on the lip of a flat area that drops off. In that case, they aren't really active on the shad, but they are near them. 

4) I often get better results not so much fishing the fish I think I see on my FF, but using it to figure out some sort of pattern/place/general types of setup. Are they hanging tight near dropoffs, off the dropoff but suspended, scattered about, schooled up, etc? There's a youtube video on what bass (vs other species) look like on a FF and it helped me a LOT.

5) Try turning your (power/intensity/forgot what it is called) down on your FF - you might get some better separation on those bottom fish - Tom noticed them immediately and I probably would have overlooked them entirely.

 

 I did honestly cut the gain back while scanning I just turned it up to show a defined thermocline for the picture I wanted to post... 

This time of year I look for structure with vegetation growing on it.  I'll fish that first before I fish anything else.

13 hours ago, Bankc said:

But I no longer feel metaphorically over my head when I'm in water that's literally over my head.