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Shallow or Deep

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Here is one for you and one that I see alot of anglers divide on. Is your ideal fishing in shallow water or deep water. And just for the sake of it lets say that deep is 15 feet or more. I love to fish shallow water ....the shallower the better because I like to target fish. Thanks all & lets see the answers

My favorite would easily be shallow water fishing.

Whether it is Pitching Jigs, working a crankbait through laydowns or fishing Scum Frogs, shallow water is my first choice.

JT Bagwell

Shallow water is clearly my preference.  I have not mastered the feel for detecting strikes very well in deep water.

I fish both and feel comfortable fishing and winning in both. I took me alot of time on the water and many hours of doing more fishing than catching before I got it down. Now I am glad that I can fish both because most can't or don't like to. Last year was a shallow water bite for most of the year because of higher water conditions. The year before was lower water. Usually in higher water conditions fish are shallow. When this happends shallow water fishermen mainly jig fishermen do great. Low water cranking comes into play and deep water fishermen do well. If i was to choose one based on which is easier shallow water would be #1. If I was to choose based on a tough bite or heavy pressured lake then deep water would take top prize.

I fish shallow water most of the time because that is what I am best at.  I am working on fishing deep water more so I have more options when the fish arent biting in my shallow spot.  Eventually I hope I can perfect deep water and shallow.

I prefer to fish shallow water, but the majority of the lakes I fish are deep water mountain resevoirs. You can be a cast length from the shore and be setting in 100 feet of water in some places. One lake I fish is over 450 feet deep, so I have to be able to fish deep. You can find bass suspending in 60 feet of open water over 200 feet of water, or you can find them right up next to a bluff in 30 feet of water. Largest smallie I ever caught was with the boat only 6-12 inches from the bluff walking the boat down the bluff by hand. All I was doing was dropping a ice jig behind the boat to about 50 feet.

Granted I like to drive to the flatlands and fish Shallow too. I t is nice to have a place to fish that remotely resembles what you can see on t.v. during a bass tournament. It is also nice to fish somewhere where your crank can reach the bottom. 63 miles to the nearest mt resevoir and 77 miles to the nearest lowland resevoir so it is about the same.

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It is great to see a discussion on this one. I see that a few of you need to fish deep water in order to pull fish.. which is great .Up here in New England we have some spots that are 2000 acres and the deepest spot is only 11 feet so it keeps the tackle choices low. Keep em coming!!!

I like fishing shallow water, usually less than 10 feet. If I need to though I will go deep for the fish.

That would put my prefrence in shallow water. The deepest spot I have here is 15ft, and most of the fishing is in 5 to 8 ft.

6 to 18 feet is my comfort zone

I rarely fish deeper than 4 ft unless absolutely necessary when chasing largemouth, for smallies its a different story. Not that I can't fish deep water - I can, I just have more fun in the shallow stuff! I guess thats what you get when you grow up fishing shallow ponds.

Im with Bagwell.

I can fish deep but unless there is some sort of rocks grass or wood deep Its the most boring time i can have on the water. Following a contour line all over a lake looking for a school of fish can become manotinous

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