wanted to know what most people do as far as do you mostly fish shoreline  or deep structure. When i first started i was a bank beater now i prefer offshore stuff. Seems the fish are less pressured

I am actually beginning to fish offshore alot more. I feel as if I catch more quality fish. Before I was a boat owner, I had no choice but to fish close to the bank. Now that I am no longer "bannished to the bank," my goal is to become a better offshore structure angler. I still love fishing shallow water though. I usually start shallow and progressively fish deeper until I locate fish that are willing to play.

This year i am going to start fishing off shore, now that i have a fishfinder, all i have to worry about is the darn boat traffic.

For the most part I enjoy fishing shoreline more but when I want to catch a big one I always do deep.

I fish for big fish, so I fish deep structure the majority of the time. Unless, of course, I'm pond jumping and even then I'm generally in 5-12 feet of water.  

I've always been a dock jumper, but have started fishing the deep structures. Not yet sure what I favor yet. I have caught some mighty big fish off the docks.

I need a depth finder badly, i usually fish pretty shallow. Deepest ill fish is weedline edges or fallen timber edges.

tritonman, I like docks, too. I guess it's how you define deep/shallow. When I'm thinking shallow that's <5 ft, like on the bank and in the grass. For example, instead of fishing just along a grass line, I'll fish a little further out where the drop is more predominate. With docks I have my best luck around wooden pillars (as opposed to floating docks). I especially like this structure when the dock is immediately adjacent to deep water, an escape route for big fish.

Right now I favor 3 to 15 ft of water. I'm really trying to become more versitle and learning to fish 20 plus feet. I've caught a few big girls in 20 plus feet but not enough to have my confidence up. I know they are there I just have to figure out how to go about tackling deeper water better! Some of my biggest smallmouths came out of 35 and 40 ft of water while I was out striper fishing.

I'm with Calibasser, start shallow and work deeper.

I like shallow water with plenty of cover.There's a lot of big fish there too (early and late).

I'm finding here in Fl that deep water is 8 foot, some of these lake are lake a bowl with no real deep water structure.  Now what do you do??? ;D

Deep water all depends opon what part of the country your from. It can also be from lake to lake. For example where I'm from we have silver. Which reminds me of a Florida lake in depth. It's deepest part is about 12ft. So deep water is any where from 7ft and deeper. Then their's all our reseviors. Now shallow can be 10ft and above. Now think, that was deep at Silver but shallow on another lake. It's all relative to the body of water. Me I personally like to pitch and flip. So shallow ater is my thing. But heres a big key to me having success. Deeper shorline structure. I've noticed that big fish spawn in a little deeper water. They still want structure close to shore, but just a little deeper. Then I always try find shallow water structure close to deep water. i like this for tournaments. Because you can go deep off the drop off and then move back shallow and keep plunking a fish here and there. Also a I believe that spots close to deep water replenish themselves better.

Shoreline in the morning or early months of summer and during the evenings....deep structure in middle of summer to late summer..

I'm a shallow water guy I've just not got the hang of fishing deeper just yet. I've got to learn to trust my depth finder a little more. Usually I throw to what I see. and I know I'm missing a lot of fish this way. Lunker

I fish shallow in the spring and deeper breaks and break points the rest of the year.

spring = shallow.summer = i start at the deepest weed edges(15-20 feet) and then work my way into the thickest weeds i can find.if you have ripwrap then deep cranking (15-20) is also good in the summer.i have caught smallies in 50 feet on the bottom with jigging spoons and largemouth in 50 feet on rattletraps.the largiws were probably out there looking for baitfish.they cruise around 20 feet down in 50 feet of water and the rattletrap comes by and they smack it hard.this works really good on hot overcast summer days.