I fish a river in michigan, (st.joe), above a dam...after the spawn, where is a good place to pick up the larger bass, i understand they(females) retreat to "deeper" water, now, the river is sloooow moving but obviously has a river channel with trees along the banks, some in the water, patches of lily pads here and there, and some small backwaters, most of the bottom is silty, there r alot of carp in the backwaters now, due to the upcoming spawn, the river has depth to 18 feet in a few places in that stretch.

I am wondering where you guys and gals would look for the bigger fish, deep, shallow, and what baits have you guys had the best luck with in a river system similar to this one?

Thanks in Advance....G

I would suggest where you find pads and shade from trees.  My best luck post spawn through summer has been in the pads, near large sunken logs, both anywhere from shallow to deep, and deep where there is grass.  Even if the current is slow they'll still like anything that shelters them from it (coves, sunken logs,  etc.).

I would look for areas that create eddys during low tide and fish them during the tide movement (up and down).  Some of the best are man-made bridges, bulkheads, docks, etc.