The Lake I fish the most is a relatively small lake that is just over 3,000 acres and is heavily fished and also has weekly tournaments. Most days at any time during the day you will be hard pressed to find an area to fish that isn't already getting pounded by other boats of anglers. The thing is that most every boat including myself is fishing visible cover of blown down trees. Since these banks get so much pressure would it be worth my effort to locate good bottom structure off the banks to fish? The water depth will usually fall soome where between 10 and 20ft once you get off of these banks and is 40 to 100ft in the main lake area depending on how close you get to the dam. Is it too early to fish these deeper spots?

If your not doing good in the shallows I would fish the first or second drop off. There will be pre spawn or post spawn fish there off of the spawing area's. Work them area's good, with Rattle Traps,cranks,spinnerbaits,jigs,C-rig,T-rigs.ect.  Good Luck!

If your not doing good in the shallows I would fish the first or second drop off. There will be pre spawn or post spawn fish there off of the spawing area's. Work them area's good, with Rattle Traps,cranks,spinnerbaits,jigs,C-rig,T-rigs.ect. Good Luck!

Thanks, would you suggest casting parallel to these drop-offs or working from shallow to deep or deep to shallow or is that more of a test it and see what is working deal?

My theory is simple

"If the fish aren't shallow' they're deep"

We have lakes with skiboats that drive the bass to 20' deep every weekend.

Good luck

I'm in the same boat as you, literally. If you don't get to your best spot first, there will be boats sitting on it when you arrive. I don't completely abandon visible cover but usually either hit it first thing or later in the day or if there was some change in conditions like wind shift or such. It would be worth you while to spend some time on deeper structure such as weedlines or ledges and humps. GPS them or make a mental note. If you find a good offshore spot, you will be golden. Try not to let anyone see you land your fish or they will cruise over when you leave and hit a waypoint.

I'm in the same boat as you, literally. If you don't get to your best spot first, there will be boats sitting on it when you arrive. I don't completely abandon visible cover but usually either hit it first thing or later in the day or if there was some change in conditions like wind shift or such. It would be worth you while to spend some time on deeper structure such as weedlines or ledges and humps. GPS them or make a mental note. If you find a good offshore spot, you will be golden. Try not to let anyone see you land your fish or they will cruise over when you leave and hit a waypoint.

Yeah I know what you mean.....people tend to flock to a spot if they see you catch a few fish. I'll give the structure a shot this weekend and see what happens.

This should help:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1186055966

8-)

Most bass fishermen tend to hit visual cover and most don't know how to approach fish that they can't see or cover/ structure that they can't see. There is a lake i fished for years that got hammered by weekend anglers and tournaments. The bass where still in the areas that they should be but had moved off the bank. Sometimes they would be suspended out over a depth change other times they would be hanging on deep structure. At the time I was cranking some shallow fish but i was off the bank about a cast length tossing the lure up on the bank and bringing it to the boat. I had two hammer it at the boat. I moved off another cast length and located a group suspended off the first drop. Many times when you find fish hanging on deep cover in most cases you found a gold mine. In many cases you will find a kicker fish in this kind of spot and they don't tend to mess around if its active it will hit a lure quick if it is put in the right spot. Large fish tend to take up the best spot in a given form of structure. They are the king of the house so to speak and will defend it against other smaller fish. Because of this if you know how to read the cover and can identify the best spot within the spot you can generally point out where the big fish should be. Places like this that have everything that a bass needs food, cover, escape route to deep water, shallow feeding area or natural flow of food like deep shad will hold fish year after year. If everyone is fishing points motor around that area and watch your graph and see if that point has some deeper options. I do a lot of deep cranking but if that isn't your style, jigs work, spinnerbaits, worms just make sure you can still feel the lure and can still feel contact with your bait, cover, bottom, or fish.