Shallow lakes in the fall

Want to check out a lake for bass and maybe crappies but it is shallow and weedy, like max depth of 18. Always seem to do better in deeper lakes this time of year even if I am fishing shallow (go figure) and yet those shallow ones seem to be the best first ice and at ice out, but are tough mid winter.
Does anyone do well for bass in shallow lakes right now? Any special strategies? Solid reports on this one so the fish are there.
Thanks

tim hurley wrote:

Does anyone do well for bass in shallow lakes right now? Any special strategies?

I went to a lake this morning that maxes out at 16 feet and caught 18 largemouth and 3 northern pike. They were all sitting in shallow weeds or around docks.

Thanks G, you did better than me-was on a new lake in my defense. BTW this lake has lots of mill-foil with pockets of cabbage, the cabbage idicates harder bottom right? So maybe I could find these areas with SI, and doesn’t cabbage stay healthy threw the winter?
Thanks

tim hurley wrote:

and doesn’t cabbage stay healthy threw the winter?

I’m not sure about that. Most of the weeds I see right now are still plenty green except for the ones at the surface which are sun burnt. As we continue into the fall, a lot of weeds will lose their green color and go into a dormant state. The ones that remain green are magnets for fish because they’re still alive and giving off oxygen.

I don’t see any signs of a major cool down, and several days at 80+ this week so the areas that have been producing fish lately will continue to do so.

Regardless of cabbage health, I’ve found those areas to hold fish year round

Thanks-I love fishing cabbage. Regardless of temp the low sun angle and intensity should start to kill or make weeds dormant-those cabbage weeds were on a point on the North side so they should stay healthy

I’ve been catching bass using top water, esp. frogs, in shallow areas.

There are in a weird state at this moment. There is still plenty of good/growing weeds and with these temps coming, I wouldn’t be fishing too shallow yet. Usually around October is the time to start moving to the shallows and start covering water. Once late October comes its a good time to start mapping and finding the spots for the ice fishing season.