So I was out on minnetonka and found out the hard way that the bass are no longer in the shallows because it is so hot. What is your strategy in finding deep water bass. I did try break line cranking parralel to the drop off. All I caught were pikes. Is there a different strategy? What lures do you use, and how deep should I be looking?
football jigs on secondary points is producing right now.
I have been getting them on deep weeds in 10 – 15′ tube jigs white and chartruce. Jig and pigs blue/black and also slow rolling spinner baits. Hope this helps.
Good fishing
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football jigs on secondary points is producing right now.
What would you consider secondary point? And steep break lines or slow break lines?
When I fished with Dean Capra a number of years ago on Minnetonka, he caught multiple Bass on Carolina Rigs using Zoom French Fries around deeper water structure. At the time, I’d never heard of a C-Rig so I was severely out-matched.
Another pattern we tried was heavy jigs punched through heavy mats in 20ft of water. Shake the jig down through the mats and bounce/shake it on the bottom then reel it up to the bottom edge of the mat and shake it there. It was an almost vertical presentation.
One other pattern we tried, was casting deep diving cranks on steep ledges around vegetation. When the crank hit the vegetation just reef on the crank and bust it free. That was the best big fish presentation of the day.
Good luck. 
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football jigs on secondary points is producing right now.
What would you consider secondary point? And steep break lines or slow break lines?
A secondary point is a point off a point, usually underwater. Walleye guys like to call them shelves. The bass will go up on top the point to feed in the mornings, evenings, and cloudy days, then hang on the outer ends during the middle of sunny days.
Drag a 1/2-1oz football jig along these shelves and edges and you will catch fish.
I should say a secondary point can be more than a shelf, it could be a rockpile, a dock that sticks way out past the rest, a sandbar, an isolated weed patch out deep.. pretty much any type of structure out deep. Usually off the end of of a visible point, past the rest of the “normal” structure.
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When I fished with Dean Capra a number of years ago on Minnetonka, he caught multiple Bass on Carolina Rigs using Zoom French Fries around deeper water structure. At the time, I’d never heard of a C-Rig so I was severely out-matched.
Another pattern we tried was heavy jigs punched through heavy mats in 20ft of water. Shake the jig down through the mats and bounce/shake it on the bottom then reel it up to the bottom edge of the mat and shake it there. It was an almost vertical presentation.
One other pattern we tried, was casting deep diving cranks on steep ledges around vegetation. When the crank hit the vegetation just reef on the crank and bust it free. That was the best big fish presentation of the day.
Good luck.
Excellent reply! I would add a 3/8 football jig with a craw or twin tail grub trailer in those same areas, I have had great luck with Trigger X Flappin Craws or Yamamoto Money
Craws. I switch my reel to 20# braid w a 12# flouro leader when I get deeper than 15 fow. Senkos also work well on a C rig.
Just fished a small lake yesterday that had us very busy with the daybreak feeding frenzy. Did real well with Pop-R
surface baits till the sun got higher in the sky. Bass then went deep on us (10-15 feet on this lake) and we started throwing 4 inch worms rigged wacky style. Just clobbered them! 
Punching milfoil, look for small sandy points that are surrounded with deeper milfoil and punch through with 1-1/2oz football jigs, tipped with short soft plastic creature baits. vertical jigging
Sounds like you really have to punch those weeds in order to get the fish to bite. Withot a good sonar, how do you find deep weedlines?
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Sounds like you really have to punch those weeds in order to get the fish to bite. Withot a good sonar, how do you find deep weedlines?
You can’t miss the weed lines on Minnetonka. The mill foil is so thick it’s impossible to miss the edge. 
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Sounds like you really have to punch those weeds in order to get the fish to bite. Withot a good sonar, how do you find deep weedlines?
With a crankbait.
I’ve still been finding bass really shallow, with sometimes thick vegetation and other time very little vegetation on shore lines with overhanging trees and just a bit of openwater pockets.
Using crawtubes or wacky rigged seinkos right against the bank. Skipped under the trees, but just about always right against the bank.
I fish a lot around thows marker bouys not only do they mark the weeds but some of them have a lot of rocks mixed in them c-rig and jig and crankbaits work good to,and deep docks with senkos
There are plenty of shallow bass in Minnetonka.
I agree with Bullet. regarless of water temps, still some bass shallow. If your having a tough time. go shallow, still doesn’t work, go shallower…
some great info here on fishing deeper. If you Don’t have a sonar, then a quality pair of sunglasses will help you see the deep weedlines.
I’ll add my 2 cents… Big worm, 5/16, 3/8oz. sinker.
I like Zoom old monster. junebug color will catch bass anywhere. got some old producto’s outa the basement. 8″ tournament worm, grape and junebug, will be on my line all summer.
Alot of ways to get bass but the info you got here is a good start.
Without sonar you have 2 options to locate deep weedlines. First get a contour map that shows you depth changes in your lake. Steep areas ( where the contour lines run close together ) will have well defined weed lines, flats ( where contour lines are spread apart ) will have poorly defined weed lines. Second weeds will normally only grow to a certain depth in a lake (say 0-20 foot deep ) because they need sunlight to grow. Find a steep area of the lake and put your boat on top of some weeds. Tie on a jig, trig or carolina rig and cast out to the middle of the lake. Drag the weight on the bottom from the deep water back to you in the shallow water till you feel it getting “sticky” in the weeds. Move your boat on top of your lure and measure how much line is below you. That is the depth of the outside weed edge on your entire lake. Thats how you find the weed edge without sonar. That’s also a great way to fish a weed edge (putting the boat on top of the shallow weeds and casting to the midddle of the lake and retrieving a weight on the bottom till you feel the weed edge). The beauty of the carolina rig is once you detect the weed edge with the weight, your bait will still be clearly visable a foot of two away from the weeds. Stop moving the bait towards you and just shake it in place in the perfect place along the outside weed edge, and hold on!!! If you pay attention to the feel of the weight dragging on the bottom you should be able to determine if the bottom is soft/ muddy and clean, soft/muddy and weedy, or hard bottom. If you find a small area with hard bottom surrounded by soft bottom with a weed edge get even more excited. Weedy hard bottom areas really hold fish everywhere in the country. Guys with good sonor or flashers can just idle around the weedy areas to find the hard bottom spots. You ….You gotta drag a weight around to find those spots. You’ll have more fun finding em. Incase you have a hard time relating what you feel to what is on the bottom, take your rod, close your eyes and drag a carolina rig across your drive way…..that’s hard bottom. Drag it across your lawn…sticky weedy bottom….drag it through your bushes…bushy bottom…..drag across some boulders….bouldery bottom. Rmember how it feels…It will feel the same with water on top. Go catch a fish!!!
Fantastic post, Crankbait 22! Thanks for sharing that detailed info with us.
— Greg Huff, IDO Social Media Director (AKA, “The New Guy”)
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Fantastic post, Crankbait 22! Thanks for sharing that detailed info with us.
— Greg Huff, IDO Social Media Director (AKA, “The New Guy”)
X2…. Thats what we had to do before sonar! 
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Fantastic post, Crankbait 22! Thanks for sharing that detailed info with us.
— Greg Huff, IDO Social Media Director (AKA, “The New Guy”)
X2…. Thats what we had to do before sonar!
But Tom, what did you use before fishing rods/reels were invented? 
Just kidding 
I’ve been having an outstanding summer with vertical jigging lipless baits. They are not all created equal in how they vibrate/track. Been doing the absolute best with the 1/2 oz Live Target Gizzard shad. Finding sand grass on the deeper humps have produced the largest bass of the year so far for us.
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