Understanding Bass Depths

Bass’ depth depends on the season, species, forage, visibility, thermocline and habitat availability.

Why is understanding Bass Depths Important?

Understanding bass depths is important to:

Find Fish: Bass go shallow or go deep, sometimes a couple feet, sometimes many feet, for a variety of reasons.
Lure Selection: Lures have common depths thus lure selection establishing the targeted strike zone is required prior to lure selection.

Understanding Bass Depths

Shallow: Shallow, sometimes referred to as near shore, or skinny water, generally is considered less than 8 or 10 ft depending on the lake. In some cases, shallow would be considered the height of the grass on that lake. There is no definition for what depth is when “bass are shallow”.

Species: All bass species go shallow to spawn. Largemouth bass normally reside relatively shallow all year and smallmouth bass live both shallow and deep throughout the year.
Low Lure Visibility: Bass will stay shallow or go shallow in low lure visibility, especially stained/murky water, as potential forage is easier to identify shallow plus bait fish tend to go near shore in stained/murky water.
Near Deep Water: Some suggest that bass choose cover near deep water presumably to provide quick escape routes and close access to deep forage.

Deep (Offshore): Deep, also called offshore, is when the bass are not shallow. Deep bass is different from bass that is “going deep”. Going deep can mean a bass in 2 ft of water moving to 6 ft and thus staying shallow but going deeper. Going deep can also mean a bass going from shallow water to deep water.

Species: Smallmouth and spotted bass live in shallow and deep water. Smallmouth bass, as a more northern species, are more active in colder water than largemouth bass.
Seasonal Considerations: All bass go deep in the winter but deep is relative to the body of water and species. In the winter, largemouth bass do not go as deep as smallmouth bass, and stay closer to cover. In the summer, smallmouth often go deep (offshore) where largemouth will stay shallow.
High Lure Visibility: Some suggest that bass tend to reside in deeper water when lure visibility is high so they can see forage from longer distances.
Sunny vs Cloudy: Some suggest that bass are more actively feeding on sunny days presumably as forage is easier to see.
Thermocline: In the summer the warmer water at the top of the water column does not mix with the colder water at the bottom of the water column creating what’s called a thermocline which below the thermocline is low in oxygen. As such, bass do not go deeper than the thermocline.
Spooked: Shallow bass that get spooked will move to deeper water.

Additional Considerations

Summer Water Temperature: In the summer, the water above the thermocline, continuously is mixing and thus a relatively consistent temperature.
Sight Fishing: A technique where anglers identify a shallow bass and make presentations directly to the bass. The two most common sight fishing occurs when targeting bass spawning or wolf packs.
Fizzing: When using live well and fishing deep bass’ air bladder can not manage going shallow quickly and needs to be fizzed.
Line Test: Lower line test(thinner line) will result in the lure going deeper during a swim and related retrieves.
Very High Lure Visibility Research: Observe the lure action on different bottom compositions and cover in shallow water.