Originally Posted by
toomanycasts
Never fished deep in the river, except for spotted bass in the summer. I'm sure some fish go deep, but I always catch some shallow. I think the fish in the creeks have everything they need. I really don't believe they leave. Most creeks have an abundance of bait all year. Oil creek, for an example, is about 12 ft in the channel. It goes on like this for a long ways. I've never fished more than 3 ft for crappie. They will be in just about any creek, marina, slough, bay, and other backwater that has baitfish. One marina I fish is 4 ft deep at the most. Caught 30 in there last January 1st. Another is devoid of cover, and about 5 ft deep, but plenty of shad. It's full of nice crappie. Bass fishing is the same. River fishing = shallow fishing. I wouldn't fish flats right now. I would concentrate on channel bends and channel timber. Jig or minnow. Your choice.
Good luck. There's lots of 12-13in fish in there. I fish Rough river and Nolin the same way in the winter. Just keep going till the water gets scarce and find some deeper banks. Good luck