Ive got a theory that you might be able to check on rev since i cant get out too much.  I believe the the fish will suspend at the same depth of the last breakline.

ex.  if you go away from shore and find a breakline at say 15 ft. continue to go out and up to the next breakline,  if there is one they will be suspended at 15 ft up to the next breakline and past say a 25 ft breakline they will suspend at that depth up to the next breakline.

So this might help you find a good trolling depth if you have the ability to change depths with your lures.  (if my theory is correct)  But i think they are suspending because they arent active; therefore hard to catch; not that they cant or wont be cought just hard to catch.  once they become active they will move down or over to the breakline or close to feed.  So i think that after the spawn and about 10 ft you are better off sticking to bottom bouncing lures than suspended ones(rev rig, drop shot,grub, etc.)   Not that it cant be done just that its alot of effort to try to catch fish that are in a negative mood to start with.

keep us informed this is very interesting

Dave

Rev,

As far as largies go I have found that the majority of them are deep in cover and some are out deep. As far smallies deep say 60 feet on structure and suspended.
Russ

I talked to this guy who likes to go off of webster point and a couple of other bays in washington and get some crawdads! He says he supposedly seen 10lb largies sitting out 60-70 feet of water just suspending about 15-20 feet down! So your probably right rev.

I have been looking in my camera while dropping it down, and have seen fish out in open water like that before.

One time I was throwing cranks to the bank when I came across this spot that is off limits. As I put the trolling motor higher to get around the area, I threw my crank behind me and trolled it. It got slammed by a 4 lb largemouth. It suprised the heck out of me and my partner. This was in San Diego. I also had friends that rented the little boats with motors down there. They would troll cranks and rattle traps over points and do pretty good.

I think your on to something Rev,  When you where seeing those blips over 30ft did any of them hit you bait?

I had two weeks off recently and had a chance to do a little experimenting with trolling cranks on Lake Washington.  As you know the shoreline is filled with dinks galore, so I was interested in seeing if the larger fish were hanging out during the day in the 20 foot depths.  I began trolling shorelines with a Shadrap in the 18-22 foot range.  The crank normally will go down 8 feet on a  retrieve, but on trolling I'm sure I was getting it down to 12 feet.

Results?  Dozens and dozens of small bass!!! (40 in one short afternoon).  And occassionally a mid size fish (3 lbs.)  NOT what I was looking for, but it blew me away as to 1) how many smaller fish were NOT in the shallows, and 2) that the action was non stop, all day long! (Great if you are taking kids out - and want action!)  I moved along rapidly, (trolling motor on 6 of 10), as I didn't want them to have too long to look at it.  Every once in a while I would drop the rod back and wham!  In their face, they couldn't help but hit it, along with a ton of perch too! (eight big ones went home for dinner.)

Here's the question: were the bass suspended - or were they just coming up to hit a bait 9 feet over their heads?  Obviously it could be both.

So I moved out into the 30 foot range and trolled the same lure - meaning any fish on the bottom would have to come up 18 feet to hit it.  Ironically I began to see blips at the 12-14 foot mark (though much rarer than in the 20 foot range) which until now I assumed was just trout or carp.  After all - all the bass I have ever seen on the camera were near the bottom.  But ofcourse I never searched with the camera for suspended bass either. 

Any luck?  Enough to make me even more curoius.  Whenever I saw a suspended blip - and counted it back to my crank - if I were to get a hit, that's when it would happen.  So IF they were coming up from 18 feet below, they tended to do it when a suspended "something" right above them.  No, I'm suspecting that during the day, many of those bass don't go deep - they just go out further from the shore - coming in horizontally during the early morning and evening to eat.  These fish were only 1.5 to 2 pounders, (one went 2#15oz)  - so they were bigger but still not the ones I'm looking for.

I've been reading that in reservoirs back east the bass often go out a 100- 200 yards (during the heat of the day or during peak boat traffic) from the key features, (points, etc) and suspend.  Obviously they are harder to find, so most never fish for them.  Don't you think this is possible here too?

And what about largemouths?  In those small basin lakes around here, we all know that big fish come up in the spring to spawn and then seem to disappear during the summer.  We assume they go out into deeper water - but I have spent hours and hours during the day looking to see a few on the camera in deeper water and never do!  Perhaps that's because they are far above my camera suspended? 

Come on... theories?  Questions?  Help me figure this out... were are the big ones?