yep im always pretty close to the deep water yet, on the one lake, its just a gradual drop off and a stumpy shore line, other lakes its points or islands, and the the main lake its, in a bay, the bay is about 5 feet deep but drops off into the main basin of the lake which gets 30 feet, one night i decided to spread tip ups around and instead of my usual line from shore outward, i put them all parallel to the shore in the bay in about 3 fow about 300 yards from where it drops off into the lake, and only like 10-20 feet from shore, figured if they sucked id just move em back deep, turns out that was the night i started popping bigger walleyes out of that lake than normal even, i know in the summer and early winter that bay is loaded with panfish, not sure sure about mid winter as it slows down jigging, but for whatever reason, come dark the walleyes love that bay, and especially that area near shore in 3 fow, seems like my tip ups closest to shore are always the one that produce the biggest walleye on all the lakes i go to, which i still find weird cuz i have always focused on deeper water for walleyes.
