Let's get over the visual hump. Using a "fish locator" as your under water eyes is one of the keys to fishing deep structure. If you have found decent fish in a shallow area, take time to thoroughly examine adjacent deep water structure. For instance, let's say that you have caught 35" fish fairly consistently on an island shelf in ten feet of water. Run your boat parallel to the island in consistent increments, say fifteen feet first, then 20 ft. etc. Watch your locator and make note of any bottom inconsistencies. It's amazing how often you may have passed over this water and never really noted any remarkable structure, but by making it your primary concern, find that there is a finger ridge or other such feature that holds big fish. Quite often I find that the structure wasn't even shaped any thing like I had anticipated. There is an island in the Detroit River which I always considered to be shaped similar to South America. It's actually shaped more like a kidney and has an edge with a very sharp drop off, an edge with a gradual drop off, a ridge that extends to deep water, several humps and a good deep rock pile, and I'm sure a lot of goodies yet to be discovered.

I found that, in order to work the deep structures around this island effectively, it was necessary to be creative and use a variety of trolling techniques. Keep in mind that those fishing the Detroit River have a five mile an hour current to contend with, and in depths greater than ten feet, the muskie are mainly using sound to locate their prey, due to lack of water clarity.

The humps and rock piles of this island are easy to fish. With foreknowledge of their depth and location, I chose a lure that would make contact with their tops at least a couple of times as I passed over them, using straight line passes trolling upstream and then downstream, working from one edge to the other.

The area with a gradual drop off wasn't overly difficult either, but had to be fished in two increments. I fished the area of depth between 10 and 15 feet with a lure that ran at a depth of 10 feet, using a zigzag pattern and then fished the area from 15 to 22 feet with a lure that runs about eighteen feet deep, short lining when in the shallower 'zig' and letting out for the deeper 'zag'. Keep in mind that, although a lure may only run consistently in 18 feet of water, its effective depth is much greater. Fish will come up for a lure.

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