It’s no secret that the cycle of life begins in the shallow water for fish of all species enjoying the renewed opportunity to feed prior to spawning. Fish respond by moving shallow…and shallower. Sometimes, even shallower than anglers think. Not just a couple feet of water, but inches of water, barely enough to cover their backs.

In spring, you’ll come across bluegills and bass sunning themselves so shallow that the tips of their dorsal fins occasionally poke out above the surface. An errant cast, dropping something in the boat, or even a loud voice causes a sudden explosion as dozens of surprised fish dash away to safer areas, loudly roiling the surface as their bodies flex and flee. They’ll come back to the spot…eventually.

The question arises: “How do you fish for fish that are this shallow? Perhaps your first instinct is to use a fixed bobber with a tiny jig or baited hook dangling below. But in 8 inches of water, there’s not much space between your cork and bait. You might adjust by switching to a mini ice fishing bobber that barely dips below the surface at rest, with a tiny baited hook hanging barely 6 inches below. If you can cast past the fish, and then ever-so-slowly reel your bait toward them, they might not spook once its near enough to let the bait settle before their noses. If you can throw such a light rig that far, that is.

Okay, so how about a topwater? Not a large lure with whirling propellers, a loud popper or a walk-the-dog style dancer, which are high on attraction but low on stealth. But bass might not spook if you cast a lightweight #11 balsa Rapala Original Minnow near them, let it settle until the surface rings go away, and then gingerly give it a slight twitch to resemble an injured baitfish. The same might go for a miniature X-Rap 4 more targeted to fish of the bluegill or crappie persuasion. You might even be able to slowly, subtly retrieve it a few inches beneath the surface for a short distance before pausing and letting it settle again. The challenge is to do it subtly enough to avoid spooking alert fish in skinny water.

Spinnerbaits usually work well in skinny water, but once again, stealth is at a premium. Pulsating blades throwing a wake work when the fish are aggressively feeding, but when they’re not, they’re likely to send fish running for cover. And don’t even think about a buzzbait churning across the surface!

How about casting and swimming a light jig head with a stealthy grub, holding your tip high enough during a steady retrieve to slowly cruise through the shallows with minimal disturbance. Now you’re getting into the neighborhood.

You can skip using a bobber altogether, using lightweight superline to cast and swim a tiny 1/32- or even 1/64-ounce jig past, and then back through, very shallow fish. It generally works better when fish are more confidently holding in or near cover like bulrushes, flooded brush or timber, lily pad roots or some other form of security.

Of course, the subtlest, quietest, stealthiest form of fishing would be fly fishing. Nothing beats your ability to deliver a tiny fly into shallow water with nary a noise or ripple. A 6-weight (or preferably lighter) fly rod, floating line and light, invisible tapered leader allow you to reach out and rest a dry fly like a caddis imitation atop the surface meniscus without alerting the fish below. Done properly, your flyline never even gets close to the fish, and the thin leader turns over at the end of the cast, silently delivering the fly on target like a fly landing on the water.

While that kind of fishing is obviously tailored to bluegills and bass, sometimes, you can adjust it to crappies, too. The most obvious case is when there have been a lot of anglers poking around for a while, tossing an endless parade of jig-and-bobber combos to every piece of wood or clump of weeds in a back bay or channel. Chances are that a lot of the fish have been caught-and-released (or not released!). That puts quite a dent in their fascination for striking one more jig dangled beneath one more bobber, even though it’s a very subtle technique. Once it becomes a familiar technique, conditioned survivors may swim in the opposite direction as soon as your bobber hits the surface.

However, if you flycast a small streamer, and slowly retrieve it horizontally past cover, somebody might be interested enough to come out and play. It looks and behaves differently than a bobber presentation. Cast over the deeper water in the center of a channel and smoothly swim your fly back to the boat, pausing between strips of the line for fish to examine it. If it looks and swims like a small minnow, it might look good enough to eat.

Looking for some new fishing techniques to try this season? You’ll find plenty of suggestions in every issue of MidWest Outdoors. Subscribe on our website.