It is very common to catch bass on riggers down to 70' or more in the summer.
No surprise there! Back when I did an outdoor column for a local newspaper I got invited out for a gill net survey in the summer on a local coldwater lake that was planted with trout, that historically had smelt and cisco. The survey was to determine if any cisco were left. No Cisco or smelt were found, but we did get some smallmouth in 40 feet of water. What really surprised me was the Common White Suckers we got suspended over deep water. I had always thought suckers were exclusively a bottom feeding fish as evidenced by the buccal position and shape. But it was explained to me they will also feed on suspended zooplankton! I also found out to my surprise during a stint as a biologist aid one summer that channel catfish will also suspend feeding on gizzard shad!
The state planted a significant amount of fingerling lake trout in this small 500 acre coldwater lake system as left over fish from an experiment to determine if they could hatch and rear them in local trout rearing station. There may be other factors but I can't help thinking the lake trout had a big part in extirpating the smelt and cisco. I know smelt have up and down cycles in abundance, and perhaps the lake trout trout reduced their numbers so significantly they didn't recover? There was also no limit on the number of smelt that could be harvested and people removed them by the bucket fulls when they staged in an area of the lake before spawning.
I wrote a proposal to reestablish smelt by getting fry shipped overnight from a certified hatchery in Maine to reestablish them for coldwater forage for planted brown trout (back when smelt were abundant this lake system had browns up to 13 pounds). We were told no because they were an exotic fish (the planted rainbows and browns aren't?), and they would eat the eggs and fry of the native fish. Since when do smelt exist in warm shallow water when bass and bluegills are spawning or later when the fry are small enough to eat?) The only species I think the smelt could prey on in this lake system are northern pike and yellow perch fry which are almost nonexistent in this lake system anyway. From experience yellow perch eggs are distasteful to predators.
