IF the fish can be covered with water, it's deep enough. When Dan had us bottom-bouncing some holes, it was less than 2 feet deep. Yet we hooked fish. I prefer Pro-Glo. Well its so obvious I have to mention it.
Good bait means good fishing.
People will hook up using the other bait, but there is absolutely no doubt that the good bait will out perform store bought stuff. There's a guy selling roe at Ship Creek that comes walking around, but its too firm too hard, and looks terrible. Bucky's Bait, a popular bait company, has roe that will work but is still poorly colored and hard. Our roe is all a very Fluorescent red, firm but still moist and natural. But when fishing with bait, let's face it, its a blob of roe floating off the bottom attached to a sinker anchored on the bottom.