Bass Fishing in the Summer
Most people just don’t fish during the summer because the bite can be bad and the heat can be harsh.
- You may think that during the dog days of summer that fishing is not even worth it, but you really can catch fish if you use the right techniques.
- Bass can hold on many locations throughout a lake including points, structure, cover, and drop-offs.
- Points or where the land meats and extends out in the water are well for summer bass. They work best on windy days as this moves algae and other moss to it. Bait fish will follow and then the bass. Points in 5 to 20 feet of water work best if they also have trees or stumps on them. A bait that many fishermen use over points is a buzzbait. It immitates sommething surfacing the water or hopping around on top. Another is a super spook, which tricks the fish into thinking it is a school of shad. The best technique for this bait is to “walk” it, which is twitching it left to right. I like to use the spook in the colors: white, silver, greenish white.
- Structure includes brushpiles, trees, sea walls, and anything that goes into the water that the fish can get near. My favorite is brushpiles( cutdown limbs and wood put out by fishermen) Fish will go here during the hot summer mainly because it is so much cooler than the rest of the surrounding water, but the cooler water doesn’t just attract bass. It brings minnows and giant shad in and big bass eat them. The best brushpiles are usually in 10 to 25 feet of water. You can either use a jig or worm, but most people use a 7 to 10 inch plastic worm because it is very weedless and a jig will sometimes get hung. If you use a worm, red shad seems to be the hot color. As for a jig i like a green with red sparkles and a pork frog. Check around locally to see what color the bass prefer. During the summer bass can be sluggish and most times they want your lure slow, but I get tons of bites just slow rolling it through or over the brush. Bass could be right on an underwater tree or lurking just off of it. You will have to figure out where they are holding. Sea walls are one of my favorites and most lakes have tons of sea walls. They are usually in 1 to 5 feet of water, but bass just are attracted to them. Use a spinnerbait right down the wall for the best bites.
- Moss and Lillypads are the best known cover and provide shade for many fish. Docks are also very good cover during the summer as they provide all day shade. Bass may be in moss 5 feet deep, 25 feet deep, or right under floating moss. For moss in 5 to 25 feet, use a worm or jig in red shad or green. Many people also try slow rolling a spinnerbait over the top of moss or right through it. They might want the spinnerbait if they are more aggresive. Lillypads are usually found relatively shallow and bass love to hide under them, waiting for your frog to stop near one. These pads are known to hold giant bass and can be triggered to bite with a plastic frog or buzzbait. I like a frog in greenish yellow or white. Although moss and pads can hold those big fish, docks are probally the best on getting a limit fast. If you are on a lake full of docks, look for ones near deep water because this is an ideal ambush point for bass to attack their prey and head back deep. The best dock is in 10-20 feet of water, near the channel, and has brush near it. If your lake has 1 to 25 docks, then you could probally fish them all and have a good chance of catching more than a limit.
- One last place bass could be skurrying around is on or near drop-offs, also known as ledges. If your lake’s deepest water is 20 feet, then a 2 foot drop is a ledge. For a lake that can reach depths of 150, a 5 to 10 foot drop is good. The bass will use these as ambush points as they can go deep or deeper real fast. These ledges can be found using a depth finder. Try using a jig and crawling it on the bottom until it drops down, then you can work it they way you think is best. Usually the fish will be right off the drop off so get ready.
- Use these tips and you should come home happy and if fishing a tournament you will have bass in the bag.
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