I caught fifteen northern lmb over four pounds this May. However, I haven't caught one this June. Sigh.

 

Now, I'm looking forward to fall when the big girls stir again. Of course, I'll eventually catch some four-plus pounders here and there this summer, but the spring and fall are the stuff that dreams are made of.

Fall can be spectacular if you hit just right. Was my favorite time of the year. I miss it living down here in Florida. We don't really have one. The only thing is, with each passing day you are one day closer to the end!  🥶

The big ones still come to the boat for me in the summer, but I do have to go different places to find them. The big ones completely vacate the shallow timber, and seemingly vanish from any water above 8’ until mid to late August. 
 

 

52 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

The big ones still come to the boat for me in the summer, but I do have to go different places to find them. The big ones completely vacate the shallow timber, and seemingly vanish from any water above 8’ until mid to late August. 
 

 

Are you saying I should fish deeper? My deepest water is only eight to ten feet.

@Swamp Girl  Katie, do your lakes thermocline?  The lakes I fish develop this at 5 feet so I don't fish below that depth.  It can change depth and location in the lake as well.

3 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

@Swamp Girl  Katie, do your lakes thermocline?  The lakes I fish develop this at 5 feet so I don't fish below that depth.  It can change depth and location in the lake as well.

 

I don't know, Al. My Pond is only eight feet at its deepest. My pal's pond is only ten feet. Does such shallow water thermocline?

@Swamp Girl I don't know.  I've never fished a lake with that limited depth.  Years ago I used a temperature probe to find the thermocline, now I have a graph that shows it as a fuzzy band across the screen, and most fish life is at or above this band.

@Swamp Girl  Here is 2 solutions to a thermocline.  One lake has lots of standing timber and I catch summertime bass by bouncing a squarebill over limbs out over deep water.  One lake has no timber and I troll a small squarebill over the old creek channel.  There are still bass on the bank but I think a lot of them move out and suspend.

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

Are you saying I should fish deeper? My deepest water is only eight to ten feet.

May be worth a shot. Especially if the deep water isn’t too far out of the way. 

3 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

May be worth a shot. Especially if the deep water isn’t too far out of the way. 

 

It's not far and it's where I caught about half my four and four-plus-pounders in May. I always fish it when I'm paddling via trolling, but haven't caught a big one yet this month.

Summer time is just like any season - a puzzle to solve with many rewards!

 

I used to hate it but it's kinda when I seem to shine and I've just given up and decided I love it.

 

Summer time seems to be all about slow and wormy stuff near wood for me.  Maybe your fish operate differently - but those big girls seem to find the wood and sit in it.

you probably wont get a thermocline in your bogs.  It is shallow enough that wind action will make enough current to keep it mixed.

 

Past years have given me big prespawners, but this year that wasn't the case.  I didn't get out as much as I wanted and the conditions were never as good as they could have been.  Now that I've got the boat sorted out and dialed in, next spring will be a different story as I get a start from ice out.

 

However, this time of year is my usual big fish time.  Jar says fish different places and is probably right.  For me, it is 'fish different times'.  I don't know if you're comfortable fishing your bogs at night, but when the weather is 90 degees during the day that is just miserable in the first place.  Night time brings on a whole new set of challenges but the bass get to roaming more.  The last two hours of dark and first hour of light are my favorite.  They have calmed down all night and forgotten about avian and human predators (and swimming mammals if you have them).  In your bogs they will be the baddest animal around at 3 AM.  They feed heavily and get heavy.  You don't usually have to be as tight to cover to catch them either.  I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

On 6/18/2025 at 1:47 PM, Swamp Girl said:

I caught fifteen northern lmb over four pounds this May. However, I haven't caught one this June. Sigh.

Sorry Swampy, no sympathy from Massachusetts …. 😉

Our pre-spawn season was a complete bust, due to cold, wet windy weather.☹️

 

Certainly the big females are a lot lighter post spawn, at least until the fall.  We’ll boat some 4+ through the summer, most likely when frogging or flipping.  But our best chance for 5 largemouth will be in September-October.  A 5++ smallmouth could come at anytime on Lake Ontario/St. Lawrence River - I’m planning to spend more time at that, now that we can do it safely in the bigger boat.

 

Any vegetation like milfoil or coontail?  Most of the water I fish is only 15' or so deep.  The bass get into that stuff for shade and oxygen.

Fall is basically non existent here nowadays too. September isn’t a fall month. It’s a summer month because of how hot it it.

 

Mid October used to see some reasonable fall weather. Now it’s more like mid November. A few weeks later, it’s winter.

 

My thoughts would be similar to others- it’s too shallow to develop a thermocline. 

@Swamp Girl how does the bog's deep water lay out?  Like a bowl of 8-10' or is there a channel that snakes?  I think this summer would be a good time to explore your deep water options.  I'd guess the areas in the summer are similar to where they winter. 

 

By the middle of July, it's almost impossible for me to catch a big bass in less than 10' fow during the day.  Maybe they're there, but I don't think so.  My cover orientated fish are holed up in the hydrilla in the 10-15' depths, concentrating on structure breaks and where bottom composition transitions resulting in different weed species edges.  Then I have more pelagic bass that are on weed patches or scrub grass near the deepest weedlines in 20-25' fow, but algae blooms and boat traffic can reduce light penetration so much that this grass will brown out by August.  When that happens, it appears that the cover isn't where it's at and I go open water hunting, hoping panfish, birds or blowups clue me in.

 

scott

Preparing for the Fall Run ~ Early

  After the rather abundant, Pre-Spawn Big Brown Bass action here is in the rear view mirror, 

the "Fall Bite" immediately becomes my next favorite time frame to expect big things. 

It's another time when plus size fish come shallow again and are looking to eat - rather voraciously I might add.  None of that is a surprise really and just about every basshead on the planet, knows it. 

However, what has been a pretty big surprise to me, especially the past couple of seasons, is just how 'early' on our calendar this can happen; but please allow me to back up a bit.

 For a long time, years in fact, my impression & expectation of 'the fall bite' revolved around cooler air & water temperatures much more than the date.  

 Well in advance of even considering vacating my hunt for big brown bass in the deeper haunts, and well before I secured the drop shot & spybait rigs, I was eternally waiting for that first 'bite' of cold air or those first few 'cold nights'.  Traditional thinking says this is what is supposed to trigger the bigger fish to move 'shallower' and get them feeding.  And clearly there is and probably will always be quite a bit for 'truth' to that.  The Length of day may also be a will participant. 

 Something we may all agree with is that not all the bass in the lake are doing the same thing at the same time.  So is there a chance, that some fish big fish move in shallow and feed Before the frost is on the pumpkin ?  I'm here to say, Absolutely.  

  So while for years I was out deep, pretty much getting my lunch handed to me in mid to late August, there were some real brutes laugh it up some pretty skinny water, and I was none the wiser. 

 Fortunately, during a mid-day, super high sun, lunch time RECON mission, I happen to get lucky, real lucky.   I was throwing a spinnerbait around way up on the inside, stuff I would have thought was far too skinny to hold fish, at least not the type I was looking for and not at that time of day. 

  As my bait passed by this isolated wood in less that 4 ft of very clear water on a huge sand flat, a 5 lb brown bass shot out and blasted it.  To say I was surprised is quite an understatement - seemed a kin to getting a bass from Wal-Mart parking lot.  It was that 'weird' to me. 

This is that fish catch . . . 

https://youtu.be/EkCJNqul4lI

 I thought, "this fish must be sick or something" Nope, aside from the Strike King Burner hanging out of her face, she was fat & sassy and seemed totally healthy.  Had to be an anomaly. 

Either way, I poked my face in there at sunrise my next trip and found the bass already in there slurping up every 4-5 inch yellow perch they could find, and there were schools & schools of them.

So Good. 

Accordingly, I started looking insider earlier & earlier each season.  And while no two seasons are the same, it appears that even the first week of August is NOT too soon, up here anyway.  I've been capitalizing on this late summer deal ever since.  Besides some of my best topwater catches, my PB Brown Bass came that very next year off that same flat; also on a spinnerbait. 

 

 So long story short, if you have an area(s), that come to life a later in the season,

it might not be totally crazy to check them out a little sooner.

I'll be spending this raining weekend in the Pro-V Bass ensuring all my Gear is Good To Go. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/211811-brown-bass-tools-~-questions-answers/page/7/#findComment-2748252

 

Luckily for me, I have productive rivers around me to fish.  They do not seem to be affected by the dog days of summer as much.  Dawn and dusk feeding patterns and current that sets up spots that  hold all summer.  As for pre spawn and spawn, we go to St Clair for spawners in May (we got totally owned by the weather this year) and Florida in February.  I’m all about road trips and different ecosystems altogether.  That makes fishing fun for me.  

This is a pattern that has provided me some memorable catches of river smallies.   Last year I caught my personal best in the first weeks of August on top water.  One on top water from the Shenandoah River in the 1st week of August was 21” and 10 days later a 21 1/4” on a spinnerbait from the Potomac.  Both in eddies near the bank, and both in less than 12” of water.  

10 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Preparing for the Fall Run ~ Early

  After the rather abundant, Pre-Spawn Big Brown Bass action here is in the rear view mirror, 

the "Fall Bite" immediately becomes my next favorite time frame to expect big things. 

It's another time when plus size fish come shallow again and are looking to eat - rather voraciously I might add.  None of that is a surprise really and just about every basshead on the planet, knows it. 

However, what has been a pretty big surprise to me, especially the past couple of seasons, is just how 'early' on our calendar this can happen; but please allow me to back up a bit.

 For a long time, years in fact, my impression & expectation of 'the fall bite' revolved around cooler air & water temperatures much more than the date.  

 Well in advance of even considering vacating my hunt for big brown bass in the deeper haunts, and well before I secured the drop shot & spybait rigs, I was eternally waiting for that first 'bite' of cold air or those first few 'cold nights'.  Traditional thinking says this is what is supposed to trigger the bigger fish to move 'shallower' and get them feeding.  And clearly there is and probably will always be quite a bit for 'truth' to that.  The Length of day may also be a will participant. 

 Something we may all agree with is that not all the bass in the lake are doing the same thing at the same time.  So is there a chance, that some fish big fish move in shallow and feed Before the frost is on the pumpkin ?  I'm here to say, Absolutely.  

  So while for years I was out deep, pretty much getting my lunch handed to me in mid to late August, there were some real brutes laugh it up some pretty skinny water, and I was none the wiser. 

 Fortunately, during a mid-day, super high sun, lunch time RECON mission, I happen to get lucky, real lucky.   I was throwing a spinnerbait around way up on the inside, stuff I would have thought was far too skinny to hold fish, at least not the type I was looking for and not at that time of day. 

  As my bait passed by this isolated wood in less that 4 ft of very clear water on a huge sand flat, a 5 lb brown bass shot out and blasted it.  To say I was surprised is quite an understatement - seemed a kin to getting a bass from Wal-Mart parking lot.  It was that 'weird' to me. 

This is that fish catch . . . 

https://youtu.be/EkCJNqul4lI

 I thought, "this fish must be sick or something" Nope, aside from the Strike King Burner hanging out of her face, she was fat & sassy and seemed totally healthy.  Had to be an anomaly. 

Either way, I poked my face in there at sunrise my next trip and found the bass already in there slurping up every 4-5 inch yellow perch they could find, and there were schools & schools of them.

So Good. 

Accordingly, I started looking insider earlier & earlier each season.  And while no two seasons are the same, it appears that even the first week of August is NOT too soon, up here anyway.  I've been capitalizing on this late summer deal ever since.  Besides some of my best topwater catches, my PB Brown Bass came that very next year off that same flat; also on a spinnerbait. 

 

 So long story short, if you have an area(s), that come to life a later in the season,

it might not be totally crazy to check them out a little sooner.

I'll be spending this raining weekend in the Pro-V Bass ensuring all my Gear is Good To Go. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/211811-brown-bass-tools-~-questions-answers/page/7/#findComment-2748252

 

Probably a stupid question to ask because I’m sure the answer is yes, but have you spent time trying the shallows earlier in summer like late July? How’d it work for you? 

1 hour ago, 10,000 lakes Bassin said:

Probably a stupid question to ask because I’m sure the answer is yes, but have you spent time trying the shallows earlier in summer like late July? How’d it work for you? 

The fish I am targeting late summer seem to be coming in as the weeds begin to die back.  This makes the perch & crayfish a little vulnerable.  With less cover to hide in they often have to relocate to find some.  The big brown bass count on that and are waiting for them, knife & fork in hand (in a manner of speaking).  So none of those weeds are dying back until at least Aug most years. That makes July a non fishing but tackle prep time for this basshead.

Besides, July is when the marine circus comes to town. 

And I hate clowns.

🤡

A-Jay

 

 

I enjoy going fishing no matter the conditions, summer is fine by me. Along with winter spring and fall 😂 . I’ve been told I even talk about fishing while I’m asleep 

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I enjoy going fishing no matter the conditions, summer is fine by me. Along with winter spring and fall 😂 . I’ve been told I even talk about fishing while I’m asleep 

 

I've told you several times that you really know how to live.

On 6/19/2025 at 4:44 AM, Swamp Girl said:

 

I don't know, Al. My Pond is only eight feet at its deepest. My pal's pond is only ten feet. Does such shallow water thermocline?

Yes it does!

You don’t use electronic so simple use a digital thermometer with probe* that reads instantly with about 10’ of cord attached and a weight. Lower the probe down into the water until you see a 2 to 4 degree cooler temperature in a few feet indicating a thermocline. The bass should at or near that depth!

Tom

* ElecBee w/5 meter probe.

17 hours ago, WRB-2.0 said:

Yes it does!

You don’t use electronic so simple use a digital thermometer with probe* that reads instantly with about 10’ of cord attached and a weight. Lower the probe down into the water until you see a 2 to 4 degree cooler temperature in a few feet indicating a thermocline. The bass should at or near that depth!

Tom

* ElecBee w/5 meter probe.

 

I'm going to disagree a bit with you here (maybe it's just semantics).  Yes the surface water will be warmer like you note.  But that's not a true thermocline, at least in the sense that most use it.  The first couple feet of the water column is decently well mixed and you'll get surface warming like that which comes and goes (and cooling in the fall!), but a true thermocline is a more stable separation of the layers that isn't going to be mixing with wave and wind action .  10' would be the minimum depth I'd be considering a thermocline and more typically deeper.  Of course it depends on the water body and the wind/wave action as well as any incoming streams.  A place like toledo bend that will have 3-4' waves on it at times is going to be mixing that top 10' pretty easily and I'd take a wild guess that the thermocline there sets up close to 20-30' deep.  In a pond that is only 8' deep I wouldn't expect a thermocline.  I have a 300 acre local lake that goes to 12' in a bowl shape and there is no thermocline that sets up there either (there are no real streams that go into it either and plenty of weeds to quell mixing).