I will normally have five rods on my deck and rigged during the summer.

Here's what I have tied on;

A jig, and most often it's with a craw trailer

A lipless crank

A Spook or a popper

A buzzbait or plopper

A tube or Senko

These five let me cover the water column and determine the activity level, which can and will change throughout the day.

If the bite is slow, I just downsize most of the time. I'm not saying I don't throw spinnerbaits, squarebills, worms, or other stuff, I do. This is what I head out with and the majority of time is all I need.

What baits do you have tied on for summer?

So far it’s been Crankbaits, T Rigs, Wacky rigs and Free rigs.

I've been fishing mostly T-rigged craws and underspins with craws or paddletails. When it gets warmer (It's 37 degrees right now.), I'll add poppers, buzzbaits, wacky worms, and T-rigged worms.

Big worm

Football jig

Glide bait

walking bait

Always a t-rigged ribbon tailed worm.

A square billed crank bait.

And a popper.

Swim bait

Shaky worm

Ned rig

Jig

Same all year regardless of season..

On top..

Frog, Spook or Devil’s Horse

Mid..

Magnum UV Speed Worm

Swim bait

Bottom…

Rage Craw or Bug

Punching..

(Same as above)

Mike

Depends on what water I'm fishing.

A Texas rigged something , always

Bladed jig

Spinnerbait

Buzzbait

Crankbait

Always a bottom jig

Always a swim jig, sometimes bladed sometimes not

Always a t-rig

Always a crank bait, type depending on conditions

Always a wacky rig, which I hate fishing. LOL

Usually a paddle tail fluke and rat'l trap.

T Rigged Zoom Trick Worms and BPS Fin Eke Worms with 1/8oz and 3/16oz. tungsten weights. Heddon Zara Puppy and Storm Chug Bug. Yum Dingers weightless. Plastic colors Green Pumpkin, June Bug and Watermelon Red.

Good Fishing

During a season I will visit at least six different lakes, possibly more. Each lake is different. The only generalizations I can make are:

-A bottom contact t-rigged plastic

-A finesse set up

-A mid-range moving bait

-A topwater

-Once the water temps are above 80, a deep mover

-Football jig

Which of each thing depends on the lake and weather in the past few days. All will not be used unless I'm having a horrible day.

My singular goal is to get a pattern identified where I can have no more than two rods on deck. My perfect day of fishing is a single rod on deck. I know it's weird, but if no one else on the lake is catching fish and I get them dialed in with ONE rod and boat five bass, that's an epic trip for me. That's why I love fall. 30-40 bass with a single rod and lure. In November, I'll only have 3 or 4 rods in my boat.

What do you have tied on in the summer?

I'll let you know when we get there.

It was 39 degrees here this morning.

#notsummer.

A-Jay

Free Rig

Jika

Tokyo

Swim Jig

Swim Worm

Frog

Also my BFS rigs

It will vary depending on the amount and type of cover. Usually a jig and craw, crankbait, Texas rigged or weightless plastic, and some type of finesse rig.

Whenever summer decides to arrive:

Frog

Punch

Bubba shot

Amen.

Topwater

Topwater

Topwater

Wacky or Neko

Rage Bug T rigged

Frog

Popper

Buzzbait

Jig

Crankbait

bladed jig

Lipless

Jerkbait

Worm

Spinnerbait

Swimbait

I like worms free rigged/on a jig head/t rigged/ c rigged/ drop shotted/weightless/neko.

Jigs in the summer are usually a flappy craw or beaver trailer and some kind of bluegill color or a paddle tail and some kind of shad or baitfish color or a black and blue and I can go either way on the trailer with those.

Bass on baitballs - Jighead Minnow and Flutter Spoon

Bass cruising bank shoreline to 12ft - Ned Rig and Wacky Rig

Bass on brush or ledges 12ft -25ft - Deep Diving Cranks, Jigs, Dropshot

Most of my lakes thermocline around 25ft so I rarely fish deeper than that

Really isn't quite summer-like conditions here yet either. It's been mildly warm and dry lately, but the fish are still spawning and haven't set up in their summer patterns yet.

These 2 presentations account for more than half of my LGM catch from mid June - Oct.

Spinnerbait

Wacky/Neko

I also use a ned rig and a bladed jig sparingly. Topwater is a lost cause. Doesn't generate bites.

I have 4 spinning rods and that's it.

1) Poop Bait Family

2) Neko

3) Free Rig

4) Bladed Jig and Utility

On 5/31/2026 at 12:34 AM, papajoe222 said:

I will normally have five rods on my deck and rigged during the summer.

Here's what I have tied on;

A jig, and most often it's with a craw trailer

A lipless crank

A Spook or a popper

A buzzbait or plopper

A tube or Senko

These five let me cover the water column and determine the activity level, which can and will change throughout the day.

If the bite is slow, I just downsize most of the time. I'm not saying I don't throw spinnerbaits, squarebills, worms, or other stuff, I do. This is what I head out with and the majority of time is all I need.

What baits do you have tied on for summer?

I have all the things you do usually, except I usually use a T-rig instead of a jig.

Usually a spinnerbait, jig or large T-rig worm, a larger wakebait (swimbait like a psycho gill, rat, crawler), and then if things are slow a dropshot.

LM:

Weightless plastic (ika or senko)

Magdraft Freestyle

Frog

bladed jig

SM:

Carolina rig speedcraw

Lil football with ned

Spook

bladed jig

I am retired and have the luxury of spending several days in a row on the water. Because of this, what I start the day with during the summer months is often times dictated what has been the most productive techniques over a couple of days. However, I usually start the day with the following on the deck.

Flipping Tube

Texas Rigged Plastic Worm/Creature Bait

Spinnerbait

Buzz Bait

Shallow Crankbait

I have other rods rigged in the rod box for jigs, Frogs, and a couple of punch rods if any of the above are not producing.