Where do you usually fish during the middle of the day for bass?  During really sunny/hot days, in a large, shallow, somewhat murky lake with lots of weeds (some sections it grows past the surface) how do you get the bass to bite?  I usually get few if any bass until a few hours before sunset, but it gets depressing sitting in the hot sun during the middle of the day waiting for the evening bite...

I think you are supposed fish deep,  but where do you look?  i dont have a depth finder, can you just look for typical shallow bass spots, and move a bit farther out?  and what baits are best?    

if you are fishing heavy cover and you dont get a bite afer a few casts, should i move on or keep working it if you know that you have pulled bass from that spot before? (in the evening)  

I think its just this lake where i have this problem, i'm not sure why, its pretty popular so im guessing its presssed and the fish recognizes baits too easily during the day? actually it seems to have the same problem during overcast days as well so i dont know...

If nobody is around I'll put my fishing umbrella up and get out in mid day. I stay with it until my 12 volt fan runs out of juice.  My first stop is main lake points that are against a sharp drop-off into deep water, at least 30 feet. Bass suspend somewhere up the slope on the steep sides. The thermocline often will be 10-15 feet deeper there because of frequent generating current and lots of water mixing from boat traffic. I fish those casting from the shoreline out. I have 6 favorite points I check out before moving onto the smaller humps in the main lake where the river cuts by them.

Jim

Currently, the thermocline has set up on most of our lakes in Texas.     Fishing on or above the thermocline is where I'm targeting the midday deep bass.

when the wife and I prefish a tournament we usually do it in the late morning or mid day. If we can find the fish then, we should have no problems in the morning. Our "reverse fishing"...fishing later in the day and then hitting those same spots real early at tourney opening, has shown us that the fish do not really go very far. The places where you are finding fish in the mornings...is near where you will find them in the afternoon.

EXAMPLE:

If we are fishing a line of rip rap along a bridge in the morning in about 3 foot of water...in the afternoon the fish are still there, only they will be a bit deeper or on structure where the water remains cooler and better oxygenated. If we fish 10 yards out in the morning...we will fish at 20-30 yards out over deeper water in the afternoon...we will move to the drop, hole, shelf, or deeper water right there in that same area.

this is so long as there have not been some other major weather changes from morning to afternoon.

...and in the afternoon we find we have to fish much slower than the morning. Afternoons are our finesse fishing times.

I actually just made a map of an area of the cal river for my cousin that kinda demonstrates this...the GREEN LINES are morning spots....the RED LINES are afternoon spots.

Without a depthfinder, you are limited to where you can fish(deep).  The best thing to do is look at bank contour.  Obviously points, and steep banks.  Just by looking at the bank, you can get a pretty good idea of what's below you.

Or you use the poor man's depthfinder- Carolina rig.

You can also try to punch a heavy jig through the weeds. Not all bass will head to deep water when its hot. In fact the shallow fish will take a bait  better than fish suspended over the thermocline. Put a 1oz tungston weight on a sweet beaver and probe around for some active fish. Or just use it as they say, as a depth finder, you'll be surprised what it will tell you about the bottom of the lake.