I was recently asked how I fish in the summertime from another member on the forum and I tried to answer him the best way I possibly could.  After I was done explaining what I do I realized that this would probably be a good resource to some of the newer bass fishermen out there.

Granted these are my personal techniques on some of the local lakes but you could use some of the info in this message to help you out in lakes around your area.

Summertime:

Lol, Summertime is my favorite time to fish.  For ponds and such I tend to throw spinnerbaits, frogs, and wacky worms alot esp. around weeds.  In lakes and the rivers around here I catch alot of fish on jerkbaits and spinnerbaits in the summertime.  

Basically I don't think deep when I think summer, I think forage.  When the water temp. goes up so does a fishs' metabolism, which means it needs to feed more often.  The fish will follow bait.  

I try to stay shallower when I fish ponds and stuff with weeds, when you find weeds there's generally going to be largemouth nearby.  But for lakes with no weeds such as yough (lake in our area with little to no vegetation at all) I look for wood cover around the bank, dropoffs, and points, basically depth changes.  ex. a dropoff from 6-12 ft, a point coming up from 19 to 12 then going back down to 18 feet.

Don't look at fishing deep water like its different than fishing the bottom of the lake from shore.  It's basically the same thing except the water is deeper.  You may need a deeper diving jerkbait or crankbait but you can still use the same texas rig that you use from shore in deeper water.

Thick wood and thick weeds.  You can do basically the same thing with both, assuming you're on a boat.  I generally use a 1/4 oz. weight for flipping and pitching wood and I will sometimes go up to a 3/8 oz weight for pitching into weeds if they are really thick.    

I try to stay out of the thick stuff however, I like to fish weedlines and submerged weeds the most either with a spinnerbait, jerkbait, texas rigged tube, or senko.  On ponds I basically fish just a wacky worm, because you just can't beat it for numbers or quality.  When I do get into thicker weeds I like to throw Ribbit frogs on top of them and I like to pitch tubes and creature baits into them.

When I'm fishing thick wood nothing gets down in there better than a texas rigged tube, in my opinion.  The fish around here love tubes and it seems like they can't get enough of them.  Just remember not only to hit the edges of the wood piles but slowly work your way into the middle too.

There are two types of bass. The ones who go deep and the ones who go shallow. Definately cannot rule out fishing the channels in summer. They will follow that cool water! Mostly because the baitfish do... no not minnows... baby perch!

Cold water holds more dissolved oxygen then warm water this is why you  find river bass tucked up tight to the riffles and why trout move to find springs.

I hate summertime fishing. Too many people and way too hot. I fish at night a lot and most of my fishing is done in deep water(15-30). It tears me up to crank a DD22 all day, but I will do it if I have to. I stay offshore 95% of the time. At least you can get away from a few. I prefer Nov.-Apr. any day. The only thing good about summer is the grass is up and I will keep a jig or weighted worm in my hand as much as possible. Give me scattered clumps of hydrilla in 15' or deeper and I am happy

i love the topwater bite in the summer. i love fishing deep too thats the best part, or hopping a jig through the grass. nothing like it

nice info there, i also fish the forage and not the depth. my local lake goes to about 40 feet, but ill fish the weeds that are in 10 feet of water and do great. there's definitely fish in the deeper water, but it's my style of fishing. also gotta hit those drop offs.

bassnbrett, are you using o-rings for your wacky styled senkos? tried senkos last summer and they were a pain in the you know what without the o-rings with the tearing. also, what kind and size hook are you using?

thanks

mike

Yeah summertime is unique.  You get to look for certain things, rather than looking for the fish themselves.  That's just the nature of the beast.  Here is what I look for.

1.  Oxygenated water.  Basically cooler water will be more oxygenated.  If you find some moving water, shadey areas, areas with good vegetation, or a place where fresh water moves into a pond or lake, you've just potentially found fish.  You'll have to break those areas down and figure them out, but oxygenated water is where you'll find the most bait activity and bass.

2.  I hate it when the sun is in my eyes.  I hate, hate, hate being uncomfortably hot (Iraq type hot).  So do bass.  Summertime is bangin' for docks and laydowns.  I try to hit anything that produces shade.  During the heat of the day, bass will often position themselves in the shade because it's cooler, they are better camouflaged, and they can't look up and see prey if the sun is beating down on the water.  Just like you can't look up and see a baseball if the sun is in your eyes.  If you can find some nice, dark shade on a creek channel or point, you just found fish 90% of the time.  Ain't that easy??

3.  Forage.  Sometimes you have to chase minnows.  Yeah, I hate it to because the little jerks move around, but sometimes it has to be done.  Why?  Schoolers.  NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING is like chasing shad when a school of violent and competitive 2-4lb bass are ganging up on them.  This can happen topwater or subsurface.  Usually I can find this type of action around underwater humps, depressions, or points out in the open in like 30-80ft of water.  I've nailed tons of bass with heavy jigs when I've found these schoolers.  They are hard to find and follow, but they are there...often in the morning or evening.

4.  Current.  Current brings cooler water, forage, and oxygen into a lake.  Bass don't like sitting in the current.  If you can identify where there are current breaks on your favorite submerged creek channel or river, then you can locate bass.  These fish are easy to target.  Soft plastic stickbaits drifting with the current can be deadly on river bass.  Jigs or spinnerbaits around creek channel ledges or points can fill a livewell in no time.  

Summertime is a blast for fishing.  One of my favorite.  Now that spawn is over here, it's slipping into my best time of year.  Game on!

I look for 2 things during summer months; darkness & deep water structure  

I don'senkos for my wacky rigs, I use zoom trick worms.  They last alot longer without tearing, I think one day I counted catching 26 fish on one worm.  The trick is to move the hook around in the bait so it doesn't rip chunks out of the worm.

I use a 1-1/0 gamagatsu octopus style hook, they have alot better hookset ratio and they fall a tad bit slower, I've also been known to use dropshot hooks as well.

Speaking of current, some of you may not know this so Ill spit it out. Fish expend LESS energy in a rip roaring current then they do sitting in calm water.

I know its not about bass but if you ever want to see how a fish works in current watch the movie called The Underwater World of Trout.

[RE:I don'senkos for my wacky rigs, I use zoom trick worms.  They last alot longer without tearing, I think one day I counted catching 26 fish on one worm.  The trick is to move the hook around in the bait so it doesn't rip chunks out of the worm.

I use a 1-1/0 gamagatsu octopus style hook, they have alot better hookset ratio and they fall a tad bit slower, I've also been known to use dropshot hooks as well.]

26 fish in one day on one worm......ummm. I undersand the concept of moving the hook around but it causes more rips in the worm.  Good sale pitch, you should have ZOOM sponsor you. ;D

I use Zoom Trick worms with 3/0 Gammy Octopus hooks and Zoom finesse worms with 2/0 Gammy Octopus hooks rigged wacky style from water temps starting around 43 degrees on up to however hot it gets in the Summer and then back down to about 43 degrees in the late Fall.

[RE:I don'senkos for my wacky rigs, I use zoom trick worms. They last alot longer without tearing, I think one day I counted catching 26 fish on one worm. The trick is to move the hook around in the bait so it doesn't rip chunks out of the worm.

I use a 1-1/0 gamagatsu octopus style hook, they have alot better hookset ratio and they fall a tad bit slower, I've also been known to use dropshot hooks as well.]

26 fish in one day on one worm......ummm. I undersand the concept of moving the hook around but it causes more rips in the worm. Good sale pitch, you should have ZOOM sponsor you. ;D

Um... not lieing

It only happened once, usually they fall off after 6-7 fish

If the cyprus trees aren't too deep you could try using a shallow running crank or a spinnerbait to cover water faster or flip and pitch to the trees.  Just an idea but you probably thought of those already, thats like bassin 101 lol

Fish the cypress trees closer to the deeper water and always fish the trees out away from the rest. Works for me.

Deeper water is relative. It may be a change of 1-2' that will hold the fish.

Idk about you but I'll take trial and error over not catching fish anyway anyday lol.  If that makes any sense at all anyway  ;D