Ive been fishing my whole life(mostly offshore) but just recently bought a bassboat...Ive been out probably 10 times this year mostly my local lake.  Had some good days but recently Ive been getting skunked! I mostly try to fish the drop offs  Ive been using a yamamoto senko wacky stlye or a crankbait in about 10-15 feet...if the fising is slow should I switch to something smaller like a grub and try to slow it way down, should I be fishing deeper waters? or should I be trying to fish the shallows when the water temp is high (docks)  any help would be greatly appreciated  thanks!

Check out the Fishing Articles at the top of the page and go to Summer Fishing.

Great information you can parlay into catching bass.

Can you find any humps, holes, creek channels, structure or vegetation in your lake?  If so, the bass will seek cooler water and stage in these areas.

They will hit the shallows in search of breakfast and dinner so you can fish those with topwaters or Mann's Minus One's in the early AM or late PM.

Try to bulk up your baits, too. Try a creature bait or a tube or an Ika or a 7-inch worm or a 6-inch Senko to see if they will take them.

You may want to check out the web sites of the pros, too. See what Woo Daves says on his web site about summer fishing.

Everyone does things different so hopefully you will receive a lot of suggestions.

It depends on the temp of the water. I fish deep water, well what I call deep water. I fish about 15-20 ft. Maybe the temp is high enough to make the fish go deeper. I like throwing a deep diving crankbaits, large jigs, and also creature baits in the deeper water. You also want to find structure in deep water.

Good Luck to you I hope some of my info helps you out. 8-)

In the shade and in deep water.

In the summer I find most of my bass in the water

I always hit the shady spots, transitions, and points

Where I would be...COOL areas

If your lake has any matted vegetation thats where I would be. I'm a sucker for grass (the aquatic variety  ) Try fishing frogs on the mats, if the time is right the frog-fishing can be awesome. Another thing: don't downsize when it gets hot in the summer, instead upsize. When its really hot fish don't want to expend a lot of energy searching for a meal so they will hit large slow moving lures that crawl right past their face. Try some 10" power worms or some large jigs.

Lots of docks get pounded, so I like to go deep and crank. A yo-yoed lipless works great when you rip it out of deep weeds.

In the summer the bass are nowhere near me,LOL. I can find fish on the sonar but usually can't tempt them to bite. I went wade fishing today and tried to work the steep dropoffs that I knew were there and not one taker. Probably needed to be out in boat working partially submerged small islands(small body of water).

Paul

They will hit the shallows in search of breakfast and dinner so you can fish those with topwaters or Mann's Minus One's in the early AM or late PM.

In my lakes, this is the most consistent and easiest pattern to take advantage of. I caught my biggest bass of the summer, Saturday night at about 7:30 in 1 ft of water with a topwater (water temp in the low-mid 80s). I target areas that become shaded first.

You also need to see where most of the fishing pressure is coming from and adjust your tactics with this in mind. If you limited to waters with high fishing pressure, try drop shotting the deep and suspended fish.