Hey guys, Bassmaster Elite Series pro Drew Benton here with my friends at bassresource.com and they asked me for my best 5 go-to setups in July in my neck of the woods. You know, on the Elite Series, our season starts in the South, we start in the South and we work up the United States. In about July, we're actually way away from the South. We're up north chasing smallmouth. That's when our northern swing happens—July, August—and you know I haven't fished down back home very often in the recent years. But when I did, what I learned from doing that was there's a big misconception of what these fish do after the spawn.
A lot of people feel like they all move way offshore, they get in their summertime haunts and they kind of live there until, you know, winter or pre-spawn or spring comes back and then they move back shallow. And what I've learned is that's not necessarily the case. You know, there’s for sure that move out there in big schools and they’re fun to catch and that’s all fine and dandy, but there are still giant bass that live shallow all year. And I think that they never leave the bank and you need to take advantage of that.
There’s fish that live on these docks on Lake Hartwell where we’re at today. There’s fish that live on the end of a laydown and they just move up and down that laydown throughout the day to feed, and they just never move out past, you know, 8 to 10 foot.
Two baits that I really love to have on the deck that time of year because they're so versatile: one of them is the SPRO Poppin’ Frog 65. I love this bait because it imitates two things—it can be a frog or a bluegill or a shad, really any kind of baitfish that pops along. And what I also love about it is you can skip it really well. You can skip it up under these docks. You can throw it way back up under undercut bank. I'm fishing shade lines, I'm fishing any kind of ambush point that I see when I'm going down the bank. I can fish this thing very effectively and no matter how thick or how bad the cover is.
The other thing I like about it is you can fish it two different ways. You can walk it. You can cut some of these legs off. You see that I have these trimmed a little bit short and it takes some of the drag off this bait. So it allows you to walk this bait all the way to the boat. If you leave them completely long, you can plop it along. You can also plop it the way I have. Now that's the reason why I love to trim the legs because I can do it both ways with the way I have this frog set up. And I mean again, it's one of those baits that year-round I have on my deck. You can see this one's pretty chewed up and it's for good reason.
One thing I do like to do is I swap out the hook to the new Nano Alpha Gamakatsu hook. I like 65 lbs Smackdown braid on a 7'2" heavy M1 Phenix rod and the reason why I like this rod is it’s got plenty of backbone, but it’s got a real parabolic bend, OK? It’s got plenty of backbone. See that it doesn’t bend until about the fourth or fifth eye up there. And what that allows you to do is allows you to skip this thing because that tip's very forgiving, allows you to get it in places that, you know, I couldn’t get a mat frog rod like a broomstick of a rod. I couldn’t get this bait in there. So that’s the reason why I go with this particular rod.
For the reel, I love the SPRO high-speed gear ratio JC Elite MG. You know, I put these reels to the test this year, been extremely pleased with how they've held up. Again, anytime you're putting braid on a reel, you're putting it to the test and these have passed it very, very well.
The other bait that I really like up shallow—and again, I’m targeting the largest 20% of fish in the lake—is this SPRO CGB 180 Chad Shad. You know, a lot of people have gotten into the glide bait game. And it's for good reason. They just get big bites. So when I'm going down the bank with that popping frog and I come to a laydown or a dock or I see, you know, a very advantageous place for a fish to be sitting, I’ll just put that popping frog down, pick this up and make a few casts to that piece of structure. And if there's a big one there in the summertime, they're not wanting to expel a lot of energy. So they're sitting there and they're waiting for a big easy meal.
And that's exactly what this Chad Shad is. You're just easing it along down through there. And the whole key to this bait and fishing it is being able to see it. And whenever you see that fish come up and engage with the bait, you kind of act like a cat and mouse toy. You try to run this bait away from the fish and that's what makes them pounce on it and bite it.
It’s a fun way to fish. Matter of fact, when we fished at Smith Lake last year, it was deep summer. I don’t know if it was June or July timeframe, but it was extremely hot. Water temperatures were in the 90s. I caught all of my fish on a glide bait similar to this one fishing that way and it’s a fun way to fish.
On the rod setup for that, I go with a 7'8" heavy M1 for the same reasons—got plenty of backbone, but got a forgiving tip for these trebles on this bait. I like a high-speed gear ratio reel just like the one I use there. 20 lbs Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon. And one thing that I really think is important on all your glide baits is that snap. And I put a snap and a swivel because when you’re throwing this, hang a bunch, it’s going to catch wind and kind of do funky things. And you want that swivel so you don’t get line twist.
The worst thing possible is be throwing this thing all day without that swivel on there and you got a kink in your line. When that 6, 7, 8-pounder comes out there and bites it, you break it off. So that’s a big key too. And it also, when you're fighting a fish, it allows that bait to spin a little bit and not twist your line up as well.
So obviously there’s a lot more baits than these five to do this with, but just given five, I'm going to do two shallow and three deep.
So moving offshore, you know, this has kind of been a staple in everybody's boat for a long time. It's a magnum shaky head. Again, for a lot of the same reasons of that big glide bait—fish are looking for an easy big meal. They don't want to expel a lot of energy. They want something big and slow. And a magnum shaky head will do that. You can fish this around brush, you can fish it on ledges, you can fish it on points, you can drag this thing around deep boat docks. The options are endless for a big shaky head and that’s why it’s so versatile and that’s why it should be on your deck.
I remember a tournament at Eufaula the year we had COVID, got rescheduled from April to June, and I had a third place finish. A lot of my fish came on this exact bait, fishing brush in, you know, 15 to 12 foot of water. And those fish, what they had done, they had moved out offshore to the ledges. The water came up, and when the water comes up, a lot of those fish will move back up and they move back up into that mid-depth range and that 15 to 12 foot of water. And this is how I targeted them.
It’s just a great, like I said, a great way to get a big bite, catch numbers, and you cannot go wrong with a plastic worm. As complex as baits get and technology gets, they still eat plastic worms. That’s what I love about this, this old school presentation.
Keep it real simple on the rod. I like a 7 foot heavy MBX Phenix rod. This is a graphite rod. These other two, the first two, were like a nano tube rod. They’re not as—I won’t say you can’t feel with those as good—but they’re more for moving baits in my opinion. The MBX rod is a fantastic rod for feel. I can feel the lightest of bites on a long cast and that’s the reason why I go with this rod. I go with 15 to 17 LB Seaguar InvizX on this so I can again make that long cast, cover a bunch of water. High-speed gear ratio reel and, you know, that’s a pretty simple setup.
You can use the same setup on a lot of different baits. I fish a jig on this rod, I fish, you know, a big ribbon tail. And that’s another thing—a big Texas rig is interchangeable with this setup too. I like a 10 inch worm with 1/2 ounce bullet weight, 5/0 hook. And that’s also a good option. Say you’re fishing not as clean bottom, you’re fishing around grass, deep grass, maybe timber, something like that. That shaky head’s not as conducive for—I’ll swap this out for that big ribbon tail worm.
Another staple you’ve got to have when they move out deep is a big crankbait. You know, when they’re down there and you’re dragging that worm through them and they’re not biting, this will get a reaction bite. And this is the new SPRO—well, I say new, it's relatively new—it’s the SPRO Outsider DD80. This thing’s going to get to about 20 foot on 15 LB fluorocarbon.
And I’ll interchange this, depending on which lake I’m on. They have a medium diver that gets 10 to 12 foot. And it’s all relative. You know, some places that are really clear, they get 16–20 foot, sometimes 30 foot deep, and you need this bigger plug. But on places that, you know, they get shallower—like on the Tennessee River—those shallower bars, they really move out there offshore and get 10 to 12, maybe 14 feet at the most. The medium diving version of this would be the go-to. But any kind of deep-diving plug is going to accomplish the same thing.
What you’re wanting to do is make long casts through the schools of fish that you find on your graph and you’re wanting to burn this bait through it and burn it. Stop. Make erratic stop and goes with it and try to trigger that school to bite. If you get one fish to bite, you’ll ignite the whole school and you can catch them cast after cast after cast. It’s an extremely fun way to fish.
But usually by July those schools have been pounded on and beat on and that’s the reason why we’re bouncing back and forth between shallow and deep. You know, you can’t go wrong just kind of testing and sampling because each day is different. Conditions of each day are going to be different and this will allow you to cover water out offshore fast and then decide whether you need to get back up on the bank or stay with it.
Again, 15 LB Seaguar InvizX line. I like the X series Phenix rod. That’s a composite rod. This is a X12. I would probably go up to a X14 with this big plug. X12 is perfect for the medium diving version. I like a 6.6:1 SPRO reel. This is, again, the JC Elite MG. It’s new this year. And yeah, I mean, a big plug has got to be in the mix in this deal.
One of them that you probably didn’t anticipate coming from me was a spoon. You know, I’ve been with Nichols Lures a long time. They build some of the best spoons in the industry. And one thing I’ve learned about a spoon is no matter what species you’re fishing for, if they will not bite anything else in the boat, you can make them bite the spoon.
It’s just something about the way you’re snapping it up and it’s fluttering down that they can’t resist it, especially on, you know, at the end of the summer like we’re talking about in July. These fish have been pounded on. They’ve seen every bait sold at every tackle store and you kind of got to trick them a little bit and this is a fantastic way to trick them.
This is the standard size 6 inch. They come in a wide variety of sizes and I match them to the primary bait of whatever lake I’m on. If I’m on the Tennessee River, I might be throwing the mini magnum 8 inch. If I’m on, or even the magnum spoon that—you know it got its name on the Tennessee River at Kentucky Lake because of those big giant gizzard shad.
Places like Hartwell or places, you know, that have smaller baitfish and herring, this is the color to throw or the size to throw. Lake Travis, I had the win there in 2018. I was fishing this on deep docks and this is the size I was throwing because those shad were spawning on those docks in the morning. Those fish were getting way down deep, suspending throughout the day, and this is the size I was throwing it on.
Super important to make sure that you’re casting into the fish or past the fish, snapping your rod up and letting this bait fall on slack line and watching your line because these fish hit this thing on slack line. And you got to have a high-speed gear ratio reel, like this 8.0:1, to take up that slack and catch up to that fish.
It’s a fun way to fish, exciting way to fish. And again, it gets bites when they’re not wanting to bite anything. You are making a fish bite when you’re snapping this flutter spoon through them.
20 LB Seaguar InvizX on this a 7'4" heavy M1 rod. Again, for the same reasons as those other ones. Great tip, good parabolic bend. It’s great for a treble hook bait. Doesn’t wear you out. Super lightweight.
You know, those are my setups if I’m trying to go fish in my neck of the woods in the South in July. It allows me to keep the shallow fish honest, both the deep fish, check them out, and it’s just a fun way to attack a lake in the South in July.
