Alright, it's summertime and it seems like the fish have all disappeared. Well, relatively speaking, they have. They're certainly not all up a shadow like they were in the spring.
But where have they gone and how do you catch them? Well, first thing you need to know guys is they're not all deep. A lot of people will tell you they're all deep. You'll see articles, you'll see videos, they say they're all deep. That's not true. They're not.
What happens is right after the spawn, when they're all shallow as a group, they all start to make their way deep but there's a there's going to be a group. Of them they'll stay shallow all summer long if they can find the shade and if they can find the the weeds and the bait fish they're going to stay there all summer long there's no reason for them to go any further if they got all of what they need right there so there's a percentage of the population that's shallow then as you move up a little bit deeper maybe the next drop next edge there's another percentage of the fish that are going to stay there because again they found. The weeds they need, the cover they need, they found the the bait fish.
That's their comfort zone and then you go out on a long tapering point and somewhere along there they're a little bit deeper. There's going to be a group there. That's their comfort zone. Then finally there's the rest of the fish that are all out deep and that's their comfort zone.
What I'm trying to say is now the fish are all spread out. They're not concentrated like they were in the springtime, so it's a little more difficult to find them. But it's key for you to be able to fish them in all the different depths, and that's what we're talking about today.
Let's talk about shallow first.
One of the great ways to to catch them shallow is to go after the shade. Shade can be created by docks, by boulders. By Canyon walls, whatever it may be.
And one of the great ways to go after them is with a wake bait. And I'm just going to go straight to the pro tip here, a wake bait, you know, it goes right on the surface.
But take a hitchhiker trailer spring and you can attach your trailer to it and attach that to the rear hook of your wake bait.
The trailer I'm talking about is like a four or 6 inch finesse worm, like a Roboworm or a Magic Worm from Missile Baits. It's got a lot of movement and it's almost like a hand poured type bait and you take your wake bait, take your rod tip, point it up at 11:00 position and you're working it back really slow.
It wobbles on the surface and it looks like it's got a tail. It looks like a. Rat guys, it really does. It looks like a rat and you bring along the shady side of docks and a lot of times it's a presentation the bass don't see. It looks real to them. They're going to blast it or bring it along a bluff, a rock bluff.
A lot of times those fish are up shallow, even though it's a deep bluff, they're up in the upper column of water and bringing that rat type bait is a great way to catch them.
Now if you're not getting bit that way, you can do more traditional, take that tail off snd bring your rod tip, point it down towards the water. And work the bait just relatively slow, it'll be just under the surface and you know, in that 2 foot column of of water and again, working along the docks and working along those rocks on the shady side of the rocks, shady side of weeds, dock houses.
They work really good boat houses. Houseboats. Pontoon boats, all kinds of stuff that cast shade. Working along there and you can catch a lot of fish up shallow that way, be very, very productive.
Now if they're not in there, another way to fish again shallow is go back in the back of some the main tributaries, coves, bays where there's lay downs.
Bass will hang out in the limbs of those lay downs all summer long. It's relatively shallow, you know, 3-5 feet deep maybe.
A great way to fish those is with a square bill. Crankbait. Square bills are designed to work through tree limbs without getting hung up. Not that they will never get hung up, but the body design, the lip design, is designed to deflect off those without the hooks getting impaled on the wood.
So use a square bill. If it's really relatively shallow, work on the outer edges of the limbs first and then work your way in deeper. Some days they'll be on the outside of the days they'll be more in the core.
You just have to find out by fishing those areas until you can determine where they're hanging out. And try different speeds. Working it fast typically is the best way to do it. 17 LB fluorocarbon line, let it bounce and ricochet off those those limbs.
And a lot of times when it bounces off those limbs it triggers a strike. So that's a great way to fish it.
But if they're not hitting it with a fast retrieve, then slow down working more methodically and slower. And you can catch a lot of fish that way.
If they're not going after the really aggressive, they don't go on a fast moving baits.
Another bait to throw in that same area is a spinnerbait. You'd be surprised how well spinnerbait works through the tree limbs of lay downs.
And again, work it fast. That's my initial way I would do it. I work it really fast and then you can work it slow too if you need to.
But double Willow leaf. 3/8 oz. White spinner bait, gold blades. That's bread and butter man, and you can work it through those limbs really well.
The reason I'm telling you this is because a lot of guys go after those type of lay downs with vertical presentations, jigs and worms, and a lot of times the fish aren't used to seeing something coming horizontal.
So those two are horizontal presentations that a lot of times the fish don't see and you'll get more bites that way.
Now, another way to fish is with jigs, and here I'll use a couple things.
First of all, I'm going after a little bit deeper water. We're moving out deeper. Deeper weed beds like milfoil, hydrilla, they have outside weed lines and inside weed lines. I would go after those.
The irregularities is what you're looking for. So maybe there's a cut or maybe a point that's formed by these weeds or a pocket or an area where it gets really sparse and then it gets thick again.
That could signify A contour change or maybe a change in bottom composition. Maybe there's a hole in the weeds that might be a log in there or a rock or a stump, something that breaks it up.
Those irregularities, that's what I want to target.
With these jigs, and I'm using heavier jigs, half oz jigs with big bulky trailers on them, like a space monkey on them.
Something that's big, presents a big profile, a good meal and drops fast.
I think this time of year, the speed, the rate of fall is far more important than the color of the jig. It's that action is what what triggers that bite that fast fall.
So for that reason, cast up, let it fall. If you don't get bit, reel up and throw again, you're looking for a bite on the fall.
So don't worry about working the jig on the bottom like you do other times of the year here. You're looking to trigger that bite, force the bite.
I'm forcing an inactive fish to bite by bringing that by him. He's got to react to it quick.
So a heavier jig and then you can go up to a three quarter oz and jig and do this.
If you're able to live in a rocky area like a Canyon Lake with not a lot of weeds, I'll go a three quarter oz jig and I'll bang it on the rocks. Click, click, click, click, click.
And that attracts bass, and you'd be surprised how well you can catch fish that way.
Yeah, the heavier jigs work really well. It's that fall and that action in a big bulky profile. That's what gets a bite.
And then lastly is using worms again, I'll use a heavier like 3/8 ounce to 1/2 ounce bullet sinker and a large profile worm, 10 inch, 12 inch worm here.
I'm probing a bit deeper. I'm the deeper weed beds, the humps that have grass beds on them or maybe a point that's got some scattered. Isolated clumps of weeds.
Don't overlook those guys. Those isolated weeds, isolated stumps, isolated rocks, those typically. Harbor a large fish on them, so don't just skip by them because you don't got a bunch of bunch of them.
Those usually have some really good bites to them.
But a big size worm is what they're what they're going to bite this time of year. So working it worm through that area.
You can bounce it slowly, but a lot of times that's fall again, that'll trigger that bite.
But if you want to work it on the bottom a little bit more, you can do that if the bite's really off and you want to crawl it on the bottom.
This works especially well if a rocky bottom.
Use a football head jig. 1/2 ounce football head jig again. You're using a 10 inch worm or 12 inch worm and you think, well, that hook is way up in the front.
A lot of times guys, the bass will hit it at the head of the bait, whatever if it's falling or if it's moving forward, they bite at the head and that's where the hook is.
So you'd be surprised. I've got some really small fish on giant worms and they they bite at the front.
So an open hook football jig works great if you want to work it along the bottom.
If you work say a a sloping point into a main Creek channel.
Creek channels that swing in close to the shoreline where you've got steeper banks work really well to fish all these baits because you can fish all those water depths in that water column with the presentations I just told you.
But if you're not getting it by now, I haven't mentioned lower colors because it's all about presentation. That's the key thing, and finding the fish and the bait fish.
If you can put all that together, you're going to catch fish with these techniques I just told you about.
Hope that helps.
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