Hey guys, Wes Logan here with Bassresource. I want to break down a little bit of summertime fishing for you and I'm talking about anywhere from early summer to the dog days where everybody thinks it's so hard to get a bite and it really is but there's a few things that I've learned over the years that can kind of battle that and still, even when it's a grind, you can still make the best of it and still be able to do good if you're in a local tournament or just want to go out there and catch some fish.
But basically picking up in the early summer. So this is going to be full-blown, post-spawn, probably not going to be a lot of fish left on the bed, water temperature mid 70s or low 70s to all the way up. I mean, depending on what part of the country you're in, the water can get up to 90 degrees, 95 degrees sometimes if you're in Texas or Alabama, anything like that.
But starting out in the early summer or late spring, I guess you could say, you're going to be dealing with shad spawn 90% of the time when that water temperature ever gets above 69 to 70. I start looking for it around 68 in the mornings and even if the time of year is right, I have seen in practicing for tournaments or looking, fishing places at different times of the year, that water temperature can actually start in the mornings and be about 65 to 66 and if you read your Bass Master book, it'll say that a shad spawn most of the time doesn't start until 70 degrees. Well, that may be the case, but when that water hits 70 degrees at 1:00 in the afternoon, you'll actually start seeing a shad spawn start up. And I've done that quite a bit and actually caught some fish off of it and have ran that pattern in a tournament where I've kind of fished spawning fish or just regular different patterns and then the sun gets real high and the water gets picked up, the temperature does and then you go run some shad spawn places and they could be in the shade or they could be in the sun. I've seen it go both ways, but that's a really unique deal that I've seen that not a lot of people kind of pick up on.
And that's also a good way to, if you have a warming trend coming up, like where let's say that it's been a little bit cool and now it's going to be hot for the next week, but when you start seeing that shad spawn happen in the middle of the day, it could be two or three days later, but that shad spawn is going to be wide open in the morning. It may give you a little head start on guys that don't really know what's going on because when it happens in the morning, a lot of times it doesn't happen, but only an hour or two. So if you're already knowing to look for that in places, you could kind of be ahead of the game and catch a few more fish and get on that deal before a lot of people do.
But just aside from the shad spawn in the early spring, you're going to be dealing with fish that are probably going to be a little bit lethargic from a female standpoint. They're going to be laid up in a little bit of thick stuff, just kind of recuperating basically because it normally takes them two or three weeks when we catch them. They'll be kind of beat up, have a few sores on them, be a little bit skinny because they've just been through the vigorous cycle of their spawning deal.
So I kind of try and focus on places that it's almost like a pre-spawn deal. The same places they would kind of set up before they go on the bed is sometimes the same places they'll set up coming off.
The biggest deal with them coming off the bed is that's when your offshore deal kind of comes into play a lot more. If you have a ledge, ledges on your lake or offshore rock piles or brush piles, that's when I tend to start looking at that because even though the water temperature is warming up and people always think that, oh, it's getting hot, the fish want to go deep. The fish don't really care how hot it is. The fish are going where they can eat and the bait fish is what has a problem with the really hot water and lack of oxygen or stuff to do with that.
So the bass are pretty much just following where the bait fish are because they have to eat to survive. So if you've got gizzard shad and you're like, they don't like the hot water, they don't like being up shallow, they'll go out deep, they'll get on those ledges where there's a little bit of current or on those offshore rock piles, and that's kind of where those fish tend to gravitate to. The water is cooler out there, for sure, but that's not the only reason they're going out there. It's a lot more bait-related.
So if you're in a situation where you may not have a lot of offshore structure, the fish are still going to live shallow, and they'll be feeding on bluegill will be bedding in the summertime. You'll have crawfish spawns or crayfish depending on what part of the country you live in, and it's just however you want to attack it and how your place you fish sets up. But it doesn't always mean just because the water temperature is heating up that, the fish are all going deep, and there's no fish left on the bank. I mean, there's plenty of fish in both places most of the time.
From a bait standpoint, in the early summer, I really like, I'll swim a jig a lot depending on a shad spawn, or you'll have a white one or some kind of natural shad color. If you're around, you see some bluegill beds, some brim beds, and some pockets and stuff, a Pop-R is another really good bait, a buzzbait can be really good. I like to throw a gold blade that time of year just because of the bluegill and brim factor.
Going back to swimming a jig, you can throw a bluegill color kind of just with a Zoom swimmer, a Z-swimmer with a paddle tail. I'll chartreuse the tail sometimes because, if you'll notice in the summertime, those little brim and stuff will get kind of green tails on them so that's a really good deal.
And converting to flipping that time of year is when sometimes I'll pick the jig back up just because it does tend to get a bigger bite just like the pre-spawn situation. They're trying to feed back up and I do know, I have seen it multiple times where you may be fishing a big bait and you only get five to six bites a day when it's really hot but those bigger fish don't like to exert a lot of energy on smaller baits that time of year just because it's so hot and the way their metabolism is. A big fish is only going to try and eat two to three times a day but when she eats she's going to try and eat a big meal whether it be one or two gizzard shad or a big bluegill or a couple big crawfish, anything like that.
So that's a little aspect that people kind of don't tend to do. They think it gets hard and it's hard to get a bite so they want a downsize and that is true, you can take some bites but if you're in a tournament situation like I am normally myself I want to try and catch the biggest ones in the lake and even if that means going from 15 to 16 bites to 6 to 7 I'll take those odds if during the day they're all 3 to 5 pounders. So I'll try and lean towards a couple bigger baits that time of year, and this goes all the way through summer, but you can still get away with it, and it will be really good in the early summer.
Transitioning into what we call the dog days, it does get very challenging, but there's still fish out there to be caught. The thing that's going to happen is you're going to have little bite windows, and it can either happen first thing in the morning, you know, an hour after daylight or an hour before dark those are normally your most active times when it's really hot.
In a lot of places in the country, like down south where I live, every afternoon in the dog days, you get a storm roll up or something or some rain or some wind that kind of changes conditions that may trigger those fish to feed. So that's kind of one thing that I like to pay attention to just fishing around in the summertime, but in a tournament situation, you don't ever have that thunderstorm aspect in the afternoon a lot of the time. Sometimes it will roll in earlier, but the early morning bites normally are really good but there are times whether it be you know whatever cycle the moon's on or you know whatever might have happened the day before or something the fish may not bite first thing in the morning and a lot of times it will pick up really good like dead in the middle of the day, you know hottest can be, you know lunchtime, and you'll kind of be anticipating that because at some point they've got to feed and if it doesn't happen in the morning a lot of times if you just stay with it you'll see it start picking up around you know 10:00 to 12:00, I've seen it do it quite a bit.
From a bait situation with the dog days, it does get kind of deterring to go out there because you may only catch you know three or four during the day but that's where you know your big ribbon tail worms come in, whether you're fishing offshore with it throwing it on a big shaky head or throwing it in a brush pile or you know flipping it on a boat dock or you know throwing it in lay downs way up a river somewhere where you got a little bit of a current. That's kind of the number one go-to bait that I like to do. I don't know why, from a biologist standpoint, I have no idea why I like that 10 to 12-inch red worm, but something about it in the summertime, it gets them going and you can get a few extra bites on it. And you have a chance to catch a really big one. It's just a good way to go.
Top water is a really good thing early in the morning, and it's kind of just pick your poison, whatever you like to do, whether it be a frog, a buzzbait, a Pop-R, a walking bait, like an outlaw from art fishing. That's a really good one to throw, especially if you've got spotted bass or smallmouth in the mix in that situation.
But another thing I will, I don't get to do it a whole lot from a tournament aspect, but in those dog days, night fishing is a really big deal. You can have a lot of fun doing that out on your, whatever lake you're at because that's when they'll obviously be a lot more active. There's not nearly as much boat traffic. You won't have all the wave-making boats, the pontoons and the jet skis and all that stuff. It's a lot calmer time to fish.
But when I do get to go fishing at night, I'll throw a big red worm and also a big Colorado black and blue spinner bait's really hard to beat, just going down rocky banks or around boat docks, stuff like that. So just a little tidbit there, not really a tournament situation, but it is a good time to fish at night for sure.
But that's kind of my gist on summertime fishing. It can be tough, but there is times where you have little windows that open up that can make the day. We want to go fishing every day, and sometimes it's not great to go fishing when it's 95 outside, but we really want to go.
So hopefully looking into this and hearing what I had to say about it can help you put a few more fish in the boat and have an enjoyable day on the water or have a good tournament, even though it's in the dog days or pretty much the water temperature rising and getting like that, even though it can be tough. But it can still be a fun time to fish, and they're always biting somewhere. So I hope this helps, and we'll see you next time.
