Profiling Bass In Lakes – Mid-Summer
by Adam Johnson
Wow, my e-mail tells me
you really appreciate the information I’m giving you
regarding finding fish. As I stated earlier, there’s a
lot of information out there on how to catch fish, but
very little on how to find them. When you think about
it, finding fish is the most important aspect of
fishing. If you don’t find them, you can pull every
trick out of the book and never get a bite. Find them
and you will catch them.
I fish for largemouth
bass all over the country in lakes, rivers and
reservoirs. You all hear the old saying, “A bass is a
bass no matter where you find them,” which basically is
saying that whether you’re on a natural lake in the
northern United States or a man-made lake in the south,
all bass act alike. I maintain that the body of water
does have a lot to do with where you will find bass
because of the nature of the structure, the forage base,
recreational and fishing pressure, maximum and average
depths, and the lack-of or abundance of vegetation. So,
a bass is a bass, when it comes to catching them. Think
specifics when it comes to the body of water you’re
trying to find them on.
It’s time for an
example to illustrate my point. It’s mid-August Dog
Days and I’m on a lake in east-central Iowa. The
maximum depth is 60 feet and there is very little
vegetation due to the grass carp there. Man-made
structure is prevalent in the lake in depths from 15 to
30 feet. There is a protected slot limit on this lake
so there are lots of 14 to 20 inch bass.
The forage base is well
developed consisting of shiners, shad, and little
bluegills. The surface water temperature in the shallow
back bays is very warm, pushing 80 degrees on the
average. Water visibility is limited due to the algae
and the bite has been tough from the information gleaned
from the local anglers.
This scenario is common
all over the country at given times of the year. How do
we find those bass? And once we do, how do we catch
them?
Since the bays are
carrying very warm water with marginal oxygen
concentrations I’m going to put all of my efforts on
points and mid-lake structure in the main basin. Bass
will move shallower at night to feed but during sunup
I’m going to work the deep edges on the rock and rubble
and right over the tops of that deep man-made structure.
The problem with
man-made structure is these are community spots that get
pounded hard by anglers so any fish that are on this
cover are well-conditioned and require a spot-on
presentation. During a tough bite your odds go up when
you locate a school of bass that haven’t been harassed
on a daily basis.
Largemouth bass do
school and can be in tight pods in the heat of summer.
When these groups of bass are in deeper water on
structure they can be pinpointed with a sonar. This is
why I start out my search on a point, hump or a piece of
man-made structure by using a faster approach to strain
water quickly. As I move along the structure I’m either
going to spot a school on the sonar or catch one with
the lure I’m using.
Now I’ve ruled out the
bays and backwaters and shallow stump fields and any
marginal shallow vegetation. I’ve ruled in deeper
mid-lake structure which I cast around with a
deep-diving crankbait.
You can almost always
get one bass in a school to react to a fast moving
crankbait. After that, you may need some finesse to
generate more bites. For this I use a plastic worm.
With a plastic worm
during tough conditions you can get those bass to bite
by keeping the bait in front of them for a while. Don’t
be in a hurry with the retrieve. Let the worm sink to
bottom and sit there. Twitch it a few times before
hopping it a little. Your retrieve should be
painstakingly slow. Bass will react to something that
looks edible twitching on the bottom.
When you catch a bass
under these conditions work that exact spot for more. I
often toss out a marker buoy or punch in the spot on my
GPS. I have been in situations that resemble this
scenario all over the country and on some of my better
days I have caught 25 to 30 bass off a spot no bigger
than 25 yards square. It’s amazing how many anglers are
programmed to keep on moving after they caught a fish.
It’s a bad move under these conditions.
This pattern holds up
for those hot-weather mid-summer months and then once
the cool nights begin to drop the surface temps and turn
the leaves from green to gold you can go shallow again.
For now think deep, think mid-lake or main-basin
structure and when you find fish sit tight. There are
bass biting, you just need to find them.
Adam Johnson is an
Aquatic Biologist and professional outdoorsman. He can
be reached at
www.adamjohnsonoutdoors.com .
