Beat the heat for summertime bass
With summer weather in full swing, the temperatures have been soaring into the 90’s and humidity reaching nearly 100 percent means fishing can become rough.
To understand warm-water fishing you have to be able to understand what is going on in the water and with the fish. First thing is oxygen, we need, fish need it.
We get more direct sunlight in the summer and this sunlight heats up the water’s surface. When the water warms, it decreases the water density along with the amount of dissolved oxygen the water can hold. The warm water stays at the surface because it is less dense, while the cooler water will be under this upper warm layer of water. This change in temperature is known as a thermocline.
With the cool oxygenated water down deep means there will be more fish down there as well, so in order to catch them you will have to go deep. As to how deep depends on a number of factors. How hot has it been? How long has the heat lasted? How deep is the body of water fished?
There are a number of ways to go deep, but I’ll talk about two general tactics; slow presentation and fast presentation. For a slow presentation you can Texas or Carolina rig a soft plastic bait and try pitching to some structure that is deep. This could be many things like a flat, point or brush pile. Bass like to suspend in these cool water areas when they are not actively searching for a meal.
For a fast presentation tie on a long bill crankbait that can get down to where the fish are. This is a great idea if you are looking to cover a lot of water in a hurry. Same tactics apply, find some cover and cast around it to see if you can get a strike.
You don’t always have to fish deep during the hot summer days. A somewhat common sense approach is to fish at night. Bass will still feed at night, just instead of using sight they will use their lateral line to detect vibrations in the water to hunt their prey. Air temperatures are at there coolest at night and this will bring down the surface water temperatures a few degrees as well. You can use all the same tricks you use during the day you will just have to know the body of water you are fishing a little better to avoid spending all your time in the trees.
Another method to try during the daylight hours is to work shady areas. Bass like them just like we do. The surface water temperature in the shade can change by several degrees because the sun has not been able to cast its rays on the water’s surface. Try pitching a soft plastic under docks or against bridge pylons. For those with a skilled cast try skipping bait deep under the branches of a tree hanging over the water.
A tactic I like to use a lot is speeding up my retrieve. If the fish are just not biting because the temperature is too high, normally during the middle of the day, you can try to evoke a reaction strike. For this I like to use spinners. The big blade makes a lot of noise and when it is cruising along under the water at a quick pace it is making even more noise. This could get a bass to strike out of instinct.
Last tactic I’m going to talk about is finding current. Current mixes up the cooler deep water with warm surface water to make the water temperature pleasant for the fish at all depths. Also baitfish can’t swim as well in current, so they have to go with the flow. Bass will find a place to park in the current and wait for their meal to come to them.
This can be done fairly easily on a stream, as there is constantly a current. On a reservoir current normally only occurs when they are letting water out. So if it has been a dry summer you’re probably not going to find it so easily. If fishing a natural lake, try fishing on the windward side of the lake as the wind will create natural waves and push the baitfish to that side of the lake.
Give these methods a try on your next hot day on the water and maybe the fishing will be hot as well. For those that have questions or want to see a certain topic covered contact me at sam@marysvillejt.com.