Find summer bass fishing tricks, tips that can help you catch fish on the warmest days. Learn about the places, lures, techniques to use all summer long.
Summer bass fishing can put your catching skills to the test, particularly if you live in the Southern States, but that's also part of the allure. Reeling in a respectable Micropterus salmoides during the spring months doesn't require you to have all that many tricks up your sleeve. Late summer bass fishing, on the other hand, may require you to use a few magical tips, along with the best summer bass fishing lures.
1. Go early or go late
If you're wondering when to fish for bass during late summer, the key is to get out on the water before sunrise to beat the heat. If you can't go early, plan to fish around dusk. The best times to fish for bass will be during the cooler periods of the day. This is one of the most important fundamentals of summer bass fishing for beginners.
2. Choose your summer fishing waters wisely
Consider ponds, lakes or reservoirs that are either thick with vegetation, or that are relatively deep. Vegetation contributes to higher levels of dissolved oxygen, and bass need more oxygen as water temperatures rise. Also, as you might imagine, deeper water is generally cooler. This means that bass can often be found on the deep side of drop-offs and ledges as air and water temperatures rise.
3. Start shallow, move to deep
If you've been reading about all those bass fishing tips that apply to shallow water, it's time to expand your mindset. You can start shallow early in the morning, but be prepared to take your summer bass fishing game to deeper waters as the sun climbs higher in the sky. The trick to catching hot weather fish in deeper water will depend on your ability to locate structure.
4. Use a contour map or topographic map
When you're learning how to fish, one of the best things you can do is find and use a contour map to locate structure in deeper water. These maps are particularly useful for late summer bass fishing trips, when hot weather pushes fish to depths where the water is cooler. A contour map will help you find useful clues about bottom composition and submerged structure. Take note of any rock piles, humps, flats, channels, and submerged points.
5. Get out your crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and soft plastic rigs
Get out your deep-diving crankbaits, heavy spinnerbaits, and soft plastic rigs. . Use your Texas-rigged or Carolina-rigged soft plastic worms in the shallows early, but then break out the deep-diving crankbaits and spinnerbaits to work around deep drop-offs and ledges during the warmer mid-morning hours.
Now you have a few summer bass fishing tricks to pull out of your hat if the warm weather bite starts to slow down. For more bass fishing tips and techniques that apply to other seasons of the year, check out the freshwater fishing pages.
