By Chris Erwin
As the days and weeks of summer pass by, our time on the water can be a blistering affair. Many anglers put up their rods waiting for the cooler period following the hottest days of the year, but there are ways to continue to catch fish even if the summer heat is beating you down.
Over my many years of fishing tournaments and guiding fishing trips, I have learned a few tricks and tips from the many people I have had the pleasure to fish with, and I want to share a few of them with you. These tips will help you catch fish when your friends have elected to stay at home watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island.
For this article, I will break it down into two parts. The first is for old-school guys and gals who don’t really use electronic gadgets. The second part we will call 20 foot electronic “spot” fishing. This is for the guys who have high-end electronics, but haven’t been all that successful with them.
To the people whom, for whatever reason, don’t use electronics you can still catch your share of summer bass, but you need to think in a little different way. While you may still catch some fishing on the main lake around weeds during the low-light periods, most of the time this topwater action is short-lived and as the day heats up the fish migrate to deep water. However, if you elect to go up into the rivers that feed the lake a few things are working in your favor. Current will help keep the water oxygenated and narrow shaded banks also give some relief from the blistering sun for you and the fish.
When you are in the river, take a look at your map. Notice the outside bends where the channel swings in close to the bank. If there happen to be standing trees eight or ten feet from the bank, you can bet this is the channel edge. This is a place where you want to spend some time. This time of the year, fish will suspend around the secondary trees usually in 14 to 20 feet of water. Your task is to try different lures that can get down to where they are: crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and swimming jigs. Once you find something they want, you’re on your way to putting some fish in the boat.
If you just bought that big depth finder that has more buttons than your keyboard, it’s time you start using that puppy and mid-summer is a good place to start. You may need to read your instructions until you get the hang of recognizing both hard bottom and fish. Finding structure is not that hard and while that may come in handy, you need to be able to find hard bottom and fish.
The biggest mistake I see guys make is always hunting schools of fish or shad. While this has its time and place, and fishing around them may produce a few fish, I have found that most of the time these fish are inactive and hard to catch. If you think about it the most aggressive fish are loners. This is true in the middle of summer as well. If you locate hard bottom and find a pair or single fish and you put something right in front of them I have found these fish are more aggressive three or four passes of a lure should let you know if you need to move on.
I look for a hard bottom in 15 feet of water to begin with, and then try to spot single fish. You might just get a surprise!
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