Some Ideas for Beating the Summer Doldrums
It's well documented every summer that the heat removes the oxygen from the water and the bass spend more time suspending than they do feeding. The thing that most people don't know is that bass actually feed more in the summer than any time of the year. The problem is the feeding is generally limited to early morning or late evening so if you're not on the water early or late you struggle more often than not.
One thing that I find is that as the summer moves on the bass move deeper into the grass and believe it or not they actually move shallow off the deep points and ledges. So finding fish in less than 10 feet of water becomes easier as the summer changes in July and August. Head to the grass in the slews early in the morning and you will see more activity than on the deep ledges. This allows you to fish top-water in active areas because you can visually see them feeding around the shallow grass areas. It also allows you to utilize many of the new swim baits out there on the market. I find that the jerking action of swim baits over grass is just deadly during periods of early or late feeding in the hot summer. As stated above the problem is you may only have a few hours each day where this activity exists, so you have to take advantage of it while it lasts.
This summer I have found that we have had many early mornings where the wind has been tough on the top water activity. The good news is you just need to find areas protected from the wind and you can catch the bass. So far this year buzz baits have been deadly over the shallow grass just slightly under the water. My favorite is SWL buzz baits; they are just killing this bait in the active back waters. To help you get started you can buy them on line at www.secretweaponlures.com and use my FLGGS9 promo code and get a 30% discount on line. Hope this helps you find some of those tough summer bites.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email: bassguide@comcast.net
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry