Summer fishing for Australian Bass differs from other seasons for many reasons. These include weather, changing water conditions and different food preferences.

 

The summer months provide the best time to fish for bass, especially after dark. Warm evenings induce active insect life and stimulate feeding, while the long hot summer days drive the bass towards to bottom.

  • Pay special attention to weather changes and plan your trips around the barometer, preferring periods prior to summer thunderstorms.

As such, avoid fishing where bright sunlight strikes through the water or especially shallow areas. Instead search out traditional bass covers including under overhanging trees, by heavy reeds and weeds, under docks and around man-made retainers and overhanging river banks.

Australian Bass is a fish of instinct

The 3 instincts that will help you become successful against them are

  1. the instinct to feed
  2. the instinct to survive
  3. the instinct to defend their territory

Australian Bass can see above the water line and have good hearing, so don’t make too much noise, walk softly and wear drab colors. Also, if there’s a lot surface water activity, boating or animal life, find a quiet area of the river or wait until night.

 

These are binge feeders and it’s easy to get them to strike at natural baits. These work best when they’re feeding at night or during the day in deep water. When fishing at night, use spinners to get their attention.

 

Australian Bass strike lures out of a sense of territory, when they’re not striking, use lures that make noise and bright lights close to their resting grounds.

 

Click on these links for Night Fishing Techniques and Deep Water Techniques for catching Australian Bass and you’ll find more techniques and tips. We’ll also go further into detail about different lures and bait fish as well as different types of gear from rods and reels to netting.

Fly Fish in Australia

If you choose to fly fish, using the Teeny T-300 or T-400, the Lefty’s Deceiver with the big eye and the Dahlberg Diver on a strong 3/0 hook all work very well.

 

For more details on different bass tackle, check out our Lures in the tackle guide which goes into about hundreds of different lures, plugs, spoons, spinners, baits and other bass tackle. There are far too many types and combinations to cover them all here.

Feeding

Australian Bass are continuously hungry and require a large amount of food to thrive. They strike at aquatic insects, insects that fall into the water, shrimp, crayfish, blood worms, small fish and frogs.

 

Many experienced anglers claim that success with lures is not as high and requires more skill than using bait. However, combining live bait with spoons and spinners can prove to be an irresistible treat.

 

Casting lures are most successful with local anglers, preferring the use of surface and deep diving lures, diving plugs, minnows, poppers, crawlers, spinners, spoons, spinnerbaits and soft plastics lures.

 

Fishing for the Australian Bass, as we’ve mentioned before when discussing other techniques, is very similar to fishing for other bass species.

 

If you have any other techniques you’d like to add, drop us a line through the contact page.