Largemouth Bass Summer Facts
In clear water slowly crawl bait through pockets in the weeds
Your best bet is to fish in the outer edges of weed beds, moving with the shadows as the sun changes position throughout the day. Bass don’t spend their time in the sunny areas.
Summer is the easiest time to catch Largemouth Bass.
Most bass inhabit the same waters as the bait fish and recently hatched schools of forage fry. This means waters with varying bottom compositions of mud to rock and ranging from 4 to 20 feet deep.
Largemouth bass feeding areas will be surrounded with pockets of plant growth that offer shade, protection, and excellent hunting. They’ll hunt on the deep side of weed beds.
- Consider the angle of the sun and the shadows cast from the weed beds to determine where to work the lures.
They spend most of the time in the shady areas of structures.
Summer fishing tips
- In muddy water, present your bait in quick jumps along the deep side of the structure.
- In clear water, slowly crawl it through pockets in the weeds.
- With floating weed beds, hook a 6 or 8 inch golden shiner at the base of its tale and coax it to swim under the weed bed.
This technique hooks big bass that like the cooler shallow waters. However this method can also land you Northern Pike.
- Copy the pattern of a wounded bait fish using a minnow and a bobber. Bass are very quick to pick up on the these sonic signatures.
The best way to do this is to lightly hook the minnow under its back fin, placing the bobber above the minnow with enough line in between to allow the minnow to reach inches from the bottom. Add enough weight to let the minnow swim to the surface and drift downwards and therefore imitate a wounded bait fish.
Summer bass fishing lures
- On hot summer afternoons, use dead shiners with spinnerbaits. Hook a large dead shiner through both lips on a mid to large treble hook with a tail.
- Try fishing the bottom areas with plastic worms, jig-and-minnow combinations or slow moving spinnerbaits.
- In muddy water use crankbaits. Only use these in muddy water though because you’ll risk startling the fish
The only time they feed on the surface is on windy, overcast days or under low-light conditions.
During the peak of summer when the heat becomes strongest, the bass move to cooler shady water close to the bottom.
In clear conditions Largemouth Bass feed predominantly by sight. Avoid using rattle-type lures in these conditions.
Spinnerbaits
Bass approach spinnerbaits from the side. And as such the hits feel soft. Any movement on spinnerbaits should be answered with a quick pull to set the hook.
To enhance the action of the spinnerbait, add a stinger, a trailer hook – a No. 2/0 or larger, with a large eye over the point and barb of the hook on the lure.
How to fish the lure
Bass prefer lures that are still fished and barely moved. When the lure is moved, drag it very slowly and cover barely an inch at a time. It’s likely that a bass has struck the lure when a change in pressure and line tension occurs, or when the line is lightly twitched and tapped.
Some anglers choose weighted worm lures to easily set the hook after a strike, and use stronger 17 lb test line in obstruction filled waters.
Topwater lures
Topwater lures are the most popular and easy to fish. They can be used in all depths, thrown into pockets of weeds, twitched, or left unmoving. Larger bass may quietly strike a lure, while smaller bass cause explosive surface strikes.
A large bass will swim beneath the sitting lure, and pull the lure into its mouth with the movement of its gills. These strikes are easy to miss because the fish leaves behind only a small surface whirlpool in its wake.
Fishing with topwater lures require a lot of patience. Many bass strike a lure left sitting unmoved for more than 2 or 3 minutes.
Depending on the geographic location, summer bass fishing conditions last between 2 and 6 months. Summer is characterized by the fish and lakes having established warm water patterns, spawning is complete, plant growth has matured and the lake ecosystem is at its growing peak.
