Seasonal Patterns
Summertime

One of the best baits to use in the summertime is the Buzzbait - "Summertime is Buzzbait time!" It is also topwater time in general, especially in the morning. Why? Because this is still a feeding time for the bass, the sun and direct heat aren't overhead yet. Once that sun comes up, any fish you might see in the shallows are going to be hard to catch and easily spooked. My two favorite baits are the buzzbait and the topwater frog.

You can bet that once that sun starts to move up in the sky and the water temp starts warming up quickly, those bass are going to move deeper or to shaded areas.

The lures that I like to use are lures that mimic baitfish and natural forage, like shad or baby bass. These can be extremely effective, especially if you speed up or slow down your presentations and retrieves to match the specific conditions.

I say this from experience. The second largest bass I ever caught was on a deep diving crankbait, shad pattern, in the middle of a 100 degree summer day, working the bait along a deep creek channel towards the middle of the lake. When the bass hit I actually thought I got the lure snagged on the bottom, then the line started coming up as I just held constant pressure on the line. It was a nice 8 ½ pound hog. 

When the heat really gets up there in the summer (dog days of summer), you can bet the bass have moved deep. The best place to get the Lunkers are the along the points and channels of the lake. This is like their "fall back" position where they expend little energy to eat a passing baitfish when they decide to feed. Another great bait for this pattern is a carolina-rigged worm or lizard worked slowly in and over the channels and main lake points.

By:
JD
Lunker USA (www.lunkerusa.com)

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