THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Consider every depth …
Talk at the local tackle shop confirms that we are officially in the slower pattern of Texas summer fishing, so if you feel like you have a bad case of the mid-summer fishing yips, you’re not alone.
An extended spring and rainy season have kept a lot of sweet fishing spots active even into late June. But this can shake up a lot of the usual lures and retrieval methods you use.
For amazing top-water fishing, make sure you get out early in the morning — ideally even before first light.
Your chances of strikes on top-water baits will always be best when light isn’t directly shining on the water.
Sexy Frog or Swamp Lord?
One of the most popular lures for this time is the floating frog.
Rubber and hollow, and with two barbed hooks, the strings hanging from the back mimic legs underwater. In dim light, it looks pretty convincing to a hungry bass, out for breakfast.
Some tournament fishermen swear by giving both hooks a slight bend upward to increase strikes. Just remember that it does make the bait a lot-less weedless.
Walking-the-Dog
One top water bait that should not go overlooked is the Zara Puppy, or its much larger brother the Zara Spook.
For hybrid bass and largemouth, you use a technique called “walking-the-dog”, where you jerk the rod repeatedly while reeling to give the lure a zig-zag motion. On a choppy lake day, consider this simple bait.
Different Times
And some dedicated anglers say that night fishing at these times of year will always be the most productive.
After sunrise, the bass are going to start returning to their holding spots. These areas are always in the shade, and ideally with lots of underwater vegetation around them.
These two features keep the bass safe and camouflaged right in the paths of smaller baitfish. They also make the surrounding water richer with oxygen, as the plants begin to replenish the water that has lost a lot of its oxygen content.
At the highest points in the day, like high noon, you might skip fishing altogether, and wait till the temperature begins to drop, and the light begins to go back down.
Get off the Bank
Just because the fish aren’t up top, doesn’t mean you can’t catch them however. And with a little boat or a dock, you can get into deep water and begin jigging.
Jigs are silly looking lures, but they’re designed to imitate a lot of different creatures. They can be used to fish lizard baits, swimbaits, but the most common is something that looks kind of like a crawdad.
At these times of day, you can use your powers of deduction (or a depth finder/fish finder if you’re that mad at them), to isolate different deep spots with underwater structure and vegetation.
Hit these spots with patient and slow retrieval, and giving the fish plenty of time to consider your offering.
Evergreen Lures
Finally, we turn to a lure that’s good all the time: the Spinnerbait.
The spinnerbait follows in the trend of looking goofy, but it’s been catching fish since Bill Dance was in short pants.
The great thing about spinners, is that they can be fished at any depth, and if I had to pick one lure to keep tied on all day long, it would be some version of the spinnerbait.
Fast retrieval on top water for early morning action, slow cranking along the tops of moss beds in the afternoon, or just let it sink and jig it for a while.
Dress ’em up!
Spinnerbaits can be fished by themselves but are far more effective when a plastic bait like a grub or swimbait of any color is rigged on the hook. You can even add a trailer hook to the back and double your chances.
In Praise of Live Bait
Now before you go out with your shiny new lures, you might want to consider an older technique. Live bait dates back to the beginning of time, and for a good reason: fish are cannibals.
Though they may seem peaceful, most fish really are paranoid cannibals that prefer, above all else, the real thing.
When it feels like you’ve tried everything else, try live bait: minnows, worms, or honestly pretty much any other aquatic creature on a hook will work.
