Bass Enthusiast - Seven Top Spots for Shallow Summer Largemouth Bass

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Seven Top Spots for Shallow Summer Largemouth Bass

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Seven Top Spots for Shallow Summer Largemouth Bass

As the days get longer and the bass become lazier, use these tips to catch shallow summer largemouth bass.

Seven Top Spots for Shallow Summer Largemouth Bass

Vegetation

If a lake has shallow vegetation in the summer, don't look anywhere else because bass will definitely be in it. The grass does not have to be thick or heavy hydrilla, it can be something as simple as scatter pondweed, lily pads, or small patches of shoreline wiregrass. Regardless of the species of vegitation, it will attract and hold bass.

There are a number of different types of lures which can be used to fish shallow vegetation ranging from early morning top waters to plastic worms. Usually if you start the day fishing the vegetation, start with a top water popper along the deeper outside edge of the grass line and if the vegetation has mat on the surface like hydrilla, try using a plastic frog or rat over the top. Small shallow running crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and even buzzbaits can be used too.

Back of Creeks

In lakes without vegetation as well as in river systems in which the current is largely controlled by releasing through dams, summer bass frequently move to the backs of creeks. The most important requirement for a creek to hold summer bass is current with cover with a close second. The current is critical because it keeps the water oxygenated and a few degrees cooler, especially if the creek is spring-fed. Creeks without this current tend to become stagnated by late summer and do not usually offer good fishing.

Cover is also very important in this pattern and the best types tend to be stumps, trees, and laydowns. If bass can use the channel itself as cover, then stumps and trees may not be required, but the very back of a creek will always be more productive if other cover is available.

If this situation like this is slow roll a small spinner bait along the bottom and bounce it off the stumps and laydowns. Make long casts into water just 15 in. deep because you don’t want to run the risk of spooking the fish with the boat. Then just start to slowly wind the lure back. Another lure to use is a small square billed crankbait that can be fished slowly along the bottom and come through cover well. Plastic worms and craw worms can be productive, but this is really one place where spinnerbaits are easily the top choice for most anglers.

Mouths of Small Creeks

On river systems and occasionally on lakes where power generation produces a noticeable current, the mouths of small tributes may provide another shallow water option although it is not always as reliable as the back of them. This pattern works best on the downstream point and when the current is present. The current usually forms a small eddy around the downstream point where bass may gather to feed. The actual size of the productive zone may be quite small so accurate casting is very important.

This is the time to use small plastic worms or jigs, pitching them slightly up current from the point and letting the water wash them down across the point into the eddy. It is not a pattern that tends to produce a lot of fish from a single spot, but it you are heading upstream or downstream and see such a point, it is worth a try.

Boat Docks and Piers

Most reservoirs have some boat docks and piers and they can offer another shallow water alternative in the summer. On docks with pilings, normally the pilings themselves hold the fish and most often bass will be on the shady side near the bottom. On floating piers, bass frequently suspend underneath the dock itself, and shade becomes the key ingredient. Usually docks with pilings are more reliable and tend to hold bass longer.

The preferred lure for pilings is either a Texas rigged worm or a tube lure, which can be either pitched or skipped underneath the structure, then hopped along the bottom around each piling. For floating docks, a 1/2 oz. spinnerbait that is run just out of site underneath the floats. If the spinnerbait does not produce, switch to a light swimming jig and work it the same way beneath the dock.

Standing Timber

On many of the deeper clear water lakes located in the Midwest and West where oxygen is often depleted in later summer, bass frequently suspend in or over standing timber. Even though the trees may be in water 50ft deep and not even visible, the fish themselves may be less then 10ft below the surface.

This is a great place to throw a big topwater like a Zara Spook or a jointed Redfin, and just slowly wobble it across the surface. Your boat may be in 100ft of water out in the middle of a cover, but the bass aren't deep at all and they will smash a topwater.

Bridges

Rater than studying the piling structures themselves, anglers should study the bottom near bridges very carefully for some type of change. This may or may not be the actual river channel itself, but instead a pile of rock s on the downstream side, or perhaps a washed-out hold along an abutment. Many larger bridges also will have logs, brush and other debris piled against one or more abutments on their upstream sides. These help to attract and hold bass at a bridge too.

When in this situation, the two best lures are shallow crankbaits or plastic worms. In addition a fisherman can use spinnerbaits and even buzzbaits when fished right beside the abutments.

Riprap

The riprap around bridges, dams, and other places on a lake also offer excellent warm weather fishing. The rocks themselves often have algae growing on them which attract minnows, crawfish and smaller fish that feed there and may use the cracks and holes between the rocks for shelter. Bass prowl the riprap looking for these fish. Look for larger rocks rather than smaller ones and if there is a small area of larger rocks surrounded by smaller ones, the better. Bass prefer larger rocks. Next look for corners in the riprap, places where the wall of rocks create a bend or even where it ends. Not only do these places offer something different, but they are also transition zones where the bottom conditions may change.

Slowly rolling a spinnerbait parallel to the rocks and bumping them with the lure is the best technique here, but also a square billed crankbait covering water down to about 4 feet.