Mid-Summer Bassin'
Summer is offically a few weeks old but the water is only in the high 70's. The weeds are long and green.
Leave the spoons & deep diving crankbaits in your tackle box. Now we are frogging with hollow body frogs for largies, and using texas rigged worms and creature baits.
Bright days call for a slower presentation and smaller worms thrown in the weeds in 6 to 15 feet of water. 10 lb. braid or stronger is needed to pull fish out of the grass. For a change up, rig a 10” Power worm or Zoom speed vibe just to give them a bait with more vibration and larger presence. Watermelon with red fleck, pumpkinseed and black/blue are go-to colors.
Hollow body frogs & Stanley Ribbits along the pads and casting into the first 10ft. of the pads can give you the most fun fishing without catching. You have to feel the weight of the fish before you set the hook and this is the time to not be Charlie Brown (no wishy-washy hook sets)-- set the hook hard and fast and back up while you are doing it. Try to get the fish to the top of the pads before you bring it towards the boat.
Slightly weighted wacky worms are stll a proven bait in the shallow to medium depths.
For smallmouth, drop shotting is the way to go. 6 to 10 lb. mono or braid with a fluorocarbon leader,
1/8 to 1/2 oz. weights with a 1/0 to 2/0 hook 18” perpendicular to the main line. Use 4” worms, shads and small creature baits in 3” to 4” in natural colors or tubes with 3/16 to ¼ oz hooks in smoke and pumpkin colors. We are fishing in 10 to 25 ft. for smallies.
Top water will work all summer under the right conditions. The first and last two hours of the day are perfect, and sometimes all day if we get cloudy weather with a slight chop on the water.
Poppers,walkers,wake and buzz baits give a different cadence to entice fish to bite. Don't get trapped in a one lure presentation.
Don't forget your insect repellent--- the “Royal Canadian Air Force” is at it's attacking best right now.