HOT SUMMER DAYS BRING THE BEST IN BASS FISHING
Spring is over. It is now summer. The weather is turning hot and humid. We have been looking forward to this ever since winter started some six months ago.
Especially for us who live in the far north, summers are short so we need to make the most of them. Get out the grill and turn on Brewers baseball. Bratwurst and baseball. What could be more summer like? How about bass fishing?
For those of us who fish, summers also mean the best in bass fishing.
Of all the game fish, bass are the most tolerant of higher water and air temperatures. Even in the hottest days of the summer I can still find bass in just a couple feet of water close to shore.
Mike Yurk is holding a twenty one inch largemouth bass caught at one thirty four on a hot summer afternoon.
Bass are sensitive to sunlight more than anything else. So if the water is discolored, as normally found in summer, the sunlight can’t penetrate more than an inch or two and bass will be perfectly comfortable laying just under the surface. They will hold tight to shore where shade from trees protect them from the sunlight. As well any cover, either natural such as brush piles in the water, or man made as in docks and boat lifts will get fish out of the sunlight.
On a recent hot, bright sunny day with pale blue skies and a few puffy white clouds hanging on the horizon, my wife Becky and I fished a northern Polk County Lake. It was a new lake for Becky but I had fished it once a couple weeks earlier. The first time I fished this lake it was late spring and temperatures were cool with gray clouds overhead. The water in this lake is clear and cold so the overcast day seemed ideal. I now wanted to know what it would be like on a hot, sunny, day.
As we launched the boat I noticed the water temperatures seemed about eight or nine degrees warmer than it had been the first time I fished this lake. My question did not take too long to answer. Within the first four or five casts, I felt a light pop on my bait and pulled back to set the hook. A fish charged off and my rod tip was bucking as the fish splashed on top of the surface. The fish was an eleven inch bass, fat and feisty putting up a good fight.
A couple casts later and Becky yelled she had a fish. A fish flipped out of water, splashing down it raced off. A couple moments later she pulled it in the boat. Her fish was a foot long bass, bright green color with a lot of energy. Apparently the change in weather did not hamper bass fishing.
Becky and I enjoyed the hot sun and soon she was in her in swim suit and I was spraying on sunscreen. It was a bright, hot summer day and the fish were on fire. We never went more than a few minutes without a hit.
The wind was out of the south and we anticipated good fishing as we rounded the northwest corner of the lake to fish the northern shore. The shoreline had a mixture of standing reeds spiking through the surface and weed beds in addition to several docks jutting out into the water. It didn’t take long for Becky and I to both have fish on at the same time. In the next half an hour we steadily caught more fish. We turned back to reworked the northern shore again and regularly continued to catch fish.
A jewel of a lake for hot summer bass fishing.
BIG BASS
Finally we decided to move down the eastern shore. This shore is rocky with deeper water close to the bank. We picked up a couple of fish when a fish slammed my bait. I pulled back to set the hook and my spinning rod was bent in half. I could feel a fish on the other end of the line but essentially nothing moved. I pulled back harder and the fish just started to move off, gaining speed as it went. “Big fish!” I yelled to Becky. I heard her moving around the back of the boat to get the net as the fish now raced off. The reel was jerking as the fish pulled line off against the drag. I saw a large flash in the water, confirming it was a big fish.
It raced around the front of the boat, heading for deeper water when I finally stopped it. It stayed deep, refusing to budge. Wrapping my hand around the reel to stop the drag I pulled back on the spinning rod and turned the fish, starting to get it coming back toward the boat. Thank God for braided line. I think monofilament would have broke if I had attempted to do that. Finally I got the fish close to the boat but it kept pulling away. Becky had the net out and eventually she got it under the fish and pulling up the fish cleared the water.
I quickly measured the fish. It stretched to twenty one inches against the tape. Becky took my photo before I released it. It was a big fish. I checked the time. It was a little after one thirty. The year before Becky caught a twenty one inch bass in a small lake about an hour south of us and that was the biggest bass to come into my boat in over a decade. I thought this fish would be the highlight of this fishing season.
We continued to catch fish as we worked down the eastern bank. We picked up another nice fish with a sixteen inch bass. The afternoon was lovely. A hot wind picked up but the skies remained light blue with few clouds.
We now were on the southern end of the lake. We fished most of the lake with only another three hundred yards of shoreline left before we reached the landing where we started three and a half hours earlier.
Second twenty one inch bass at three ten in the afternoon. Hot summer days meams great bass fishing
SECOND BIG BASS
Here the water was shallow and weedy. A fish attacked my wacky worm. Nothing moved for a moment or two and then the fish just moved off, completely unconcerned with the strain from my doubled over spinning rod. The line was pulling off the reel. “Big Fish!” I yelled. The drag wasn’t stopping the fish. It smoothly kept running. It was a muscular bulldogged run.
I pulled back on the reel and the fish just kept on moving toward the middle of the lake. Turning the boat slightly so the fish stayed in front of me rather than getting under the boat, I finally stopped the fish. I kept pulling back but the fish didn’t move and I heard the reel clicking as it slowly paid out more line. I grabbed the reel, like I did with the first big fish, to stop the drag giving out more line so I could turn the fish.
Finally I got the fish coming toward the boat. As soon as I took my hand off the reel the fish just kept pulling off line. I grabbed the reel again and pulled back. It took a few more moments before I could feel the fish was coming my way. As I got it close to the boat the fish stayed deep but eventually I got the fish off the bottom. In the shallow water under the boat we saw it and it was another big bass.
Becky was standing next to me with the net out in the water as I led the fish into it. Pulling up, she lifted the net into the boat. Reaching in I grabbed the fish and took it out. It looked as big as the first big fish I caught earlier and when I measured it the tape confirmed it was another twenty one inch bass. It was incredible. It had been years since I caught a twenty one bass and in one afternoon I caught two. I looked at the time. It was a little after three o’clock.
Half an hour later we were back at the landing. We estimated we caught over sixty bass total during the afternoon including those two huge fish within only an hour and a half of each other. It is the best in summer bass fishing.
Any number of baits will work well on summer bass but it is hard to beat plastics. My all time favorite hot summer bait is the wacky worm. It’s slow, natural side to side movement and slower presentation seem to drive summer bass crazy.
If it is hot go fishing because it’s never too hot for bass. Bring sunscreen and lots of water. Summer is the time to bass fish.
Editors Note: Mike Yurk’s column is sponsored by Warner’s Dock in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Warner’s Dock is the premier marine dealer in northwestern Wisconsin. They have a complete supply of new and used boats, motors, and trailers as well as other marine supplies plus a complete maintenance staff for all your boating needs. They can be contacted through their website at www.warnersdock.com or by telephone at 1-888-222-3625.