July is a great month to fish for bass across North Carolina.
It’s one of my favorites, because bass will get out on those good offshore places where I can be most effective with the deep-diving crankbaits I like to fish.
Unless you’re fishing in tidal water, in a river situation or in the extreme upper end of a lake, you’re probably looking at fishing anywhere from 10- to 20-feet deep. And it’s July, not August, when bass are at their deepest.
What I’ve found over the past dozen or so years is bass actually move up a little during August, probably because the water quality in most lakes goes down a little bit, and because the amount of dissolved oxygen in the deeper water starts to drop, pushing them back toward the surface.
Bass can tolerate hot water better than they can tolerate low amounts of dissolved oxygen.
I really figured this out when I was prefishing for the Bassmasters Classic a number of different times. I would go for a week of practice in July, and the fish will be where I really wanted them to be, where I really like to catch ’em — out about 10-, 12- or 15-feet deep.
But when we came back at the end of July or in early August for the tournament, they’d be only 5- to 8-feet deep.
July is a better month for me, overall, than June, because at almost every lake in North Carolina, you’re looking at a prime summertime pattern. During June, at lakes such as Buggs Island or Gaston, sometime you won’t have all the fish recovered from prespawn, and you’d have some fish in transition.
By July at almost every lake, fish will have recovered from the spawn and moved offshore to feed.
At some lakes, such as Wylie and High Rock, they’ll be out in that really deep water. At places such as Kerr Lake (Buggs Island) and Gaston, they’ll be out but not as deep as they’re going to eventually go.
This year, we’ve had a really late spring, fishing wise. At the BASS tournament at High Rock, there were still a lot of fish spawning in the bushes that were caught. Normally, most of the bass would have been postspawn or already moving out.
I think July this year is going to more resemble the last half of June than it normally would, if the weather holds the way it has been this year. That would be a perfect situation for almost any bass fishermen who likes to get off the bank and catch fish bunched up on offshore structure — like, say, for instance, me.
There’ll probably still be some schooling action early in the mornings to take advantage of, and we’ll still probably be able to find some fish bunched up where we can pull up to a point and catch three or four or five without moving.
In July most bass will be on stuff that’s “attached” to the bank. They usually don’t get on offshore humps until August.
For the most part, you’re looking at points, road beds and rip-rap.
Rip-rap can be especially good if you’ve got a lot of current, and the corner closest to a bridge that spans a creek will be especially good. And at least until the end of July, you’re going to be able to find fish ganged up.
Getting back to Buggs Island, of all the years I’ve fished there, it seems like the weekend of the July 4 is when the fishing is really the best. The bass have moved out off the bank and gotten on those little spots 10- to 12-feet deep and they’re really biting.
What you’re looking for is underwater cover that will hold fish at points and road beds. That can be rocks or stumps or brush piles, anything a bass can relate to as an ambush point.
And bass will tend to be at places that have sharp breaks or dropoffs, as opposed to gradually sloping banks. Find a place where the water drops from 8 to 12 feet very quickly, and you’ve found a good spot. If there’s some kind of cover to hold the bass, even better.
Because bass are usually aggressive in these situations, I will start with a crankbait. Either the Rapala DT-14 or DT-16 will work just fine, and I like to use a blue-backed or green-backed bait.
If you’ve got some stained water, you can use chartreuse a little, but normally in July, I’m sticking to those natural-shad colors with the blue and green backs.
If I’m not cranking, I’ll either be Carolina-rigging or Texas-rigging with a big plastic worm. My favorites are a Zoom Ol’ Monster or Big Dead Ringer. They’re both big baits.
With a Texas rig, you can fish them in brush, and they’ll tend to fall through the brush better because they’re so heavy.
I want to position my boat in 20 to 25 feet of water and be casting so my retrieve is hitting that 10- to 12-foot zone at places such as High Rock and Wylie or that 12- to 14-foot zone at Buggs Island. Another thing to remember is that current really helps you during the summer. When the power companies are moving water to make electricity for your air conditioner, bass will set up to feed at the kinds of offshore structure I’ve described.
Finding those places adjacent to deep water where the current will really be rolling is just another plus.
Editor’s note: David Fritts is a 50-year-old professional bass fisherman from Lexington. He was the 1993 BASS Masters Classic champion, the 1993-94 BASS Angler of the Year and the 1997 FLW Tour Champion. His sponsors include: Bass Pro Shops, Evinrude Motors, Ranger Boats, Chevy Trucks, Minn-Kota trolling motors, American Rodsmith, Rapala crankbaits and fishing line, Zoom plastics, Solar Bat sun glasses, Mountain Dew, Gripper (ECS Anchor Supply), VMC hooks, Pro Pocket and Blue Fox.
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