I’m not going to make any bones about it — August is a tough month to fish for bass in North Carolina.
The hot weather is brutal out on the lake most of the time. And fish react to the weather like people; they hang out and take it easy; they try to stay out of the sun; they just lay around.
Getting bass to bite is a matter of finding them and putting the right bait in front of them. But finding them is the harder job of the two. And a key to doing that is figuring out how good or bad the water is.
In extremely hot weather, bass and other fish like to get away from the really warm water that’s near the surface of a lake. But when they head for the cooler water that’s out in deeper areas, they often find that there’s not enough dissolved oxygen in the water for them. So they make a choice: they can live with hot water, but they can’t live without oxygen.
That’s where I think a lot of bass fishermen make a big mistake in August. They automatically start looking for fish at the deepest places possible, when the bass may be as shallow as they’ve been since May.
One thing I look for when I put my boat in this month — especially when I fish the FLW Tour Championship on South Carolina’s Lake Murray — is the condition of the water. I’m basically trying to figure out one thing — is there current?
Current in most reservoirs is the product of power generation. Lakes with dams that make electricity have to move water to get the turbines going and make power to run your air conditioner or the irrigation system on my farm.
When water is moved artificially, a current is created. Water moves — and moving water usually carries more oxygen in it than stagnant water.
Current can be created by water being pulled through the dam at the lower end of the lake or pushed through the dam at the other end of the lake. If you’ve got current going at both ends for any period of time, it improves the water quality in a lake — at least as far as the fish are concerned.
They’ll be able to push out in deeper, cooler water, because there should be plenty of dissolved oxygen down there 20 or 30 feet deep. And they’ll feed more, because they won’t be as lethargic.
The only problem is, it’s really hard to find and catch fish that deep. They’re not likely to be holding on any kind of structure. You find a lot of them chasing bait, so a topwater bite can work early in the morning, or you might stumble onto some fish that are schooling.
But good water conditions in August don’t happen that often. You’re much more likely to have conditions that aren’t great for bass.
If I get on the lake and the water doesn’t appear to be moving much, I’m not going to look in deep water — I’m going to look shallow.
When there is little current or inconsistent current, there won’t be a lot of oxygen in deeper water, and those bass will pull up in relatively shallow water. They’ll hold at depths where the water temperature is tolerable, and they’ll be sort of lethargic. But they’re all you’ve got, and you’ve got to take advantage of them.
At High Rock, Buggs Island and Gaston, the lakes I used to fish a lot in North Carolina, we’d go up in the rivers to fish in August, or we’d go up in some of the creeks in the upper end of the lake and try to find shallow stumps to fish in 7 or 8 feet of water.
I’ll still be chunking a crankbait, something like a DT Flat. Chartreuses work really well in August, colors like Hot Mustard and Fire Tiger.
I can remember winning a tournament on High Rock years ago, maybe one of the last High Rock Bassmasters club tournaments, in August. I caught two or three off a shallow place at the railroad trestle near the wildlife boat landing at Abbotts Creek, then I caught some off the rip-rap, then I went way up in Buddle Creek and caught some on a Killer B-2 in 5 or 6 feet of water.
When I won the Bassmasters Classic at Lake Logan Martin in 1993, the temperature outside was 99 degrees, and the water temperature was 92 degrees. But I caught most of my fish about 7-feet deep, because there was no oxygen down deep and the fish had moved up.
I look for places where fish can move shallow but still be close to deep water. I like to crank shallow humps and shallow points, and I’ll back my crankbait up with a big worm like a Zoom Ol’ Monster or Big Dead Ringer.
If a fish is going to spend the energy to eat something, it had better be a big meal. Another thing about August, fish will get away from the real abrupt drops they like earlier in the summer.
What you have to remember is fish might be deep or shallow in August, depending on the water conditions.
You need to read the water — let it tell you where to fish, then cover a lot of territory and make the most of your time on the water.
David Fritts is a 51-year-old pro bass fisherman from Lexington. He won the 1993 Bassmasters Classic champion, the 1997 FLW Tour Championship and the 1994 Bass Angler of the Year title. He is sponsored by Ranger boats, Evinrude outboards, Rapala, Zoom, VMC, American RodSmiths, Bass Pro Shops and Chevrolet.
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