Summer bass love deep water
Summer is in full swing throughout the Carolinas, and the inland reservoirs continue to offer a wide range of angling adventures, from crappie and bream to line-stretching striped bass or just a big ol’ blue cat.
And for bass fishermen, summer isn’t a time to slack off, because inland reservoirs can offer big-fish days for anglers in the know.
The Carolinas are reservoir-rich, with dozens of large lake systems stretching from the mountains almost to the coast, created for reasons including flood control, water sources, power generation and, of course, recreation. The climate — hot summers and mild winters — creates a perfect environment for an ecosystem of aquatic critters in these larger bodies of water. Bass are right at home, with deep, shallow and fertile waters perfect for making a living.
While most anglers patrol the shallows armed with bass pros’ latest lures, the shallow margins aren’t the only places bass live and feed, especially in the summer. Water temperatures can soar into the 80s or even 90s, and even though some bass will always be patrolling shallow areas, the heat will push forage into deeper water. Bass will follow, making for a summer pattern in deep water, well away from the shoreline.
Brett Mitchell of Timmonsville, S.C., fishes plenty of bass tournaments on plenty of lakes, in addition to guiding on the Santee Cooper lakes. Mitchell said summer bass can be in both shallow and deeper places.
“Many anglers go to the places they caught them in the spring on the beds,” said Mitchell (803-379-7029). “You can catch some bass in the spawning grounds in the summer, but the majority of the fish will not be in the same places they previously spawned. They may not necessarily be super-deep, either, but you can count on these bass being in a different place than where they spawned.”
Bass generally spawn in extremely shallow water, often in places around dense vegetation. They move in from staging areas and move back afterwards. Finding places they come from and return to is important — but not always clear.
“The fish may be shallow or deep, but they will not be far away from the grocery store,” Mitchell said. “Bass aren’t that complicated and food is what drives them from place to place. I have caught fish in 90-degree water but the food was there.”
Bass feed on a variety of forage species, including crawfish and some worms, but mostly they feed on other fish, primarily sunfish and shad. Shallow bass will feed on sunfish, but in places outside the lake’s shallow margins, that preference turns to shad. In lakes that have large populations of herring, bass will focus on them outside of their spawning periods.
But shad are the primary food source for bass on most reservoirs in the Carolinas. They make a living in the summer using a lake’s deeper regions for feeding and putting on the pounds.
“Food is always first,” Mitchell said. “Bass will be around the food in the summer, and some of the best places to find the shad are deeper places. Primary points, secondary points and channel swings are my go-to places for finding summer bass.”
Reservoirs are just dammed-up river systems with river beds, creek beds, and ridges inundated with water. Shad travel in schools and will stage on points and places with deep, submerged cover. Mitchell selects these primary and secondary lake points that have specific bottom types.
“Bass don’t like a dirty house,” he said. “The bottom content is major; they like a clean, hard bottom, but any anomaly tends to hold bait and bass. Rock piles, stumps, shell beds, brush piles, or even just a hardbottom can hold these fish along these lake features.”
Reservoirs are known for deep water, but a good summer “deep water” spot doesn’t have to be that deep. Mitchell typically fishes these points on the shallow side.
“I am looking for places 25 foot at the deepest and all the way up to 6 feet on the shallow end. The super-deep places often have oxygen deficiencies and no home for the bass or the shad,” he said.
Mitchell utilizes his electronics to locate ideal points and channel bends, and experience pays off in these situations.
“The electronics allows you to see the bottom, what is on the bottom, and the bait and bass themselves. It is almost like a modern form of sight-fishing,” he said.
Electronics have improved the way people find and focus on a fish. The extreme detail provided by the new technology can be the secret weapon for targeting summer bass.
Finding bass in the summertime on reservoirs can be the biggest feat; catching them can be a little easier if you’re using the right stuff. Bass are feeding on forage fish in these areas, and any type of lure that imitates their food source can fool fish into committing. Crankbaits, jigs and plastic worms can bring success, and Mitchell’s favorite offshore technique is fishing a Carolina rig.
“You just can’t beat the Carolina rig on these points and creek channels,” he said. “Crankbaits and other lures can get you bites when you have the right color combination, but with a Carolina rig, you will get bit even if the color is a little off.”
Mitchell uses a ¾-ounce egg sinker and 21/2- to 3-foot leader with a wide variety of soft plastics. From lizards and other plastic baits with lots of appendages to just a straight finesse worm or a Senko-type version, they all can produce the action that a summer largemouth just can’t refuse.
There are a million color combinations on the market for soft plastics; Mitchell has one cardinal rule when it comes to using plastics for bass.
“All colors are good for bass as long as they are a form of green pumpkin or junebug,” he said. “Black and blue is a dark form of junebug, and green pumpkin with Texas red is also good, but it’s still green pumpkin. These two colors in about any version will catch bass in most lakes across the nation.”
Mitchell will make sure he is fully stocked in these colors to make sure his clients get bit.
Reveal the deep deal
Fishing for bass in summer in deeper water is much different than the spring fling. Essentially, spring fishing is more like hunting in the jungle and hoping a bass will be lurking below. Finding bass in deeper water on reservoirs is much different; there are two ways to understand what the bottom is like and if it is suitable.
First, guide Brett Mitchell uses a Carolina rig to determine what the bottom consistency is like.
“If it feels like you are pulling it through pudding, you can pack up and move. Bass prefer a clean, hard bottom,” Mitchell said. “A Carolina rig allows you to check out the bottom and see if the fish are there, too.”
Second, these days, an angler can’t bass fish much in deeper water without the latest, greatest electronics. The new models on the market truly offer a clear picture of what is down below, and the advent of high-definition systems are revealing that in high detail. Humminbird’s mega-imaging Solix and Helix units offer a clear picture of the bottom and just about any anomaly below the water’s surface that can assist an angler in finding good habitat. Of course, bait fish and bass can be easily identified with today’s clarity with super precision.
This year, Humminbird introduced live imaging that produces essentially an underwater radar system to show fish and baitfish in real time. It is similar to Garmin’s Live Scope — formerly called Panoptics — but is quite clearer and provides an extreme definition of fish swimming under the boat in real time.
Electronics have changed the way people fish and it is essentially the modern way of sight fishing for bass and a whole assortment of angler favorites.
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