(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
It’s summertime, the weather is hot and the fish should be ganged up, but over the years Pete Gluszek has had many weekend anglers express their frustrations with this supposedly predictable time to load their livewells. He said that there are plenty of times when “you can find them and not catch them,” and other times when they seem to disappear altogether. Accordingly, he’s developed a system that seeks to minimize frustrations and maximize hot-weather success across the range of waters that he fishes.
First, he notes that while deep water is often the ticket when the thermometer nears triple digits, some fish stay perpetually shallow. They may be keying in on the bluegill spawn or a shad spawn. Or perhaps rising water has flooded bushes and created new food sources. The primary change that he makes in his summertime flipping over earlier in the year is that he switches from a jig to a big creature bait like a Biffle Bug.
When those shallow patterns fizzle out, that’s when he’ll look offshore, particularly on reservoirs. He’ll go deep, but notes that “deep” is a relative term that could mean 10 feet or could mean 100 feet. Either way, he’s looking for current to drive the bite, and when it’s cranking hard, he’ll stick with power-fishing techniques. Often that means a crankbait like a Rapala DT20, a Norman DD22 or a Strike King 6XD or 10XD.
Other tools he uses offshore are a football jig – “when fish are relating to the bottom” – and “license-plate size” structure spoons, which represent larger forage like gizzard shad and yellow bass, along with swimbaits. When the bite gets tough and there’s no current, he likes a big hair jig, and if fish are suspended (and it’s legal to use it) the Alabama Rig gets the nod. When the bite is especially tough but he’s convinced the bass are there and he’s forced into “begging them to bite,” a dropshot is in order.
He’s a born-and-bred river rat, and once again this summertime bite is “all about the current.” The bait can’t winter in the current and the bass won’t spawn in the current, but it is their summertime respite. He keeps lure choices simple – a spinnerbait, a jig and a wide-wobbling crankbait that provides immediate resistance in the flow. While a shaky-head may not fit that same power profile, it nevertheless produces and therefore remains at the ready.
On natural lakes, Gluszek keys on grass beds and boat docks in the warm weather, and looks offshore for smallmouths. In places where wind has stacked the grass mats, “a frog is tough to beat,” he said. He keeps his color choices simple – black on cloudy days and white on sunny days.
The Senko is also a key presentation, but unlike the slow, often weightless fall that he uses earlier in the year, now he adds some speed to it. “The rate of descent is the key to triggering strikes,” he said. That may mean a half-ounce weight pitched to holes in the grass, or he might adjust the fall with a nail weight in the tail. One other trick is to use a hitchhiker with a small Zappu willow-leaf blade in the tail which makes the lure dart erratically when popped in holes in the cover. “It pulls fish out of a dead state,” he explained.
To see Gluszek's full video seminar on this topic, subscribe to The Bass University TV.
