By Brandon Lester
Special to BassFan
(Editor's note: Elite Series angler Brandon Lester submitted this piece to BassFan as a way to help more anglers have better success targeting bass in the waning days of summer.)
Bass fishing has changed a tremendous amount in the past decade.
One could argue that it has undergone the largest transition in its 60- to 70-year history, all because of one thing – electronics. Just a decade ago, only the true diehards fished out away from shore because it was just so challenging to fish unseen and unknown places out in the middle of the lake.
With improved GPS, mapping, sonar, down- and side-imaging, it is much easier to chase the fish around a lake year-round. Everybody is out there now idling around and looking for the mega-school.
Come late summer you just don’t see as many mega-schools out on the ledges and drop-offs. The fish have been pounded on all summer long and then in late August, maybe early September, especially on Tennessee River lakes, the nights get a little cooler and the fish start heading to the grass, schooling on top and chasing shad. What were once 50-fish schools now hold just eight to 10 fish.
No one really knows where all the big bass go during this period of the year, but a lot of them stay offshore. Because they’re harder to find, if you do manage to find a few of those places, you won’t have much competition.
After months of hot weather and fishing around a bunch of boats targeting the same fish, most anglers are mentally done with ledge-fishing. The fish can be hard to catch because they have seen a ton of lures, but as the numbers of deep-water fishermen dwindle, the more apt the fish will be to bite.
How to Find Them
A lot of times the well-known community holes are the places to begin looking for these fish. Community holes earn their reputation for a reason and that’s because fish live there.
It is rare for all the fish from a mega-school to up and leave, so chances are you’ll still be able to catch a few from them. If they’re not right on the main part of the community hole, look for transition areas leading from there to where the shad will be moving in the fall. A lot of times you just have to get out there with the graph and hunt for them.
You can also fish for them. There are random groups of fish scattered up and down ledges if you just get on the structure and go. Anglers spend a lot of time graphing and will miss fish that are roaming around. Covering water by moving down a ledge, you are likely to run into some individual fish. Manage your expectations about stumbling upon a giant number of fish, though. Filling a limit of 5-pounders in five casts is very infrequent once summer has taken its toll on the fish.
What to Throw
If I'm able to locate a small school with my electronics, my first choice is a large bait like a big, Texas-rigged worm. A 12-inch worm like the Zoom Ole Monster behind a 1/2 ounce weight is hard to beat. All snakes are out and about in the summer and I think that is why the bigger worms succeed in late summer. I use 14- to 17-pound Vicious fluorocarbon depending on the cover, size of the fish and water clarity.
I enjoy this technique so much that I set out to help design the perfect hook for it. The new Mustad 2X Big Bite hook is ideal for this. I use the 5/0 or 6/0 for the 12-inch worm but the line of hooks goes up to an 8/0. It has a longer shank than regular worm hooks and that helps with hook-up percentage. I’ve found it is also the perfect hook for Senkos as well.
Lester says the smaller, late-summer schools can still yield big fish.
The 7-foot, 2-inch medium-heavy MHX EPS-86MHF from Mud Hole Custom Tackle is an awesome all-around rod and my choice for slinging the big worm a long ways. I recently built one to use in a night tournament. A lot of people ask me how long it takes me to build rods and I clocked this one at 1 hour and 45 minutes. It really is easy and fun to knock them out.
A 1/2-ounce War Eagle jigging spoon and a big crankbait like a Strike King 6XD will usually be the other baits I'll throw if the first selections don’t work. When the schools are 10 fish or less it is hard to get them to “fire up” like you often hear about. In May, if you run a 6XD through there and one bites it, then it seems like they all get excited and want to bite.
If the fish act contrary, you can always catch them on a dropshot. The big key to the dropshot is to watch your electronics to see how far off the bottom the fish are. If I note that the fish are not right on the bottom with my Raymarine units, I make my leader up to 20 inches long so it sits right in front of their nose.
The spinning rod I build for the drop shot is a 6-foot, 9-inch medium-light rod (MHX EPS-81MLXF) with an extra-fast tip. I spool it with 10-pound Vicious No-Fade braid and an 8-pound fluorocarbon leader. I prefer a wacky-rigged, 6-inch Roboworm, using a 1/4- to 3/8-ounce dropshot weight and a size 1 Mustad KVD dropshot hook.
Keep In Mind
Having a topwater bait handy isn’t a bad idea in case schooling fish come up while you're fishing down the ledges. The schooling fish will usually be a littler shallower, so keep a bait handy that you can throw a long way, like a Zara Spook.
If the water has at least a couple feet of visibility you can save yourself some time by utilizing an underwater camera. They’re legal in 99 percent of tournaments (because you still have to make the fish bite) and can really help your confidence level. Knowing the fish down there are bass and not catfish or crappie really helps.
This year, I switched over to an Aqua Vu camera that displays right on my Raymarine unit. Imagine seeing what is swimming down there on a 12-inch screen while you idle the ledges. Seeing is believing!
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