By David A. Brown
Special to BassFan
There are certain summer assumptions that you can take to the bank – increased boat traffic, thunderstorms and the need for suncreen, for example. However, in many Southern bass lakes, the notion of all the bass passing the hot months in deeper offshore water isn’t entirely accurate.
Sure, plenty of fish head to the ledges, deep humps, rock piles and the like. But FLW pro Pete Ponds knows the “shallow” zone at or near the bank also offers summertime potential well worth a look – even when bathwater surrounds the boat.
Of course, bass won’t spend much time in shallow, open water during the blistering heat of clear conditions. But opportunities exist for the open-minded.
In his home state of Mississippi, Ponds often finds summer bass schooling fish over stumps in water as shallow as 3-4 feet. A key element, here and with all shallow summer scenarios, is quick access to some type of contour change.
“The stump fields I target are the ones closest to the nearest drop-off in, say, 6-7 feet,” Ponds said. “With all (shallow) patterns, you have deep water somewhere close by, but it’s not necessarily where the fish hold. Fish like to move up shallow and feed.”
Among the other productive shallow scenarios:
> Wood and Vegetation: For illustrative purposes, we can collectively include cypress trees, logs, shallow standing timber, grass beds and lily pads here. In each case, Bassmaster Elite Series pro Dennis Tietje expects his bites to come from the shaded side of whatever he’s fishing.
> Freshwater Mussels: Ponds likes shell beds in 4-6 feet of water. Centers of life and baitfish aggregations, shell beds also present the bottom relief to which bass inherently gravitate.
> Bream Beds: A staple in the largemouth bass diet, these panfish spawn throughout the summer and bass are keen to stake out the perimeters and ambush the careless ones.
> Docks: Here, Ponds expects to find “residential dock fish” taking advantage of the shade and structural protection year-round. “If bass have the choice between sun and shade, they’ll choose the shade, and that’s because of the heat,” Ponds said. “They’re just like us – they’re looking for the most comfortable area. If we’re on a big old farm and there’s one tree in the middle of the pasture, the cows are under it because it’s a little bit cooler.”
> Storm Drains: A concentration of bubbling outflow provides an oxygen boost for the shallows, cools the water and facilitates feeding by delivering insects and other food sources for bass.
Why Shallow?
FLW pro Phil Marks looks for the key shallow targets, but he’s also aware of how conditions make certain banks more productive during summer’s heat. Specifically, banks with plenty of air flow are what he looks for during summer’s swelter.
Panfish spawn throughout the summer and bass often make easy meals of the more careless individuals.
“The key deal is finding cover that provides shade, but windward stuff is always better,” he said. “The wind oxygenates and cools the shallow water. It also provides cover by breaking up the surface.”
Sometimes oxygen content can be lower out deep, but better in the shallows. Good water movement, of course, is essential here, as still, stagnant spots won’t “breathe” as well.
Tietje makes this observation: “There are lots of benefits when you’re targeting shallow cover in the summer, but one of the biggest advantages is that it helps you develop a pattern faster than in the cooler months, when the fish are more active.”
Summer Servings
Shallow summer bass welcome an array of presentations and it’s wise to keep a diverse selection handy. Top choices include:
> Gettin’ Cranky: Ponds likes the Bandit 200 crankbait (bream, parrot orange) for running over wood and stumps. If he sees shad schooling at the surface, he’ll throw a Bandit Shallow Flat Max (shad color).
“Usually, I retrieve the bait with a fast, very aggressive, start-and-stop action,” he said.
> Drag Show: Using a 3/4-ounce Talon football-head jig with a Bruiser Baits Crazy Craw, he goes with natural colors in clear water and switches to something brighter and more eye-catching for stained conditions.
“I like that bait because I can cast it out and reel it slowly and feel the bottom contour,” Ponds said. “Most of the time, what I’m trying to feel is shell beds. When you’re dragging it through there, you’re feeling a bump, bump, bump and you can tell it’s hard bottom – most of the time, mussels or shells.”
> Topwaters: A Zara Spook or something that mimics a bream profile is his first choice, but Ponds also knows the value of a noisy Pop-R (with a feathered rear hook for more attraction).
“In the shallow pockets, you’re looking for movement, and listening for the sounds of bluegill sucking bugs off the surface,” Ponds said of his method for dialing in good topwater potential. “I think the splashing popper gets more strikes, but they’re not necessarily the big fish. I believe that a popper can draw in fish because bass are curious and they come to look for (the source of the sound).”
Tietje’s top pics for shallow summer bassin’ include:
> Spin Cycle: You might think, bigger is better for waking up summer bass, but it’s just the opposite for Tietje. He likes a 1/4-ounce spinnerbait – a lure he said can be very good for early mornings and late afternoons.
“You can cover a lot of water with this bait,” Tietje said. “You’re targeting the same areas as you would with a creature bait, it’s just a different presentation. You’re imitating different forage – shad, vs. a creature bait imitating crawfish.”
> Creature Feature: Favoring the Strike King Rage Bug, he’ll Texas-rig the soft plastic creature bait with the lightest weight he can get away with.
“I’ll use a 3/16- to 1/8-ounce weight,” Tietje said. “If I’m shallow, fishing a 1/4-unce is heavy for me. But if you’re fishing matted grass, you may have to move up to a 1 1/2-unce, even if it’s only 2 feet deep.
Lily pads are one of many types of cover that will often hold bass in the heat of the summer.
For more open areas, Tietje said the slower the fall, the better in the summertime.
“The fish are lethargic and a slower bait gives the fish more opportunity to get the bait,” he explains. “When you’re dealing with a short strike zone, the more you can keep your bait in that strike zone, the more opportunity you’ll have.
“Also, in the summertime I tend to swim the bait more than fish it on the bottom, so the light weight helps me keep it off the bottom.”
With any weight size, Tietje always adds a glass bead between his weight and bait. The noise-maker is especially helpful in stained to muddy water.
> Buzz Feed: Foregoing the more common floating baits, Tietje prefers churning up the shallows with a buzzbait. The key, he said, is making this a contact sport.
“I like to be able to touch the object with the bait,” Tietje said. “It’s important to actually let the blade contact the object. It just makes the bait do something different and that triggers the bite. It’s the same with grass – if you can hit the grass, it makes the bait do something different.
“It’s just like a crankbait; the start-and-stop is what triggers a strike. If you can change the rhythm, you can trigger a strike.”
And speaking of churning things up, consider that, unlike the spawning season, you’ll have far less traffic in the shallow areas, so you’ll typically experience greater ability to pick your spots and fish as you wish. And given the proximity to shore, you’re unlikely to get caught in a nasty summer storm.
