Q&A AI
Where do freshwater bass go in the summer?
During the summer, freshwater bass, particularly largemouth bass, tend to inhabit two main types of areas: deeper water zones and shallow cover-rich environments.
-
Deeper Water Habitats:
- As water temperatures rise above 65 to 70 degrees, a portion of the bass population will migrate towards deeper water, typically settling in areas ranging from 15 to 30 feet deep, depending on the overall depth of the lake. These areas include structures such as humps, ridges, creek channels, and points. These deeper zones offer cooler temperatures and more stable conditions away from the intense heat and boat traffic that can be prevalent in shallower waters during summer.
-
Shallow Cover-Rich Habitats:
- Another segment of the bass population remains shallow, seeking cover under docks, within lily pads, reeds, and thick aquatic vegetation like hydrilla and milfoil. These areas provide shade, cooler water, and abundant opportunities for bass to ambush prey like bluegills, crawdads, and small baitfish. In rivers, the current plays a significant role in oxygenating the water and positioning the bass, making them more active and often found in less than 10 feet of water.
For anglers targeting bass in the summer, it's essential to consider these habitats and adjust tactics accordingly. In deeper water, techniques such as deep cranking, drop-shotting, and Carolina rigging can be effective. In shallower, cover-rich areas, topwater lures like frogs, especially over grass mats, and flipping or pitching jigs and soft plastics around cover can yield good results.
Additionally, during low light conditions such as early morning, late evening, or overcast days, bass tend to be more active and roam more, providing excellent opportunities for anglers to target them with a variety of lures and techniques.
Remember, these are general patterns, and local conditions or lake specifics may cause variations in bass behavior. It's always a good idea to observe the conditions on the day and adapt your approach as needed.
Related videos
Transcript
Video10:13
11:39
Seasonal Habits of Largemouth Bass | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource → This is when the water temperatures get above 65
into 70 degrees. And summer can be broken into, again, three seasons really. It's early summer,
summer, of course, and then late summer. So, in early summer, there's this transition period
from when the fish are up shallow and they're done spawning to where they're gonna be during the
duration of the summer. And what happens is you get a good chunk of the population will go deep,
not necessarily as deep as they were during the wintertime, but they'll make their way, again,
down that bus route, all along those bus stops and towards deeper water. So, you
can follow their migration path as they progress deeper and deeper. They're gonna
settle down on humps and ridges and creek channels and points in deeper water, say anywhere from 15
to 30 feet deep on average. Your lake may vary just depending on overall depth of your lake,
but that's just giving an approximate idea. Now, there's another chunk of the
population that remains shallow, and they'll go up and they hang out under docks.
They go into any kind of cover that you can see, lily pads, reeds, they hang out on hydrilla
and milfoil and cruise the shallows and feed on baitfish. They will sometimes go
deeper when the front comes through or if the baitfish move or conditions change, they may
move off and go deeper. And of course, the deep ones may sometimes come up a little bit shallower.
So, you get this population that's now scattered.
Transcript
Video03:44
04:45
Shoreline Trees: Best Places to Catch Largemouth Bass by The Bass University → um and summertime is a great time uh right there's maximum shade a lot of times they uh you know for instance they were in a creek here um you know the cooler water can present you know be be available in an incoming Creek this the shade of the tree itself can cool the water and attract Bait fish and bass so the summertime is an excellent time to be uh targeting this type of habitat
Transcript
Video04:21
07:11
Where Do Bass Go In Summer? (And How To Catch Them) by TacticalBassin → one we wanted to come and meet a lot of you guys and we were able to do that we wanted to see more Fisheries wanted to see more fishing styles basically double-check our method as we went around the country and make sure that there was nothing significant that we were missing or if there was that we can learn that and just add it to the arsenal and keep the body of knowledge growing so as we went around the country what I found is that that split is unbelievably consistent the only thing that's going to vary is the sort of cover that those fish get on so your fish that stayed shallow after the spawn they are cover oriented they're going to be up there eating blue gills crawdads small bait fish the bass after they hatch and start to grow other fish that hatch and start to grow they're gonna be up there feeding for the rest of the summer now typically what those fish will do is get right on cover they are ambush feeders they want to sit right up against something to do their feeding up there in that shallow water so if you're in a grassy fishery the thickest grass is where you want to be now how do you find the biggest fish because take a a lake like Clear Lake literally hundreds of miles of grass hundreds of miles of grass what do you do if you want to
Transcript
Video00:00
01:29
Summer River Bass Fishing | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource → Glenn: Hey, folks, Glenn May here with BassResource.com. It is summertime. It is hot. It's 90 degrees right now. And it's forecasted to get well above 100
today, so it's gonna be a hot one. And this time of year in the middle of summer,
late summer, it can be a little tough fishing out there on the lakes. But on the rivers that's a different story. I really like fishing rivers this time of
the year, and really for three main reasons. A river that is churning and constantly aerating
the water so it holds more dissolved oxygen. Typically, river water temps are a little
bit cooler than the surrounding lakes. So, that also aids in holding dissolved oxygen. And also that lower water temperature, the
fish tend to be a little more active. And finally, and really I should have said
this is the first and the main point is the current. The current positions those fish and it makes
them more active. They tend to be shallower, less than 10 feet
of water. And the more current you have, the more active
that they are, regardless of how hot it is outside. So, I really like going out there and fishing
the river. So that's what I'm gonna talk about today
is river bass fishing in the summertime. And just the ways that I go about catching
more fish. So, the thing you need to think about here
is the current really dictates everything in a river system.
Transcript
Video23:18
26:12
Where Do Bass Go During Summer? (And How To Catch Them) by TacticalBassin → drops 10 15 20 degrees same thing with grass mats you know those fish get up underneath there they look for that dark colder water and uh a frog is a must so it doesn't matter if you're highland lowlands natural lake river system look for the very backs of your pockets look for that really bright green thick grass and those fish are going to be in it if you're fishing something out here on the main river or some some kind of current situation look for current seams look for lay downs but look for that darkest area look for that dark color line and that's where you're going to want to fish this now if you're fishing a highland reservoir or you're fishing offshore go with some kind of walking bait now i have caught five pound plus spotted bass and smallmouth fishing a walking bait in the summertime over a hundred plus feet of water don't be afraid to go offshore and throw a topwater bait again you can go down the rabbit hole you can throw big rats you can throw big wake baits big walking side to side baits but if you're fishing your fishery and you and you need a confidence bait go with one of these guys right this is actually the river sea rover we've talked about this bait for a long long time the tekkel the kick knocker that is another special bait just different
Transcript
Video11:42
12:50
Seasonal Habits of Largemouth Bass | How To | Bass Fishing by Bass Fishing Tips & Techniques by BassResource → And this is what we get all the time on our forums
on bassresource.com is right after the spawn and after post-spawn, we get a bunch of people
posting going, "What happened? Where are all the fish?" Okay. As I said before, you get the
bulk of the population that's all shallow and readily accessible in the pre-spawn and spawn.
Now, you're in the summer and they scatter. So, it's tougher to find them. So, just
keep that in mind, this is what happens. But as we move into summer, they set up camp. This
is where they're gonna stay for most of the time, and they feed. All there on their mind now is
eating. So, it's a good time to get out there and go fishing because like I said, the metabolism
is at their highest now, they're gonna be feeding the most. And you can fish shallow or deep
whatever you prefer. Keep in mind that the deeper fish aren't as affected by weather conditions
and by boat traffic as the shallow ones are. So, if you get those conditions on your
lake, you might wanna go a little bit deeper. Another thing to keep in mind is
during the summertime, low light conditions tend to produce best. So, that's
early in the morning, late in the evening, and also in cloudy conditions, this is when
the bass tend to roam more and they're more aggressive. They come up shallower and they
feed more heavily. So, you can get them with
More Bass Fishing Answers
Loading...