Where Do Fish Go In The Summer?

It’s like clockwork every year. The fish are biting all spring, through the spawn, and again while they’re recovering. The fishing is good, the fish are patternable, and all is right with the world. Then the heat comes. In what seems like the blink of an eye, each summer sometime around the July/August timeframe bass pull what seems like a disappearing act. Spots that were loaded a few weeks earlier are barren, and consistent patterns evaporate. Where do they go? Obviously, this is somewhat preordained by the type of lake. They’re not going to go to bluff walls in Florida or grass beds in the Ozarks – those places don’t exist. Still, they’ve got to go somewhere, right?Here are two places to look.

Suspended

In many large reservoirs the sudden disappearing act bass pull each summer means that many have started to suspend. They’re probably still in some of the same types of places, they’re just off the bottom and much harder to catch. The reason bass start to suspend in the late summer has to do with the baitfish population.As the summer progresses, baitfish like threadfin shad and blueback herring begin to school up in larger and larger schools, preparing for the fall. As these schools of bait become larger and larger, they offer a more attractive option to offshore bass. Instead of relating to the bottom and eating a balanced diet of crawfish, bottom minnows, and the occasional shad, these bass become entirely focused on pelagic baitfish because they can gorge when a school comes by. Targeting these suspended bass can be difficult, but if you know what you’re looking for you can still have some banner days. To do so, start by idling likely areas and watching your electronics for bait balls or telltale marks of suspended bass. Once you find some fish, throw a swimbait, crankbait, or umbrella rig and count it down to the proper depth. Areas like bridge pilings, bluff walls, offshore brush, and standing timber are really common spots for bass to suspend.

Super Shallow

In lakes with healthy aquatic grass beds, one of the most overlooked heat-of-the-summer patterns is super shallow. I mean kicking up dirt, on the bank shallow. Bass will get super shallow this time of year because there is usually an abundance of food and shade providing cover in the skinny water. Young-of-the-year bluegill, terrestrials like frogs and cicadas, and other food species provide them ample forage, and docks, laydowns, and grass mats offer shade and relief from the heat.The reason anglers often miss these super-shallow summertime bass is that it’s easy to become focused on fishing classic structure like outside weed lines, points, and steep break lines, which are excellent places the majority of the time. But when those places aren’t paying off, it’s probably because the bass are up in the dirt. Tie on a buzzbait, frog, or fluke and get up there and kick up some mud.

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