Fishing the dog days

As we approach the dog days of summer, how do you go about planning your day when fishing? Do you even bother with a shallow water bite first thing in the morning or do you go straight to high percentage summertime spots whether it be docks or ledges or deep brush or humps? It’s looking like this is going to be a brutal summer, interested to see everyone’s opinion.

I’ll fish shallow all day long during the summer if there’s good thick green hydrilla. Topwater, then flip, then frog and flip some more.

I miss the days of grass around here. The carp did a number on it.

Don't rule out the deep bite first thing in the morning--it can be great at times.

Basically, I look for topwater activity when launching at the boat ramp. If it's going to be sunny and don't see any, I start deep.
Low wind, low current flow, and sunny I'll be using slow deeper presentations (drop shot, jig, crig)
Windier with current flow and sunny, I'll be deep cranking or throwing a spoon

If I see topwater activity when launching, of course, I'm hoping for an all day topwater/frog bite.

If there is bait shallow, the fish will be there until mid morning. When the sun gets up high, the bait will move and the bass will follow to shade if its available, to deep water if its not. Each lake will be different.

I use the same pattern year round; unless the weather conditions are favorable to keep me shallow.
- Hit my 3 best top water areas each morning. I already have those located; so I am not looking. I know the fish use these 3 spots. One day one of those spots will out fish the others. Then on another day one of the others will pick up the slack.
- When the bite shuts down shallow I move to my 3 mid-range spots and go through those taking what I can get on one pass then move to the next one. Again I have spent time on the water and know where those are that can produce. One of these will usually produce something. Mid-Range depth and the last cover on points with gouges are only as good as the food source and cover that is there. Bass moving in to feed will only go as far as they have to in order to feed up; then return to their comfort zone. So, I cover these 3 areas with search baits as quickly as possible hoping to find that one bush or grass edge with a big fish that is still searching for food.
- Then I move to each of my 3 deep water spots fishing those as slow as possible staying on the 30 to 20 ft. contour out and around the Irregular Features that are there. Again I have done the homework and know that these are 3 excellent spots that are holding fish. These are slopes, ledges and humps that hold the best irregular features on them that I can find. Heavy cover on the edge of the drop is a huge factor as they will ease along the edge of the lip several times during the day to feed without going toward shallow water.

It takes the best part of a year to develop this 3-Level system; committing to just that one lake. If it is a new lake to me then I am eliminating water as I fish the lake as often as possible. When I am not fishing, I am on the computer and sitting in the boat looking for the next 20 spots to fish until I am satisfied with the 9 spots that I have found for a productive day of fishing.

I usually start shallow in the morning with a topwater. You can get a big one that way. After about 10:00 or so I'll head out deeper. However, there have been days where I stayed shallow all day and caught them on topwater. If there is grass present, you can catch fish shallow all day long. Then again, there have been times where I went deep first thing in the morning. It all boils down to the conditions and the mood I'm in.