Thermocline Layer Basics

As the summer wares on, three layers of water develop on most lakes and reservoirs. The top layer, called the epilimnion, gets the most sunlight and is the warmest layer of the three. The bottom layer, called the hypolimnion, is the coldest and is least affected by the sunlight. Between these two layers lies the thermocline. All of these water conditions have specific features that attract fish for different reasons.

The top layer holds the highest amount of oxygen and, depending on wind and current, does not disperse much of that oxygen to lower layers. The hot top layer is the least dense and thus lies on top of the other two layers.

The thermocline is defined as a rapid or abrupt change in temperature relative to surrounding water. This sandwiched and relatively small layer can experiences drops of 10° within just a few feet and thus bridges the gap between the fairly consistent epilimnion and hypolimnion layers.

The bottom layer holds the least amount of oxygen and is the densest of the three layers. This layer of water has very little available oxygen because lake organisms die and sink to the bottom, and the process of decaying these dead organisms uses up all the available oxygen in the layer. In addition, the low light penetration means the lower layer does not have very much oxygen-producing aquatic life.

Fish Location Along the Thermocline

For reasons described earlier, fish don’t like it too deep or too shallow in summer. The thermocline is the best location because it offers oxygen, bait, and cool temperatures. In my experience fish generally locate on the upper side of the thermocline. If I am marking fish at 12’ the thermocline can exist anywhere between 12’ and 15’. Other cold water species like trout and pike will relate to the lower end of the thermocline due to the more preferred lower temperatures.

In the heat of summer fish will remain in the top layer too, but it is important to note that fish will rarely go below the thermocline. Basically treat the thermocline like the bottom of the lake. Never fish deeper, it is a barren wasteland void of oxygen—suitably called the ‘Dead Zone.’ Sometimes catfish and other bottom feeders will temporarily dive below the thermocline, but they can only tolerate short trips.

Locating the Thermocline

Thermoclines can be located a few different ways. The most reliable method is to dive off the boat and swim down until you sense a sudden temperature change…just kidding. Most depth finders, if you turn their sensitivity up, will present to you a fine line that represents the thermocline. Below is an example of how the thermocline usually looks on a depth finder. Note how the fish are normally found in bulk slightly above the thermocline. If you do not have a depth finder that works well, investing in a thermometer and recording the temperature at different depths is the next best way. In most lakes expect the thermocline to exist somewhere between 15 and 25 feet.

An excellent technique for fishing is to find places where the thermocline intersects with structure. Trees, humps, dips, or rock piles—if these intersect with the thermocline you’ve found yourself a gem. This takes some practice with the depth finder. Try putting around for a while in the boat to get used to how your depth finder records the thermocline and other structure.

Thermocline fishing is useful and unique because it takes work to get good at it. Most fishermen would rather not leave the shallows and will cast endlessly in the shallows—when most the fish are under the boat or behind them (and a lot less pressured too). In the dog days of summer you provide yourself a big edge to whatever other fishermen are doing by using the thermocline.

Changes in the Thermocline

Factors such as current, weather, wind, and temperature can change the thermocline depth. Some days the thermocline can be shallower than other days. Higher water visibility can make the thermocline exist deeper and vice versa. Keep in mind that thermoclines generally do not exist in lakes shallower than 15 feet and never in creeks or rivers.

The second prominent part of why summer bass fishing is hard is because fish are too hot. Just like people, when fish get too hot they become lethargic and interested in finding cooler conditions instead of food.

Summer Bass Locations

Bass can be found in mornings and evenings in the shallows gorging on baitfish. Once the sun rises above 45° above the skyline, the bass flee and head for shelter from the heat and sun rays.

Irritated by the summer heat, bass usually find refuge in one of two places. The first place is the deep weedline. This deep weedline supplies cooler water, oxygen, and baitfish. The summer rays heat the top of the water column the most. Going deeper brings bass to a cooler refuge. Cooler water, however, cannot hold as much oxygen as warm water. Bass will stick next to weed beds in the deeps because in addition to cool water, they provide extra oxygen to the depths as well as baitfish. The best deep weedlines will be adjacent to feeding flats. Bass love not traveling for food.

The second place bass usually find refuge from the heat is heavily shaded areas such as docks or slop (dense weeds in the shallows that look like a tangled mess). These types of cover are strong enough to block out the sun’s rays on a permanent basis, thus leaving the water cooler than the surrounding areas. How closely bass stick to these pieces of cover will depend on the time of day and weather. Cooler weather, early mornings, evenings, and at night bass are more likely to stray from these bits of cover. During the heat of the day, however, bass stick to this cover like glue and will not be willing to chase or inquire about lures, so make those casts accurate!

Techniques for Catching Summer Bass

The best tip here is to probably not fish past 10am or before 5pm—the odds are just stacked against you. Keep the fishing to when the fish are most active, early morning and later in the evening. In these times, due to the water temperature, the fish can be quite apt to chase faster lures such as buzzbaits and crankbaits.

But let’s say you are in a tournament and must fish the dreaded summer dayshift. Finding the cool water is the first step. Once you believe you have found some fish, small plastics and light line usually perform best on these lethargic and relatively inactive fish. Their bellies are usually always full, so a large offering normally does not appeal to the fish. Light line helps to mask your presentation a little more in the summer, especially in clear water. By summer, the bass are usually quite irritated—Jetskis, boats, and these jerks keep giving them fake food laden with sharp hooks. Do whatever you can to make your presentation subtle, natural, and different from others’.

If bass aren’t willing to bite when you let them study the bait—try going for a reaction strike. When someone throws a baseball at your face you duck out of the way without a thought. Bass will bite lures without a thought too. Most often reaction strikes come within half a second of the lure touching the water—the bass strike out of pure instinct. The best reaction strike lures land close to the fish and make a lot of racket. Buzzbaits are my favorite reaction strike lure in the shallows. In the depths, a noisy, clunky crankbait can get a reaction strike—especially when you get it stuck in the weeds and rip it free! When all else fails this method will sometimes get those lockjaws to open up.

In 1932, 20 year old George Perry caught the 22 pound monster in Montgomery Lake in Telfair County, Georgia. Montgomery Lake was an oxbow lake off the Ocmulgee River, and is not much of a lake anymore. Perry took photos of the fish, submitted it to the record books, and ate the fish the day he caught it! He caught it on a Chub Fintail Shiner (if anybody even knows what that is).

In 2009, Japan’s Manabu Kurita tied the record in Lake Biwa, Japan. He used a live bluegill and caught the record on his first cast towards an old piling where he saw a large fish foraging. Here is the video of his weigh-in.

State Records for Largemouth Bass

Here’s all the states and a few surrounding countries. Who knows where the next fish will come from? What is interesting is that on average the state record was caught in 1983. So on average, the state record is 29 years old! Only two state record fish have been caught later than 2000. We haven’t been catching as many records as we were in the past. As angling pressure increases, old and large fish become more and more watchful of fake lures and are caught much less or not at all.

Dottie: Close, but no Cigar

In the trophy bass category, there is a story of near success with Dottie (they call her Dottie because of a unique spot on her gill), the almost record breaker from Dixon Lake, California. In 2003, she was first caught off her spawning bed and was weighed immediately at 23 pounds. However, it took three hours for fish and game to get to the site where she officially weighed 21 pounds 11 ounces. Jed Dickerson, who caught the fish, claimed the three hour wait stressed the fish and it shed some weight in the time.

Jed and his friends scoured the lake year after year waiting for Dottie to show up in her typical spawning grounds (the only time they stood a chance at catching her). In 2006 she was caught again, and tipped the scales at 25 pounds and 1 ounce! However, she was foul hooked and the record would not stand. Jed and his friends spent day after day searching for her to no avail. To end the story, Dottie was found dead floating in Dixon Lake in 2008—the record that never recorded.

Catching Trophy Sized Bass

Catching a trophy bass is almost all about where you fish. Most don’t know that there are two species of largemouth bass. The normal largemouth (Micropterus salmoides salmoides) at maximum can grow to around 13 pounds. But the Florida strain largemouth (Micropterus salmoides floridanus) can grow even larger, but only exists in year-round warm waters primarily in the south. A true trophy needs to be a Florida strain fish. In addition, hot southern waters allow bass to have a longer growing season and reach larger sizes.

Fish never stop growing, so catching the biggest usually means catching the oldest. This can be quite troublesome. These goliath bass have seen all the tricks, it is going to take a real display of prey imitation to get a bite from these fish (or try live bait). Some bass have grown so accustomed to seeing lures that they immediately flee the area as soon as the cast hits the water (that’s a little concerning isn’t it?). It is hard to say what will catch the next record or if it will be caught at all. Banana-sized swimbaits seem to be doing well for trophy sized fish. With all the fish stocking programs out there, big bass have learned to feed on planter trout—these clueless fish are free food for the big bass and 10” trout-imitating swim lures have been showing strong trophy catches.

If these locations don’t mean anything to you, they will by the end of the article. This article is all about where and why to cast for bass in the shallows.

A common situation in fishing is to have a field of lily pads or other structure with simply too much water to cover — so where to cast? Good fishermen quickly break these expanses of water down into productive and unproductive waters, spending their time in the productive areas only. On any given lake, there are thousands and thousands of places to cast to. Some areas are swarmed with fish and other areas are completely deserted. Thus, every cast should be a deliberate decision. Aim for something and have reason to. Below are some tips and diagrams to outline popular shallow water bass locations.

Shallow Water Structure Locations

Bass nature is to associate with structure. Bass have rhyme and reason for their daily locations—maybe it provides great shade or maybe great Shad! The universal rule for bass location and the underlying principle of this whole article is that bass are attracted to the abnormal. Isolations of weeds, holes in weeds, a log in the weeds—anything out of the ordinary is bound to attract bass. The same principle applies for deep water, but for this article we are only examining shallow water structure that can be seen by the angler.

1. Points in the Pads – Bass love to hang around points, even down to small points in the lily pads.

2. Dips – Dips or small inlets in the pads also provide a great ambush point for bass.

3. Weed Species Meet – When different species of weeds meet can mean a unique ecosystem for the area and worth attracting bass. When different types of weeds meet it can sometimes mean a change in the bottom type too.

4. Logs – Laydowns are almost always a unique thing on a lake and will for sure attract some bass. Shallow water logs are especially great during the spring when bass are making their spawning nests.

5. Channels – Long thin channels in the weeds bass often use as highways searching for prey. Cast and reel your lure the full length of the channel for best results.

6. Holes – Breaks in the weeds often are resting areas for bass. Fishing these holes can be tricky. The hangups can be plentiful. I usually grab a topwater frog for these isolated holes because the lure is generally weedless and makes getting fish out of the slop easier. Once a fish takes the frog I reel in as quick as I can, often dragging the fish across the top of the pads. Sometimes I’ll also use a jig-n-pig combo in the holes—have some high pound test line and a stiff rod for this tactic because you are in for a dogfight.

7. Isolations – Isolated weed clumps are usually a point of interest for feeding bass and are worth a few casts.

8. Thick Vegetation – Very thick vegetation can always harbor bass and often will during cold fronts. Tossing a jig in the middle of the thickness and waiting is about the only way to get at these fish. Again, bring the stiff rod and high pound test line!

9. Overhangs – Overhanging limbs often attract bass for two reasons. They provide great shade from the heat of the day, and they also drop things that attract food for bass. For example, a bug may fall from a tree limb every now and then. Sometimes I’ll take a jig and make it imitate something that has fallen from the tree. I think bass are more likely to bite a wide variety of bait that falls from a tree, while in the water they can be a little more picky.

10. Other Random Things – Broken down docks, trees in the water, wakeboard ramps, old docked boats. Anything that is out of the ordinary is worth a few casts at minimum.

**If you know of a great place to cast that I’ve forgotten to mention put it in the comments and I’ll add it in and give you credit for the idea**

Examples

Here’s another helpful example on how to dissect lily pads. The numbers apply to the above rules.

These rules apply across any body of water, even in the wood!

Summary

The name of the game is finding something odd or unusual about the area. It is fundamental to the bass’ nature to associate with structure, preferably structure different than their surroundings.

Bass fishing is a game of odds. The more your lure is in the fish’s face the better. So stacks the odds in your favor by using this knowledge to breakdown productive and unproductive water and cast more consistently into the fish.

Please leave any comments or feedback below on anything I’ve missed and I’ll add them into the article. Thanks!

Remember that fish are cold blooded, meaning their metabolism speeds up or slows down according to the surrounding temperatures. If a cold front lowers the water temperatures, bass either find warmer water or become more sluggish. Let’s address each situation separately.

When Bass Move to Warmer Water

When a front rolls in, most fish pack up and head to deeper, warmer water. Say for example we just had two solid weeks of sun, then a cold front comes through and it rains for two days. This rain and cold weather has made the top 4-5 feet of water temperature change significantly. However, down at 10 feet the temperature remains unchanged. Deeper water after a cold front is not affected as much as the top layer. A natural question is, “Well if the deeper water remains unchanged, why don’t bass act normal in deeper water during cold front?” Good question, my best answer is that bass are out of their comfortable feeding zone and pattern in those conditions. When bass get forced out of their natural pattern and go deep, they usually are sitting it out on the sidelines.

When Bass Stay Put in the Shallows

A percentage of the population of bass on any given lake are not going to move when a front rolls in. It is important to realize that not all fish are acting the same way on a lake. Patterns can change and numerous fishing patterns can exist at the same time! The bass who do not go deep usually find refuge in the weeds. Weeds, though sometimes in shallow water, serve as the bass’ security blanket from cold weather. It is just their nature. Look for the thickest of thick weeds. These weeds are usually nearby to feeding flats and the bass will hunker down in the middle of the weedbed and pseudo-hibernate until temperatures rise. These fish can get quite sluggish, but thick weeds are often easier to locate then deep water haunts.

Techniques to Catch Bass After a Cold Front

I remember my first cold front fishing lesson. A buddy and I got an itch to go fishing on a nice day after a cold front. Our first mistake was assuming the fishing would be normal just because it was a nice day. The reality was we were fishing the first nice day after a 3 day front. Accordingly, we fished far too fast. And accordingly, not a bite. I was casting a senko around some docks and accidentally rat-nested my reel. I sat there for a few minutes untangling the line as my senko laid on the bottom out where I casted. I finally untangled the line, reeled in, and something was pulling back! I reeled in a three pound bass and averted being skunked on the day. My rat-nest allowed my lure to sit in front of the fish much longer than usual. The sluggish cold front bass finally got what he wanted: an easy bite!
Lesson: Slow down…then slow down some more.

The second tendency of cold front fish is a loss of appetite. Cold fronts generally put fish a funk, they don’t feed as usual. Similarly, think of when the last time you had the flu. Did you decide to tackle that 12oz sirloin at the local steakhouse for dinner or did you nibble on some crackers instead? Downsize your offering to the fish. Make that 6″ plastic 4″ instead. Lighter line also helps as well as fish tend to sluggishly study the lures in cold fronts and therefore have a higher likelihood to see your fishing line.
Lesson: Smaller and more discrete.

Lure Choice

I recommend small plastics. Drop-shots are turning into a very popular fishing technique for finicky bass. Pick a plastic that has less action than more. In cold fronts all organisms slow down, so a high action lure will look unnatural and fake. Keep things simple in a cold front. The key here is getting your lure in the fish’s “strike zone.” Tube’s are also one of my favorites for stubborn cold front bass. Here’s a great article on when and where to use one.This strike zone gets very small with cold front bass. I recommend vertical presentations and jigging. Keep the cranks and topwaters at home today!

Bass Spawning 101: Biology and Relationships

Once temperatures get to around 55+, the males leave the security of deep water and look for a nesting ground in the shallows. The males will peruse the shallows, looking for some unique characteristic in shallow, warm bays. These male bass must choose their nest location wisely, they will be on around the clock hour guard duty with the eggs during their incubation period. Bass often choose nests adjacent to structure that aids in guarding the eggs from panfish, salamanders, turtles, snakes, and other predators.

While all the males are tidying up their chosen nests, the females lay and wait a few dozen yards away, likely in deep, yet conveniently close water. Once the temperatures hit a certain level the females placidly swim up and check out what nests the males have to offer. They will hang around their chosen nest for a few days and then lay eggs. Females usually lay eggs at a few different nests. After female’s spawn they typically retreat to deeper water, remaining fairly inactive as they recover for a few weeks. Some females, particularly in the south, will help guard the nest along with the male.

In most cases, male bass are the guardians. These two to four pound wimps are in charge of guarding the helpless eggs and fry for the next couple days. The male’s guard duty is essential for the survival of the species. This is why many anglers are disgruntled and find fishing during the bass spawn unethical. For a few minutes of fun the angler puts the whole nest–and thus the future of fishing– in jeopardy of predation.

Spawning Bed Locations

Largemouth bass search for the warmest water in the lake to spawn. They usually spawn in three to five feet of water in a calm, secluded bay with lots of weeds and other structure. They like a hard bottom for the eggs to stick to as well. It is never very hard to find the prime bedding areas, but finding beds at the right time is the issue.

Where will the fish be and when you ask? As discussed in a previous article, water temperature is huge. I’ll say that again, water temperature is huge. The water temperatures will lead you to the fish. As a general guideline, 50-55 the fish will be on small adjacent points near spawning flats. From 55-60 the fish will creep much closer to the spawning flats. Usually in this temperature range the males will be found on the beds or perusing around looking for a good place to chauffeur a female. Below is a chart that attempts to explain this process. In spring, the weather often fluctuates, so think of the fish movements as an ebb and flow (shown below). The fish move back and forth as the water warms and cools between cold fronts.

Prespawn Lures

I’ll let you in on a secret: there isn’t much of a secret to catching prespawn or spawning bass. Finding the fish is 90% of the battle, catching is the easy part. However, a big issue with spawn fishing is that most fishermen know the routine. I’ve been in tournaments where dozens of bass boats clog a narrow channel all going for the same fish.

What makes spring fishing so fun also makes fishing pressure very high. When you have a big group of anglers who all know where the spawning flats are, you often will get skittish fish who have either been caught already or seen too much disturbance to be in a biting mood.

Lure choice in prespawn conditions can greatly depend on fishing pressure. If you are fishing some large reservoir way out of town that receives little pressure, fast topwaters and other irritating baits work great. However if the lake is in town, with a large population of fishermen commonly on the lake, a better lure choice is a subtle plastic or a dropshot rig. As a rule, when fish are pressured, going smaller and lighter is the winning ticket.

Jigs work well if you have a good view of the nest and low boat movement. Cast the jig past the nest and reel it in until the jig is laying smack dab in the middle of the nest. Bass will often take the jig as a threat and strike it. Other times the fish will lightly grip the bait and move it off the nest. Pay careful attention to how the fish reacts to the lure and you should be able to tell what its intentions are. I’ve missed many hookups thinking the bass chomped my jig when really it was a graceful nibble.

When in doubt consider a salamander lure. Salamanders are natural bass egg predators and bass often eat them simply to eliminate a threat, regardless of hunger. If a bass is not reacting to anything you’ve tossed, a salamander can sometimes get a strike of hateful fury. If the fish isn’t biting anything, leave it alone for a while, it may be aware of your presence.

A final note that deserves its own paragraph: bring polarized sunglasses! Spring bass fishing is heavy on the sight fishing. Your best friend is a good set of shades, letting you see a couple feet deeper in the water or spot those big 12″ to 24″ carved out nests on the bottom.

Bass Spawn Temperatures

Bass eggs develop quicker in warmer water, so bass naturally want the water as warm as possible for their spawn. Bass like to spawn in shallow bays which soak up the sun rays most effectively relative to the rest of the lake. The northwest side of the lake is usually the warmest part of the lake. Looking for shallow bays on the northwest side of the lake can’t be a bad place to look for spawning bass.

The premium spawn temperatures vary from region to region, but expect at least some bass to spawn as soon as the water temperatures get to 65°. At 60° the males can be found scouting spawn beds looking for the best spot to defend the nest from sunfish and other predators. These males typically do not grow much larger than two pounds. While the males search for nests the females wait for the right time in the depths, probably no more than 150 feet away. From 55° to 50°, when the water is a bit colder, the fish tend to stage nearby (like in a creek channel or on an adjacent point to a spawning flat) waiting for the waters to warm up. It is not that unusual for fish to move back and forth between staging areas throughout the day. The best fishermen will check and recheck typical spawning flats and holding zones throughout the day, it is only a matter of temperature before they run into the fish. When the water is much below 50° the fish hang out on main points in deeper water close to the spawning flats. The image below is a place I’ve fished spawns before and had great results (click image to enlarge).

Extra Spring Fishing Tips

Lake surface temperature is not equal to deeper water temperature. For example, a trolling motor takes the surface temperature at 61° on a warm spring day. This would mean the bass are on the beds. But this temperature is only the surface temperature, three feet below the water hasn’t soaked up those sun rays and is still 57°, thus the bass are still hanging in deep channels. For this reason some trolling motors have two temperature gauges, one at the surface and another at the base of the motor 2-3 feet below.

These temperature estimations are not absolute. Depending the region, the optimal temperatures may change. Also, Largemouth bass have evolved in such a way that schedules the population to spawn at different times. For example, some bass will spawn at 60° and others will spawn at 68°. This evolutionary defensive mechanism protects the population from natural disasters. Say, for example, a very bad storm front comes through after all bass lay their eggs–the water temperature plummets and all males leave the nests, leaving all eggs to be eaten by predators–the spawn is a disaster. This is why not all bass spawn at once. All bass will spawn over the period of a few weeks to cover for drastic circumstances. I’ve frequently read that the largest females tend to spawn earlier than the rest of the bass.

Spring Spawn Weather

Weather is obviously a big factor for the spring spawn. Keep in mind warm rain will be much more effective at increasing the water temperature than sunlight will. Spring is often a time of cold fronts and unstable weather. The fish will be moving back and forth between spawning and staging areas for weeks. In general though, wait for a few solid days of sunlight and head for a shallow bay! I prefer to search for bass on the beds in the afternoon, giving the sun a few extra hours to warm up the shallows. Dark-bottomed bays heat quicker than lighter colored bays, because the dark color soaks up the heat more effectively like a black car will heat up quicker than a white car left in the sun. Dark-bottomed, shallow, and calm bays, adjacent to large lake points and deep water are ideal spawn locations. Also, lots of shoreline structure is essential. Weeds, brush, logs, laydowns, docks, or anything else the bass will find helpful in defending the eggs against predators are prime bed locations.

Gear:

Each of us in the boat had two rods. The first rod equipped some drift fishing gear, and the second rod was equipped with a large shallow diving plug. One of those all-purpose ones that doesn’t really look like much of anything. Fifteen pound test or so on both rods.

Fishing:

After 45 minutes of no bites our guide Alex is still calm and confident the fish are around. He tells us his favorite hole is still downriver–where he wants us to spend hours anchored up letting the plugs flow in the current…well we got to the apparently infamous hole and two boats were already in the hole and into fish as well.

We decided to try some other places further down the river. That’s what we get for drinking the night before and getting the late start! Drift fishing lost us nearly all our hooks and swivels on trees and snags, so we stopped and fished a spawning bay for a while. We caught two nice fish among the four of us, and about fifteen more dinosaurs that were on their last leg and clearly post-spawn. I caught the big fish of the trip (me below with the fish), but the fish was not looking so sharp. This particular fish I caught on the fin. We weren’t trying to snag with our drift gear but caught a few in odd places anyways. I also caught a dead fifteen pound fish off of the bottom–the friends had some laughs over that. We had some good fun, and getting out on the water in the winter to catch up to 10-20 pound fish is awfully refreshing for a guy who usually just sticks to bass.

My old dinosaur Chum, the biggest of the day

What was the most irritating today was the Indian netting boats going by every ten minutes. We were angered as we watched these nets bring in anywhere from five to thirty bright, silver, fresh Chum salmon from the river time and time again as we meagerly played with the nearly dead fish that already spawned. Needless to say, once the Indians were on the water fishing dies down. I hear the natives can only net this river Sunday-Wednesday so the best day to take a trip is Saturday where the new fish have had the most time to get up river without being netted. Six people died on this river last year so be careful, the current was pretty quick in some spots.

Figure Fish Location: Maps & Seasons

First thing is to conjur a general idea of where the fish will be. If you are reading this I assume you know a thing or two about the fish you will be pursuing. But if you don’t know your target species, research the seasonal movement of the fish, as it is integral to predicting fish location. Once you know the fish’s seasonal tendencies the next step is to study a detailed map of the lake. Try to isolate 100-200 yard patches of water that should be holding fish given the time of year and species. Pick 3-4 spots you would like to check out. If you don’t have a topographical map, Google Maps is a great tool to geographically dissect lakes. The satellites provide surprisingly high resolution detail. Be very observant of the water seen via Google maps—some obvious structures seen on Google Maps will be invisible on the water! Google will pick up things like underwater humps and shallow reefs when the naked eye will miss them.

Weather is important when fishing. Pretend you are at home and it is freezing cold or god awful hot outside—you are not going outside unless you have to. If you went outside, you only would want back to comfortable temperatures as soon as possible. Fish behave this way too. Fish move very little when the water is too hot or cold–they stay ‘inside their homes.’ Remember water takes longer to heat and cool than does air. A bad cold front at night will drag water temperatures down well into the following day no matter how sunny it may be. So when the day is sunny and warm the fish may still be in “cold mode” where they are chilled and inactive deep in the weed beds. Best practice is to pay attention to the previous couple days weather, and, to put it briefly, cold slows the fish down, sun speeds up activity (cold-blooded animals roll with the punches). In Washington, three consistently warm days is my trigger to hit the water.

Get a Pulse on the Fish: Fishing Sites and Reports

Fish behave a certain way in theory according to the weather and season. Theory will often fail because of extraneous factors. These extraneous factors like baitfish, migratory birds, or even spawning of other fish can sometimes be figured out through fishing sites and posted fishing reports which give you an idea of how fish are actually behaving now! These sites offer free information and usually pictures! I think fishing report aggregator tools online are so powerful I am making one myself!

Don’t be out Tying Knots of the Water

I know it is a luxury to own as many as ten rods, but if you own even two rods I advise outfitting them with different lures. Make your rods diverse. Here’s an example to make my point clear. What happens when a bass strikes your top water bait but misses and won’t bite it anymore? (You are going to throw a worm or finesse bait at it—Quick!). Easy if you setup a rod ahead of time. But wait, you didn’t setup your rods ahead of time so you have to tie on a new worm to another rod, throbbing in adrenaline you pull the knot too tight, break the line, and have to start over! After three frustrating minutes you tie the knot again and cast back towards the hungry bass. By then she’s gone. Sound fun? Quickly changing lure presentations puts more bass in the boat and calls for pre-tied rods. Tie on a few different lures, and have some method to the madness. I like to have a few rods dedicated to fast moving lures and a few rods dedicated to slower moving lures. I will always have a flipping stick on board for those thick brush bass.

My Aerial View

I was on a tall cliff edge that dropped straight down into the water where there was a narrow channel about 5 feet wide that separated this cliff from an expansive and thick weed bed. This thin channel ran about 100 feet along the cliffside, separating the weeds from the cliff all along the way. I had an aerial view on all of the habitat from the cliff-top, which allowed me to view a peculiar bass behavior. After studying the area for a bit I found about four 2-3 pound bass swimming together along this channel. At first I figured I lucked out to see them and they were just moving to another ambush spot. But the bass continued swimming along the channel, and when they got to the end of the channel–they turned around and swam back. I watched these bass swim this 100 foot channel together 3-4 times before I left. Below is a conceptual drawing of this scenario.

Bass Movement and You

Bass on the move leads to the idea that occasionally we just get lucky and run into fish! Or other instances we are casting to the right place at the wrong time. How would you like to know that at one of your recent fishing trips you were in the right area, just didn’t hang around long enough to cast at the right moment? That bucketmouth was just in the area five minutes ago! Or perhaps the bass you caught on that dock really wasn’t laying in ambush, but rather on a designated path it commonly follows and you found it at the right moment.

This is not to say all fish are on the move, but what makes fishing so tough is we really don’t know until we’ve amassed hundreds of hours on the water. Pros likely know like the back of their hand when is a good time for fish movement versus lay in wait ambush techniques. This article was designated as food for thought. Perhaps other (not easily seen) patterns are at play under the water. A good way to take advantage of bass on the move is to find the areas they will likely move to and from. From my channel example, grab a heavy bait and cast it as far as you can down the channel and hope you have increased your chances of reeling into the fish! Also, give the spot a few extra casts keeping in mind some fish will rotate back into the area. Sure, this style of fishing takes a little bit longer to fully cover an area but that decision is yours to take. Some Pros say they can fish a 100 yard strip of water for a whole tournament instead of jetting around all over the lake. Pros say that because of reasons like bass movement.