This is a relatively easy problem to solve. It's best since you're in your early boating career to stick to shallow fishing. Boat control and positioning is IMPERATIVE when fishing offshore, so keep it simple. Before the sun gets over the tree lines, pull into small pockets and throw topwater. This time of year I really have success with a spook style bait or a buzz bait. Try different shoreline cover like grass, docks, rocks, lay downs, etc until you find where you are catching more fish. This will help a ton later in the day.
Basically, you're gonna stay shallow all day. As sun gets up, usually you experience a small lull in the bite as the fish adjust to the brighter conditions. Since the fish aren't crazy about being exposed in the bright light, it's a no brainier on what to attack the rest of the day.....shade. Fish the shady side of docks, bridge pilings, laydowns. Basically anything that casts a shadow, no matter how small. Bass sit in the shade pockets and ambush prey as it comes by. Bring your bait right next to the shade line or flip a jig or weighted soft plastic right into into the shade. Eventually you're gonna trigger a reaction strike by doing this. I like using a streamlined plastic and heavy weight to get that pitch to shade to fall faster. The faster the fall, the better chance of the reaction strike.
Another thing to look for is wind. Even a tiny ripple can get an entire area of fish fired up. It adds oxygen to the water, can cool it off a bit, and create minute amounts of current. All of those things are huge in warm weather fishing. When you find banks with wind, approach it the same way. Root a squarebill crankbait or spinnerbait to keep it simple. Make sure you're running then around shade lines and keep the bait moving quickly. It's all about that reaction strike. If they aren't interested in the hardbaits or spinnerbaits, try a soft plastic jerk bait or senko. That small change can be huge. Once again, on the windy banks, attack the shade with the jig or soft plastic once you hit those shade lines with the moving baits.
Another scenario is shoreline grass. If you find quality grass (not that slimy scum grass), but solid, green grass. Attack this with a frog or toad and then work the edges with soft plastics. If you find anything out of the ordinary on that grass line, fish this extra hard. Usually this means the bottom either has an indention or small point and this will focus the fish on that particular area.
When you fish a pocket and you're backing out, always always ALWAYS take your boat, line up where the pocket comes to an end, and make a cast to the end with a crankbait that dives a bit deeper (6-12') and make some casts right down the center of that sucker. This little trick will get you tons of extra bites. What's going on is that when the lake is down, and it rains, it carves out a small ditch in the pocket. The fish hold on that ditch and will move up to feed and then move back into the ditch. Seriously, this little technique catches fish year round.
Lastly, if you have cloud cover all day and some wind, that topwater bite is gonna stay strong. It won't concentrate the fish like a sunny day will, so you're going to have to expand the areas you fish. Bass tend to roam around on cloudy days so if you are fishing a flat, they could be everywhere, so this is when putting the trolling motor on high and covering as much water as possible is key. Once again, taking note of which cover is near when the fish strikes.
No matter how hot it is, there will ALWAYS be shallow fish that are catchable. I hope this helps and gives you a starting point. Please feel free to ask anything else. No question is to basic. We're here to help you catch more fish
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