8 straight trips…….

[Gohoosiers09]

I’ve been on a wild ride these last few weeks. I have went 8 times  in a row with only catching 1 bass on a 4 to 5 hour day. I mainly fish a Texas rig; I love to throw creature baits and trick worms. Also fish a lot of spinner baits. The obvious answer is switch it up more, but what does a guy do to pattern fish and stay on them. I am mainly catching them shallow or where it starts drop off. Thanks! 

[Bird]

More details of the body of water your fishing.

Water clarity, type of structure, grass or pads, how large the body of water.

Are you on the bank on in a boat ?

 

We can help but need a few more details.

[Gohoosiers09]

I am throwing shaded tree areas, docks, heavy cover, lay downs. Most of the lakes up here are not super clear I would say a foot or two of clarity. I am in a boat, and the lakes I am fishing are not huge but not small neither 

[Siebert Outdoors]

My guess would be need to fish deeper structure on points or drop offs from the 10-15 FOW mark.

[Choporoz]

12 minutes ago, Siebert Outdoors said:

My guess would be need to fish deeper structure on points or drop offs from the 10-15 FOW mark.

+1

 

Your boat may be positioned perfectly.   Turn around and cast 180 degrees from where you were casting before.  Find weed lines and work those.  Main and secondary points down to 20' may well be better than visible cover this time of year. 

[scaleface]

Sounds like you are throwing to the places bass like to hang around with the right lures .I dont know how skilled you are but maybe refining your presentation with  quieter  more accurate cast and try to be stealthy . Maybe you are already doing that already in which case , keep on trying to figure them out  . 

[Bird]

Try top water early and cast horizontal to the bank......buzzbaits, whopper ploppers, spooks.

 

Sounds like you're targeting the right areas so perhaps it's time for different techniques if the fish aren't cooperating.

Weightless Senko's wacky rigged or T-rigged is a proven summer bait.

Keep fishing ?

[DitchPanda]

 So heres my take as a bank angler: the old saying is there's always some fish up shallow. My past few trips have been a struggle in the mornings...got 3 little ones last time and today I got skunked. Like stated above my guess is the majority of the fish are in deeper water on points or in brush.

 There's probably some fish shallow but they are likely scattered so if you insist on fishing the bank I'd burn up alot of shoreline with a buzz bait searching for those rogue fish. Then in the afternoon a Texas rig worm or creature and a weightless senko thrown into lay downs and under docks should work after the sun and heat have positioned fish.

 My local lake usually has an hour or so bite window starting from 30 minutes before sun up until 30 minutes after sunrise. This bite normally takes place once the water is consistently above 80...normally July and August. Its spurned on by shad balls up shallow early morning. It hasn't started yet this year but it should be close. When that's happening I usually have a fluke,popper, small spinnerbait and white Ned rig tied on. Its not uncommon to catch 6-8 bass in that hour.

 When that bite wanes the fish are extremely predictable..they get on the closest shallow cover. So I fish laydowns, the few docks on the lake and shallow brush in 2-6fow. I use my Ned rig, Texas rigged worms and weightless senkos\flukes. Its not uncommon to get another 5-8 fish. This entire process usually takes 3hrs and I often catch  10-15  bass and have several other bites. Plus I'm home by 9 before it gets scorching hot.

[DaubsNU1]

Most of the lakes in my area have similar clarity. @DitchPanda has some great advice ^^^

 

I like buzz-baits first thing in the morning as well. You might consider running a square-bill (get a good lure-retriever). I throw a lot of spinner-baits, weightless Senkos, NEDs, and t-rigged plastics. 

 

In the past month I've been pitching a black / blue jig-n-craw under docks, piers, heavy cover...and landed some nice 4-5lb bass. 

 

Another option to consider is a drop-shot. Good luck!!

[Gohoosiers09]

Thank you guys so much for the advice! I will give it a go! 

[Koz]

Here's my sure fire summer guide to fishing in warm water, summer conditions:

 

If you're not catching bass where you normally catch them, fish somewhere else.

 

And I'm actually not being snarky here. You mention your fishing docks, shade pockets, etc. so I assume you're looking for relatively cooler water. But ask yourself this, "Is that where teh water is most oxygenated?"

 

I'll give you an example, Where I fish, right now I see guys pitching and flipping docks all the time in shallow coves and they draw blank after blank. Why? There's zero vegetation around to oxygenate the water. There are no feeder streams pushing in with oxygenated water. These places still hold tons of baitfish year round and in the heat, but in the summer all but a few straggler bass are elsewhere.

 

Personally, in the summer heat I'm putting the mantra, "find the baitfish, find the bass" second to finding the most oxygenated water that I can find. Where I fish, that's not always easy because we have very little vegetation in the lake. 

[scaleface]

10 hours ago, Koz said:

Personally, in the summer heat I'm putting the mantra, "find the baitfish, find the bass" second to finding the most oxygenated water that I can find. Where I fish, that's not always easy because we have very little vegetation in the lake. 

I  look for the depth that most of the shad are located  with a depth finder . They are so delicate that I assume they hang where the O2 is most concentrated .

[Sphynx]

13 hours ago, Koz said:

Here's my sure fire summer guide to fishing in warm water, summer conditions:

 

If you're not catching bass where you normally catch them, fish somewhere else.

 

And I'm actually not being snarky here. You mention your fishing docks, shade pockets, etc. so I assume you're looking for relatively cooler water. But ask yourself this, "Is that where teh water is most oxygenated?"

 

I'll give you an example, Where I fish, right now I see guys pitching and flipping docks all the time in shallow coves and they draw blank after blank. Why? There's zero vegetation around to oxygenate the water. There are no feeder streams pushing in with oxygenated water. These places still hold tons of baitfish year round and in the heat, but in the summer all but a few straggler bass are elsewhere.

 

Personally, in the summer heat I'm putting the mantra, "find the baitfish, find the bass" second to finding the most oxygenated water that I can find. Where I fish, that's not always easy because we have very little vegetation in the lake. 

I usually live by "Find the grass, find the bass" in the summer, big pockets of living vegetation with a feeder stream/source of current hitting it are going to draw an abnormal amount of my attention. 

[Darth-Baiter]

From shore; I like to first throw out a lure when I’m still far from the water.