Summer Heat

The summer heat has finally raised the water temps enough to drive the bass deep. Largemouth are a different breed amongst themselves. Some will move off into deeper water and some will stay shallow. The pack fish will travel all year. I find the pack fish are the hardest to target. My wife and I were fishing a couple’s tournament several years ago. We went back into a grassy corner. The water was flat calm. I casted a Big Magic Stik into the very corner of the weeds.  I watched at least eighteen 2 ½ pound largemouth charge the bait. I pulled in one of the fish and had my wife cast to the same spot. Jackie pulled one in also. The fish then disappeared. I have been back to that spot many times since then and have only taken one two pound fish out of there. I have talked to lots of fishermen that have reported the same scenario. I have read much about wolf pack largemouth. I have read lots of articles on smallmouth packs, Esp. in the fall. Lake Champlain is well noted for that type of congregations of smallmouth. There have been some reports of  4 and 5 pounders all day long.

I have been experimenting with Case Plastic’s drop shot tubes. They are very slender and react well with the slightest twitch. I have not gone to the 30 foot zone yet, but that is next. I can say that I have caught both smallmouth and largemouth on those tubes. The smallmouth have been the larger fish so far. I think my target areas need to change.

I don’t think it will really matter what you put on your drop shot as long as you move it appropriately. Put it to the test—flat calm, hot, no clouds, shaking a bait for all it is worth won’t get many fish. The conditions on top should dictate how you work your bait on bottom.  I was perfishing last week. Hot and calm were the conditions. I caught several smallies and one largemouth on the drop shot. The bait was stopped every time they hit.  I also was fishing a crankbait, that day. The speed of the retrieve was as slow as you could reel. Some of the smallies were caught when the bait was slowly floating to the top.

Dog days of August is the time to slow down even more than normal. You can downsize or go bigger. Big swimbaits deep often will produce that kicker fish.I have some 5” lizards that I am going to try this week. Big lizards have been working fairly well. The spots that are the right depth and just off the weeds should be a good place to slowly drag those lizards on a short drop shot rig.

The Maine Blade Runners couples tournament on 8/8/09 showed how tough a bite can become. 21 Boats were in attendance. Only 2 limits came in. The winners had a bag of over 15 lbs of smallies. Jackie and I came in second with almost 12 lbs. We got our fish in the last two hours. We ran into a school of bait fish and the largemouth were underneath them. That was just luck. We ran spinnerbaits over the top of the weeds. It was in a place that I had not caught fish before. Maybe it was a wolf pack, maybe it wasn’t. The spot that the fish came from was not much over a 50 yard square. We were drifting most of the time. The wind was blowing enough so that you had to keep slowing the boat down to fish it properly.

The one thing that had kept me from fishing a drop shot much, was that it was supposed to be a vertical presentation. I like using an 1/8 ounce weight, on my drop shot. The bigger weights gather too many weeds. I cast my rig out and work it all the way back to the boat. Drag and then shake and drag some more.

Lots of different baits will work on a drop shot. Size limitations is up to you.

Good Luck!

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Peter Kjenstad