Summer bass fishing is a great way to pass the time, and it provides its own set of advantages and difficulties. You might have to pitch your bait into some covered shady portions of the lake to get at those easy-living fish that don’t care much for the dog days of summer.
The grassy areas are home to a lot of bass after the spring spawn. The depth varies and the clarity of the water will vary as well. Bass just love to hang out around this stuff when they’re being less active. I mean, who doesn’t love to sit in the shade on a hot day?
They can also look at other places for similar results. There are woody, branchy areas that provide plenty of similar cover. Look for some structures at the edges of the lake or pond.
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You can do a lot of things. You can Texas-rig your bait, and you can pick a shorter rod to help you increase the accuracy of your flips.
Here’s where braid comes into the picture. You can assume they have zero stretch and thin diameters and that helps them penetrate the bushy vegetation. That’s the goal: To lure out those fish chilling in the cooler patches of water. However, braided lines reflect light. They can cause a glare, and the fish can notice this and get suspicious.
Braids have no stretch to speak of. That’s important to remember, which can let a fish shake off more easily. Gary Dobyns, a rod maker and tournament professional from California, has a pretty clever solution to this problem. He tops off the braided mainline with a much lighter (16-20 lbs) fluorocarbon leader. Brilliant actually.
Fluorocarbon is so light and sensitive and it’s smooth so it resists catching on bits of floating matter. The thin diameter increases the sensitivity. Fish can hardly notice it at all. It’s barely visible.
If you’re now asking yourself if you can just use fluorocarbon all the way, the answer is yes. Of course. You’re probably going to want to go this route when you’re flipping or pitching into more wooded areas with more branches and sticks than your run of the mill leaves and brush.
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Remember to always wet the knot when you’re tying fluorocarbon and you probably don’t want to tie on top lures because the fluorocarbon will sink. It’s great for Texas rigging.
Monofilament can be a good all-around solution for the guy on the go who couldn’t care less about either. It’s thick, has great stretch, and works great on bass as you already know. It works wonders with crankbaits and topwater lures.
So what’s the best line for summer bass? There’s no “best.”
Here’s a good rule of thumb: Use whatever works. Hell, this is fishing. Not rocket surgery.
