With that said, bass don't like the heat any more than humans do. Bass will often travel to the deep "flats" during the heat of the day, and eat very little. They will feed more as the water cools when the sun goes down. And the morning serves as one last opportunity to eat as much as possible, before the heat of the day sets in. Think about that for a second. It is natural instinct to want to wait until the last minute to do something. So, bass will generally eat consistently during the night, and will scarf as much as possible in the morning, in prepartion for the upcoming hot day. As a result, the early morning, from sunrise to about 11 AM, is one of the best times to fish during the summer.
Now for the good stuff. I woke up around 5:30, and headed out to my favorite summer spot at Sayer's Dam, the Hunter's Run roadbed. The water was incredibly smooth and calm, and I headed out, admiring the scenery. Now, I had three reels, one with 4 pound mono line, one with 10 pound mono line, and one with 20 pound braided line. While the braided was the strongest, it was also very visible, and I thought, with the bass already finnicky, that may spook them. So, I chose the mono line, and rigged up.
As I stated before, I absolutely love fishing plastics, as they mimic natural forage, along with natural motion. In addtion, I like to thoroughly saturate then with Gulp scent, sometimes even "marinating" the lure in it overnight. This serves two purposes. First, bass have a nose much like a dog's, that can detect scents from far away. Second, the scent helps offset any foreign scents you may get on the bait, such as gasoline, sunscreen, sweat, etc.
I put a Berkley Powerminnow on one rod, and began casting, The action came quickly, and within the first half hour, I pulled out two decent sized smallmouth. I was happy, but knowing big fish feed in the morning, I wanted more size. I was not to be disappointed.
Now, there is a convention that bigger baits catch bigger fish, and this is a logical idea. So, I switched to a jerk shad, which was about 5 inches in length, and I rigged it weedless. I wanted to work the steep drop off on the side, which goes into about 20 feet of water, and contains some huge fish. I did this, working the bait very slowly. Sure enough, the third cast, I felt resistance on the end of my line. This was going to be a "I thought I was stuck" fish. However, as fishermen, if you are able to continue reeling and pulling up, you are to do so, regardless of what scary creature may be on the other end of your line. I did this, and was in a fight with something that made my pole double over. I realized it was a giant bass, when my line rose to the surface, and the large, green monster jumped out of the water and flipped in the air. The fight lasted awhile, and I wanted to tire him out, yet play him quickly so he wouldn't be too stressed. I finaly pulled it up, and boated him before he could even think about throwing the hook. After measurements, I learned the bass was over four pounds, and nearly 19 inches in length. Even his mouth was the width of a pickle jar. I threw him back, telling him to bite again at tournament time.
I was pumped that I had a strategy that was working, and I hooked several nice fish within the next few hours. Unfortunately I missed alot of them. One put up an amazing fight, before my line looped, and I got snapped off. Another one hit, similar to the last one, except he got away.
The third lure I fished was the Senko worm. I had some decent luck with this, pulling up a nice 15 inch, 1.5 pound smallmouth. While not quite as big as the largemouth, it was still a solid, tournament quality keeper.
Around 11:30, the heat really started to set in, and my efforts were beginning to produce diminishing returns, so I decided to quit for the day. I will definately be hitting this early in the morning soon again.
Until then, God Bless, Tight Lines, oh and beat the heat and drink plenty of fluids!
JP
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