It's a Story Not Unlike the One About the Tortoise and the Hare

That's what you get when summer's sweltering temperatures arrive, along with lower dissolved oxygen in the water. Bass simply don't chase their prey as much. Not that they can't; they just don't want to, so the predictable result is declined aggression.

Notwithstanding the brief flurries of activity you may find at dawn and/or dusk, the smart bass anglers plan on slowing down in most bass habitat they fish during the day.

"Now 'slow' is not necessarily synonymous with a heavy object pegged to the bottom," explained fishing guide Stephen Johnston. "No doubt, creeping a 10-inch Texas-rigged worm across wood and rock will produce bites, but so will a tiny worm, lizard or creature bait when fished on a dropshot, shaky head, or wacky worm rig."

One of Johnston's favorite slow-down rigs is a 4-inch V&M Chop Stick Texas-rigged with a 1/16-ounce weight.

"Light Texas rigs like this probably won't cut it in 20-plus feet, where current and line drift often will pull your bait off target," he said. "However, for shallow flipping or dragging, such diminutive packages look like the kind of meals bass are likely to favor on these low-speed days. You don't have to have a big, bulky bait. During those hot days, the fish look at that smaller bait as easier prey to get than, say, a big beaver-style bait, or a crawfish-style bait."

One of the more innovative tactics to have come out of California's finesse-heavy bass scene is the scaled-down Carolina rig.

A tactic fit for any situation requiring small lures and slow-moving presentations, the Little C allows you to present a light rig without the bold, intrusive principle of a traditional setup.

Jason Milligan, whose Northern California home waters is Shasta Lake, has perfected a rig that serves bass anglers well in just such tough scenarios. His specialized C-rig starts with 8-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon as main line, sans the leader, thanks to a stiff rubber stopper called a Carolina Keeper that eliminates a swivel and one knot in the light line. Positioned below a 1/8-to-1/4-ounce tungsten bullet weight, the adjustable stopper slides along the line for instant leader adjustment.

Milligan sets his leader at 1.5 to 4 feet long and omits the rattle beads to avoid spooking sluggish bass. To create the right presentation, he uses a Damiki Air-Pocket worm on a light 1/0 to 2/0 Roboworm rebarb hook. The combination of minimal hook weight and bait buoyancy allows the worm to float as high as his leader length, enabling Milligan to simulate the look of a dropshot bait, only with a more active appearance.

"The way I set up my rig with a light-wire hook," he said, "allows the bait to float up off the bottom and target those fish that are in reach of where you'd normally catch them on a dropshot--even if they won't react to a dropshot," he continued.

Sometimes it's necessary, according to FLW touring pro J. T. Kenney, "to effect a slow presentation by minimizing your bait's forward progress and maximizing its face time in a particular area. Stroking a jig, vertically hopping a tube, and/or suspending jerkbaits all are designed to keep the potential meal in front of a bass long enough for the fish to saunter over and have a bite.

"Topwater frogs are another good example of this principle. More commonly worked with twitching, chugging or walking presentations, these baits can tempt some of the most exciting surface strikes imaginable. However, bass that don't feel like chasing down an ambling amphibian may just let it go by. The solution? Let that frog pause and kinda wiggle back and forth in an area the size of a dinner plate, and you'll often tempt something big into tip-toeing upstairs to slurp down this easy target."

Bass pro and frog expert Ish Monroe said "the key to this deal is working the frog on a slack line, so it kind of walks in place. Working this slow, nearly stationary presentation along the edge of a grass line or next to a dock often will deliver the desired results. Also try this over one of those random 'windows' in a weed mat or a lily-pad field, as these natural access points are where lethargic bass are more likely to gobble the amphibian imposter."

"Below the surface, letting that jig or Texas-rigged bait soak a little longer than usual often can help pick up another bite during a slow period. When flipping beavers or big worms or punching hefty baits, for example," said Johnston, "that persistent pestering affects bass very much like it affects humans.

"If you're sitting in your living room, watching TV, and someone starts dropping French fries in front of your face, you might ignore them at first, but after a while, you're going to grab one of them," he said. "With bass, when they're sitting there comfortably in their fortress beneath the vegetation, and a bait drops in front of them and stays there, they won't be able to resist it forever," he concluded.