Man From the "Show Me" State Tells How To Do It...

Catch bass when the temperature soars to more than 100 degrees, that is.

As retired pro Denny Brauer (right) explained, "Hot weather is no longer just a southern phenomenon. Missouri and, for that matter, much of the Midwest also experience 100-degree temperatures. We've had summertime heat indexes for more than eight days at a time in my section of the country. Under those conditions, very few anglers want to go out on the water to fish."

Brauer went on to note, however, that there's an alternative to fishing in those kinds of temperatures: fishing at night.

"The best baits for nighttime fishing in hot weather are spinnerbaits, the Rage Thumper Worm, and buzzbaits in darker colors," he said. "If the body of water you're fishing has a thermocline (transition layer between warmer mixed water at the surface and cooler deep water) in it, search for places where the thermocline comes into contact with a key piece of structure, like a point, a ledge, or an underwater treetop. While bass concentrate under boat docks...where they find plenty of shade and bluegills...during the daytime, they move up to to shallow water at night to feed.

"To find and catch bass this time of year, look for areas on your body of water that can breathe (receive influxes of water), such as creeks running into a main lake, eddy currents, drain-offs...places where water drains into a lake or windy points," he continued. "Fish those areas, rather than moving into pockets or coves that don't have any moving water. Bass want to be comfortable, just like you do, so look for shade, higher oxygen content, and cool-water runoffs."

Brauer explained that, during the 1998 Bassmaster Classic at High Rock Lake in North Carolina, he fished in the middle of the day in 2-foot-deep water.

"There was more oxygen in that 2 feet of water than in any other parts of the lake," he said. "The bait was holding in that shallow water, and the bass were concentrating there, feeding on the bait. Most bass fishermen overlook (the value of) boat waves. I won that tournament on the main part of the lake, where there was a lot of boat action and a lot of waves hitting the bank.

"We know that wind blowing onto a point oxygenates the water, thereby causing the bass to bite. But  we forget boats make a wave action that crashes against the bank, oxygenates the water, and causes a feeding frenzy on the shad, which makes the bass bite...even in the middle of the day."