Bass Abandon the Shallows for Deep Water in the Middle of Summer...

That's another myth you often hear in fishing circles. Here are a couple more: Put the topwaters away when the sun hits the water. Hang up your gear until winter relaxes her grip on your favorite lake, and the water temperature climbs into the 50s.

You really don't have to look very far on the Internet to find all of these and many, many more just like 'em. Fortunately, anglers generally aren't as gullible as some would have you believe. Among the savvy ones is Gainesville, Fla. resident Bernie Schultz (above), who knows better than to pay attention to such tales. As he noted, "I've had some very good tournaments fishing in places that nobody else thinks hold any bass."

According to writer David Hart, at least some "bass anglers follow those long-standing myths like lemmings following the herd off a cliff. But rules were made to be broken, and anglers who can break away from the crowd and fish with an open mind can score some tremendous fish. Forget about what the experts say. Bass behave in ways that even the best anglers never will understand, and sometimes that means they go places and do things that few anglers expect."

The idea that "you have to back off and dredge the bottom in 25 or more feet of water during summer couldn't be farther from the truth," said Schultz. "Many bass do cower in the depths when the water sizzles, but plenty are catchable for those who prefer to cast to visible targets in shallow water.

"It doesn't matter where you are," he continued. "I've caught bass in shallow water in hot weather in the North, South, on natural lakes, reservoirs, rivers...all over the place. The truth is, plenty of bass stay shallow in the middle of the hottest, brightest day. I've caught some tremendous fish from 2 feet of water when the surface temperature was 90 degrees. They really become predictable after that initial period of high activity in the morning."

Once the early morning feeding turns off in shallow water, Schultz does what very few anglers do--he stays right where he is. But unlike experienced anglers, he switches gears and targets very specific types of cover with a handful of lures.

"I go to what I call high-percentage areas: wood and grass," he said. "Shallow bass use those types of cover because it provides shade, although they don't necessarily need a canopy over them. Areas with some sort of shade just seem to produce better."

Schultz recalled a tournament held on Minnesota's Lake Minnetonka, where he stayed on a shallow pattern while other anglers fished deep. The bass had finished spawning, but contrary to popular belief, many of those postspawn females still were shallow. He found them in as little as a foot of water under mats of reeds, where the bank had washed out under the plants to form a sort of undercut right against the shore. The fish were somewhat lethargic, so he threw a tube and worked it slowly along the bottom to tempt those finicky bass.

"That slow retrieve," said Schultz, "is key to catching shallow bass during the heat of a summer day. He typically uses soft-plastic lures with little or no action (e.g., straight-tail worms, tubes and craws) and works them at a glacier's pace along the bottom, adjacent to wood or grass cover.

"It's also really important to make accurate casts," he continued. "The fish are going to be very spooky, so it's going to make a huge difference if you make quiet presentations and keep boat noise to a minimum. I'll even use a push pole instead of the trolling motor to move through shallow grass.

"And if you think it's too bright, too hot, too anything for a topwater bait, you need to think again."

"Some of the best surface-lure action can take place when most bass anglers least expect it"--that's according to Rick Morris, a familiar Virginia Beach, Va. pro back in the 1990s. He let the fish tell him when it was time to stow the Pop-R and reach for some sort of sub-surface bait.

"You have to realize that, like any type of lure or tactic, topwaters aren't going to work all day long every day," continued Morris. "You won't catch a bass on a spinnerbait all day every day, either. There are certain times of the year, however, when topwaters can produce some fantastic results all day. It doesn't matter how hot it is, or how bright the sun is. If the bass are shallow and active, they might even eat a Zara Spook or a Pop-R better than they would something else. Two of the best times to throw a topwater, no matter what time of day it is, are in the fall when the water starts to cool and bass move shallow, and then again right after the spawn, when fish feed heavily to rebuild strength."

So how do you know if it's the right time to throw a topwater? Morris said you really can't tell. You just don't know until you try it.

Another pro who is bent on dispelling the myths about fishing shallow water is Randy Howell. He and a friend were practicing for a tournament on Alabama's Lake Wheeler when the water temperature was 37 degrees, and a light snow was falling.

"We ended up catching two bass, one 7 1/2 pounds and a 7-pounder from stumps in 2 feet of water," said Howell. "We were pitching jigs to these visible stumps, and the bass were hitting the lures just like they do when the water is warmer. They really smashed them."

While living on Virginia's Lake Gaston, Howell often would pitch jigs to docks in December and catch some tremendous fish. The majority of other anglers who targeted bass that time of year worked deep water, but Howell caught some of his largest bass from skinny water during the coldest months.

During an FLW Tour Event on South Carolina's Lake Murray, he caught good numbers of big fish from shallow docks with brush under them when water temperatures hovered in the high 40s. And like that day on Lake Wheeler, a steady snow fell during part of the tournament. Howell pitched Lunker Lure Rattleback jigs tipped with a Hog Caller trailer to docks with brush on them. They were the same docks that produced plenty of bites during practice, when the water was warmer, and the weather was more suited to shallow-water fishing. The bass simply stayed put, although plenty of other anglers backed off and worked deeper water during the tournament.

"I think the key to finding shallow bass in winter is to have deeper water nearby," said Howell. "They won't be shallow all the time, but if you aren't catching them deep, move shallow. That's what happened with those two big ones we caught on Wheeler. There was a 10-to-12-foot-deep ditch right next to the area with the stumps, and I think the bass moved up to feed.

"Equally important," he added, "is to fish slowly and deliberately."

Howell noted that although many of his shallow-water strikes are quite violent, the fish seem to want a slower-moving bait.

"Jigs are ideal," he said, "although some anglers score on suspending jerkbaits, even when the water is hovering around the 40-degree mark.

"There are no set rules when it comes to finding shallow bass in the winter, or in the summer, for that matter. Anglers who can break away from the age-old myths that run rampant through the bass-fishing community can have some tremendous days. Try something new, and you might be pleasantly surprised."

July 2024 Bass Fishing Forecast

(Click anywhere on this chart for a slightly enlarged version.)

I May Have Duped Myself

Who could blame me, though, what with all the material about various fishing superstitions/myths I've been researching here recently?

A moment of truth came yesterday morning as I launched my first cast of the day from the back of my buddy Wayne's Ranger boat. My bait just had hit the water when a fish swirled under it. I had two choices: Swing for the fence and perhaps jinx myself/us for the day, or let the moment pass and maybe have one heckuva day. I thankfully opted for the latter.

Five hours later, when Wayne and I quit for the day, our combined best-five total weight (out of about 15 fish caught) amounted to approximately 17 pounds. The question I'm still wrestling with in my mind now is: Was that because I passed up the chance of catching a fish on my first cast of the day, or because that's just the way the day would have turned out, no matter what I had done on that initial opportunity?

I'll never know the answer for sure, but I'm not the only one who ever has had to confront such a situation.

As writer Darrell Davis explained in an article he once wrote, "There are some interesting stigmas regarding a day's first cast--mostly the belief that catching a bass on the first cast is bad luck." Something to do with 'first casts' was mentioned by about 90 percent of the anglers Davis interviewed for that article.

For openers, Peter T's first cast is never in the direction that he wants to actually try to catch fish. If he does so, he says his day is ruined, and it never will feel right.

David Dudley has a similar belief but about bait changes. "If you make any kind of bait change and catch one on the first cast, you have to cut it off," says Dudley. "Otherwise, you might as well just take the boat and dock it."

Jeff Sprague follows suit with not catching a fish on the first cast, but he has other superstitions as well, starting with not touching his dip net. He also never leaves the ruler on the floor of the boat.

Clothing came up several times, too, during Davis' interviews. For example, Charlie Weyer says he has to wear his tournament jersey when he is fishing. He considers it good luck while on the water, and if he doesn't have it, his entire day is thrown off. Casey Carpenter says he has to wear the same pants and shoes. Davis' buddy, Gene, a longtime Wheeler Lake resident, has to wear a certain patch. He keeps it in his truck now to keep from forgetting it.

Some superstitions have been passed from one generation to the next. One that stood out to Davis concerned hats. Dion Hibdon (like his father and grandfather) believes it's bad luck to put your hat on the bed. If that happens, and he thinks he might accidentally wear it, he will cut the brim so that he can't.

Occasionally, anglers find something in the water, such as a unique rock, duck decoy, etc. If the place where it's found becomes a good spot, they end up taking that item and keeping it in the boat.

For some anglers, superstitions dictate their routine. Clayton Batts says that, during a tournament, if he catches them really good, he repeats everything he did that day the next time. He will wear the same shirt, eat at the same place, park the same way, and even fish the same way...kind of like Groundhog Day!

Bill McDonald goes for beauty when it comes to his superstitions. He cleans up his fingernails and toenails before he leaves for a tournament and never touches them until he returns home.

As for yours truly, I spent a number of years with two superstitious habits: (1) I never ended a day with a backlash...I only would stop after at least one clean cast; and (2) I always would start each new fishing day with the same bait I had ended the previous one with, provided it had been productive. My premise was that to do otherwise would mean one really bad day the next time I hit the water.

We can sit here and talk about old "wives' tales" all we want, but make no mistake that, to a bass angler, they are very real. Each individual may or may not have his/her own set of unfounded beliefs, so when you get in another person's boat, remember that, unjustified or not, the consequences are real. And if you choose a banana for a snack, it could be gone.