Have you ever tried to beat the heat in July by fishing for big bass? Well I sure do and when I get that big giant on the line I forget about the heat. That’s right you can be burning up and when you get that big bass you will instantly forget that there is any heat that day and the best thing is that those big trophy bass don’t care because they have one thing in mind and that is to eat a big meal.
Big bass are fish that everyone wants to catch but most fisherman don’t really know how to catch them. In the winter time you will find fisherman beating the banks with spinner baits, jigs and top water lures. Our fisherman will stay out there with the fish all day and beat the banks and creeks looking for that big bass and sometimes they get lucky by putting one in the boat. Now when it comes to hot summer fishing you have to make yourself stay out there in that blistering heat and for the ones who do rewards will come their way. Can they catch big bass on a regular basis even in the heat? Yes is the answer. You can catch big bass on a regular basis but you have to forget about the small fish and concentrate on the big ones and this can be very hard to do. You will get out on the water and go fishing for what we call that one bite but when it don’t come you will find yourself doing something different just to see if you can get a bite on something and then your big bass chances go down. It also seems like when the big bite don’t come and the heat gets to beating down on your head that the big one just want come and this will make you want to get home to the air condition and then your chances drop again.
Now here are a few tips on fishing the heat. Tip #1 plan your trip, take plenty of sun screen and water. Tip #2 is don’t eat big meals when fishing in the heat it will tend to make you sick. I like to take some fruit or jerky, they are filling but won’t stuff you or upset your stomach. Do these things and you will be able to handle the heat better.
Next I will plan my fishing strategy. #1 I will set my rods up with what I call big bass baits, first I will rig up a rod with a big deep diving crank bait, the color needs to be a shad color of some sort because the bass will be feeding on big shad. Next I will rig up two rods with a jig-n-pig . One being a black/brown/amber color and the other being a green pumpkin color. The jigs of my choice will be my new Diamond head casting jigs. Next I will rig up a rod with one of my big count down swim baits and another with my Shimmy Shaker Swim Bait.
Now heres how I will fish and what I will look for in a fishing spot for big bass. When fishing the big crank baits/ my count down lures and my Shimmy Shaker Swim bait I will locate a good point with a major break on it. This break can be a major drop-off or one that has a creek flowing in by the point either one will hold big bass. Another great spot would be a creek channel out in the main lake or a hump out on the main lake one is equally as good as the other.
When fishing these spots cover all angles several times with each of the lures and fish slow and spend a lot of time on each spot. When you fish to fast you miss out on a lot of big bass. Another tip is if you are catching bass on the swim baits or crank baits and the fish stop biting then switch over to a jig , the slow subtle fall and slow moving lure on the bottom will sometimes trigger even more big bass.
Next is fishing my new Diamond head jigs, I like to fish them under and around boat docks that have at least six to ten feet of water in front of them and preferably docks with lots of brush around them. Fish the jig slow and make it fall as much as you can and you will go home a winner.
As a fishing guide I have to be able to find fish for my clients and I also need to find big bass for them as well so I do my best to help them catch as many big bass as I can and over the years on Lake Palestine I have had my clients bumping on the door for a Lake Palestine lake record. The Lake record at this time is 12lbs. 6oz.’s and I have had one client catch a 12lb 3oz. Bass another had a12lb1oz.and another get a 12lb even and several others have had 6 to 10 lb bass and the only way I can do this is to fish big fish baits and continuously look for big bass spots.
Now here is what’s going on on lake Palestine for July.
In the past two weeks on Lake Palestine I have had trips where we landed one eight pounder, two seven pounders and several three to six pound bass. The way we did this was to locate these deep water brush piles around the boat docks and locate the deep water points where we found brush, major drop-offs or a creek channel running in close. The bass are feeding up very well and numbers have been very good we have had 20 to 50 fish days and several big bass up to eight pounds as I mentioned above. We are fishing my jigs around the docks and deep diving crank baits and my swim baits on the deep points.
Crappie are good on jigs in 14 to 20 feet of water on brush piles. You can also catch them under the bridges on both minnows and jigs.The jig I use is the Mister Twister Mr. Minnow in a white color. Fish it slow for best results.
Sand bass and Hybrids have been slow for me but I have had my best results early and late on the main lake points on Rat-L-Traps and my new Dimple Spoons.
Lake Fork is good on bass at this time out on the main lake humps and along the main lake points where you have big standing timber. Big crank baits and my swim jigs are working best for me. The depths I am finding my bigger bass in are 17 to 30 feet. Fish slow when fishing deep or you will find yourself by passing fish that you could have caught.
Crappie have been good under the bridges on jigs.
If you are coming to Lake Fork or Lake Palestine and need a guide then give me a shout and let me try and help you catch your all time best bass ever. You can reach me by the web at [email protected] or you can call me at (903)561-7299 home and office or my cell (903)530-2201. I look forward to hearing from you.
Until next month remember to keep only the fish you can use and release the rest so that our kids and grand kids to can enjoy the great sport we call fishing.
By: Ricky Vandergriff
