Tips for More Summer Smallmouths

The most challenging, rewarding, and steady smallmouth fishing of the season takes place in summer. Depending on your whereabouts, patterns could be habitual or constant from year-to-year. They may revolve around good weather, peak feeding, or other additional factors.

While summer smallmouth patterns in my neck of the woods are predictable, many repeating themselves annually, unexpected events might curtail or prevent them into fully materializing as they do some years. In this case, when pattern fishing becomes nonexistent, unique windows and situations may emerge out of nowhere that’ll help increase fishing success. You have to be alert, identify them, and seize the opportunities.

This is why I believe many anglers endure smallmouth struggles in summer. It’s not that fish have dispersed and become uncatchable, but the expected patterns have evaporated. Fish are always available, and prone to feed heavily when in the right time and right place.

Fish smarter, not harder. There is no bad time to catch big smallmouth in mid-summer. The following insights on behavior, strategies, and overlooked patterns can help you use the heat of summer to your advantage.

Early Bird Gets the Worm

In mid-summer, smallmouths tend to feed more often in the low-light early morning hours rather than midday. Mistakenly, most summertime anglers typically fish midday. Be this way, and you’ll find more lethargy and inactive fish in the underwater world rather than active fish. Smallmouths favor cooler waters.

Visit any northern lake on a calm, quiet morning at dawn, and the high surface activity observed should be of no surprise to you. As water temps are at their coolest point in the day, baitfish and crayfish are actively moving. Smallmouths utilize the reduced light levels and coolest water temps to exert their most energy on feeding and their own movements as well.

On most early morning outings, I take advantage of the shallows, where water temps could be in the low-70’s. Smallmouths migrate back in to feed and cruise. They won’t stay long, but feeding windows and activity will persist at the discretion of climbing temps. On most lakes, I can usually find a good bite happening in the shallows until the sun starts cooking and water temps climb. Some days, this may last all morning long. You’d be surprised by the number of smallmouths migrating back into the shallows where they can be in brief optimal comfort. Don’t neglect the surface and open water bites either, if able to find them.

By July and August, the early morning bite is very predictable from first light through the first 2 or 3 hours of the morning. Sunny, warm days are best, but weather can obviously halt it. There is no incentive in getting up early if it’s gloomy, rainy, or cold front.

Don’t over-sleep. Prioritize sunrise until water temps begin to climb steadily. Clock management is important. In July and August, I like to be on the water by 5am, if possible, and be done fishing by 11am. Not all anglers might have this type of energy and flexibility, however.

Night Hawks

This time of year, surface temperatures on most lakes can peak in the 80-degree range during daytime. Water temperature is at its seasonal peak, and can be sometimes warmer than bath water. As sunlight radiates the water, smallmouth become finicky and non responsive, they are driven deeper to seek cooler water and lay low. While temporarily seeking sanctuary from the heat, they will eventually return again to the shallows each evening as the sun’s penetration lessens, and surface temperatures begin to cool off for the night. Fish don’t stop biting. This temporary shift in location and return to the shallows only makes them feed more.

Heat waves and high-pressure systems make for challenging times and oppressive midday fishing efforts. Fish late to best counter them. This time of year, I prioritize evening and nighttime fishing efforts when conditions allow, especially on calm, humid days.

During the dog days of summer, I catch some of the largest and heaviest smallmouth bass of the season in darkness. My fishing efforts revolve around shallow rock bars, shoals, wood, and spot on spot areas that are known feeding sites. My program is entirely centered around loud water-pushing topwaters, noisy crankbaits, and swinging head jigs with craw & creature plastics.

Lasting anywhere from four to six weeks, depending upon region and climates, I’ve observed more big bass feeding at night rather than daytime. Triggering this feed are consecutive warm, humid, windless nights with air temperatures warmer than 70 degrees, and water temperatures holding steady at 75 and above.

Heat, humidity, and windless conditions speak extreme difficulty to anglers. While this can be the case for daytime fishing, it’s the preferred nighttime fishing ingredient. The hotter, humid, and more windless it is, the more aggressive smallmouths will feed.

Heat affects the entire ecosystem, and stalls its daytime activity. Correspondingly, heat affects anglers too, reducing our energy levels and potentially limiting our motivation to fish and withstand it. When it dissipates and relief comes, all life forms impacted by it reactivate. Peak feeding takes place. This will lead to an explosion of crayfish scavenging the shallows, and perhaps an after-dark insect or nymph hatch. All organisms in their peak activity for the day then trigger a smallmouth feeding frenzy.

Each evening when I launch the boat, I pay attention to whether I see crayfish scurrying across the plank. If I observe any, I know I’m in for a good night of fishing.

Moving Water

The wind is your friend.

Bass anglers often complain about the wind, but they’d have better tolerance for it if they knew how much it can produce a great bass bite. The region churned up by waves attracts the lake’s entire food chain, from phytoplankton to baitfish and smallmouths. The reduced light penetration will also allow you to fish aggressively with crankbaits, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, and other horizontal search lures in order to capitalize on a frenzy of feeding fish. Be mindful that smallmouth will still require good water clarity and visibility in order for these spots to be fished successfully.

When fishing clear lakes, I prefer a steady wind especially if it’s blowing hard enough to generate a 1-foot chop. 5 to 10 mph is optimal. I have confidence that I’ll catch very active fish due to the lake’s food sources and cooler water temperatures being blown into the windblown regions of the lake. Wind drives smallmouths into the shallows, making them easier to catch. It also oxygenates the water, which is a tremendous benefit during mid-summer as it will cool surface temperatures.

I often experience a major spike in smallmouth activity during a west and southerly wind that has humidity in it. There’s nothing worse than cold, dry east or north winds, which wrecks the bite.

Currents, on the other hand, are what should be sought out on river systems and reservoirs. In mid-summer, flowing waters are prime real estate. Moving waters trigger feeding as well as oxygenate the system, perking up everything in the process.

Cleanest, Coldest Waters

Summer peak sets in at 75-degree water temperature, and thermoclines fully develop. Most smallmouths by now are seeking deep and cool water near the thermocline that is most oxygenated and comforting for them. They may dwell along deep structure or suspend in open water in the main lake basin areas. 

To stay on top of big bass and big bites throughout summer, fish the deepest and clearest lakes. These are commonly cisco systems, and some even trout water, and will remain cool throughout the season, catering best to trophy smallmouth. Summer heat cannot penetrate through them as effectively and detrimentally like it does to river systems and dark water lakes at this time of year – a reason why I rarely ever fish them for smallmouth after June. 

To maintain their weights, big smallmouths require high protein meals. The cisco availability on these clean, colder waters helps them achieve their wide bodies and grouper-like stature.

Ultimately, fish are looking for the coolest, most comfortable waters they can find. Summer season movements are minimal, with most of them taking place between corresponding deep and shallow structures.

Structure and Topography

Smallmouths are structure-oriented fish, and thrive in waters with topography. As such, you must prioritize fishing waters that offer lots of underwater contour.

In order identify spots and underwater structure, you must be good at map reading and image interpreting. Marine electronics are so good these days, that even a first-time visitor to a lake can use side-imaging and forward-facing live sonars to quickly learn the water and find fish.

When navigating your way around the lake, idle around locations and chart those areas first until you feel more comfortable fishing them. From my console, I run two networked Lowrance HDS-12 Live screens. One with full-screen side imaging only, and the other a combination of C-Map Reveal and CHIRP. On every new smallmouth fishery I visit, I intently study the screens in attempt to learn everything about it.

Fishing any lake successfully requires a keen sense and comprehension of underwater topography with electronics-use. Before any fishing, strive to always chart your locations and the water beforehand. Make the time for this essential habit. You will then fish deep structure more effectively afterwards.

Bombs Away

Never hesitate to pursue big smallmouths on light tackle. Today’s age of specialized strategy calls for rods of longer lengths paired with high-capacity reels for presentation needs as well as casting farther with less effort and fatigue.

I am a long-rod proponent, owning several spinning and casting setups between the lengths of 7 to 8-feet.

The majority of smallmouths I catch in summer are deep, open water oriented. In order to reach them with casting presentations, I need to reach them with very long casts. With the long rod, not only am I able to cover larger expanses of water, but hooksets from long-distance are achievable due to the faster taper and tip actions. This segment of the rod serves as a shock absorber, as open water smallmouths are known for vicious strikes and quick surges.

The key is having a rod long enough, fast enough, and in a power range light enough to protect thin line and keep up with big smallmouths. Several rod manufacturers today have introduced longer rods designed for light line and long casts.

Anyone familiar with my writing, or who’s been aboard my boat in the last year knows I work with several different St. Croix set-ups ranging in lengths from 7-ft 6-inches to 8-feet.

The St. Croix Victory Open Water and Legend Tournament Swimming Bait spinning rods leaves no guessing on what they excel at. Launching baits in big water, open-water scenarios. My boat does a lot of off-shore casting and search bait fishing with them during the summer months. These rods can easily launch 1/16- and 1/8-ounce jigs into the abyss and set hooks way out there. The big bend and pressure maintained on the fish won’t ever allow a trophy smallmouth to defeat you.

Complemented with a long-cast 3000 or 4000 size spinning reel spooled up with 5 to 10 lb. Cortland Masterbraid, and you have the perfect medium moderate action lure launcher to cast baits far while still being able to make contact with fish and hold on to long-distance hook-sets. The large capacity spinning reels I fish it with have zero affect on the weight distribution or balance with the rod. The long length of the rod enables you to hang on to fish that typically strike mid-retrieve, and from several yards out.

Smallmouth fishing strategies are quickly evolving more to open water. Whether you finesse fish or power fish, add a long rod or two into your bag of tricks.

Summer’s swelter is notorious for delivering the most difficult fishing and challenging conditions of the year. Bites are can be less aggressive and fish are driven deep during daytime, becoming even more difficult to locate.

Dog days, hot weather, warm water temperatures, lake stagnation, and passive bites each contribute to the struggle. Follow a few of these guidelines, and your summer season fortunes will change.

Andrew Ragas splits time between the Chicago area and Wisconsin’s Northwoods. Based in Minocqua, WI, he specializes in trophy bass fishing and offers guided trips from May thru October. While big bass is the passion, he dabbles in multi-species as well. He may be visited online at www.northwoodsbass.com