 Fish and Freaks welcome all back to the channel it is a steamer hot stinky steamer today every day this week well over a hundred degrees and so we are going to explore bass fishing in the hot summer heat I'm not talking about a little post front high pressure heat system coming in I'm talking about dog days I'm talking about no wind sweltering out there your skin turning a raw hide out on the lake that kind of thing me personally guys I really don't even like to go bass fishing in the dog days where I live I usually like to explore and go other places up north and go to some just different different climates that are much better for fishing the fish is fishing is actually really good this time you're in other places but where I live I'm about two zip codes away from the surface of the sun elderly pets livestock they are croaking and in fact I had a chicken the other day right after you got done laying an egg one of those hot days was like 108 bit the dust bit the dust post egg lay that's how hot it is down here right now so let's jump with the boat let's head out to the lake and I'll show you guys what I would do on one of these really hot nasty summer days all right so we're on the water right now the first thing I'll tell you guys don't mess around fishing in the heat a few hours out here in the in the afternoon can be pretty rough I personally don't wear sunscreen I haven't worn sunscreen all year long but I do cover up pretty well today if we're going with a big hat straw hat it's a good move gloves gloves so I even went to the dermatologist earlier this year got checked out all good but I just want to stay safe you know you're gonna fish out the sun for hours and hours at a time little vitamin D is good man you don't take the shirt off get some natural vitamin D I usually get like an hour if I'm fishing in the sun I'll take my shirt off and then everything goes back on gloves on face mask on if I don't have this thing really covering my face that's number one number two is drink the crap out of some water or whatever your favorite hydration drink is probably don't need to be going hard on the Bruce keys at like two or three after noon when it's you know 105 I know this is like really basic stuff but I'm just I'm we're starting from scratch here if you guys are not used to fishing in this heat I like to actually take a little water jug so I've got my water jug here that stays cool I usually put ice in it and then I'll also you know put some ice in the boat or use my refrigerator and then I'll fill this up with water and I'll put a little Himalayan salt in here for some electrolytes and some minerals because those are just extra things that you feel after you're sweating your your keister off out here for hours and hours now all that basic stuff is out of the way probably the biggest question that is going to come to mind is like what do you throw in the summertime when it's dead hot and to keep things basic is plastics gotta have plastics finesse plastics worms so we get into more of the baits here in a minute because I know you guys are curious about the baits but probably more importantly is the locations that you're gonna be fishing if you're going out to a lake middle of the day fishing you're going to need to look for some shade or some current or some depth so one of the first places I like to look is offshore cover you know usually starting like 18 to 20 foot somewhere down there and I'll start looking around for bait and things like that and I'll also look for docks I mean docks are just an essential way to find any kind of fish when it's really hot they love the shade it's cooler they don't have eyelids so they like to either get in a depth that is nice for light penetration where it's not harsh on their eyes or they'll get in some shade it's also going to be a little cooler the shade as we all know so those are big factors right there if you have current that's great all in a lot of our lakes here these reservoirs are not much current the way that you can kind of supplement current is wind so windy banks main lake stuff that's gonna have higher oxygen than the backs of the creeks where it is stagnant and hot some of you may be asking why the heck are you out here middle of the day it is 317 right now yes obviously the best time probably to go is early early in the morning but those bass have been feeding at night as well but right early in the morning you got that topwater bite there's a little bit of feeding activity left over from the night bite and then they're full and it goes dead I mean you're talking dead dead at like 9 a.m. and then it's in about three or four o'clock I usually see a little pickup it's like they're they're they're feeding that they had that morning is sort of waning off a little bit and they'll start feeding again so I'll usually go right to where they're shade where there's deep cover they might be you know starting to push shadow to the surface in some places even really get active and get that second meal going for the day then as it starts getting darker at sunset then I'll usually go up a little bit shallower and try to fish some sort of topwater so that is the win in the where for me on these blazing hot summer days now let's pick up a stick and let's talk about more of the bait selections so one of the first rods you're gonna need is some sort of moving bait rod fish that you actually see or schooling maybe they don't hit a topwater you got some wind coming around some some rocks some deeper cover that you want to hit you need something to throw a moving bait and for me you know one of the best ones for summer just in general and most bodies of water unless it's super clear is a crankbait a little medium dive in crankbait you can throw a deep dive in crankbait another thing I love to pick up in the summertime is a spoon it's great for clear water it also works in pretty stained water typically get some big bites and it's all over the place so when fish are chasing if they're just below the surface they'll hit a spoon if they're down at the bottom I can throw that at all depths and kind of hit that same thing with the swim bait really I've got a deep diving jighead in here I've got a three quarter ounce right now but you know a swim bait like this you can you can slow roll it deep you can cast it out if they're kind of busting near the surface and just reel it this is typically for a little better water clarity but these are some moving bait options that I like to have tied on the spinnerbait can be good but I like that more like early morning or if there's a shad spawn happening or if I've got to fish that around some covers and brush and things like that then I'll pick up the spinnerbait but typically this time of year fish are more out in those deeper spots more open water and these selections right here are pretty good for your moving baits but there's a million moving baits and there's a thousand different ways you can catch the fish so this is just my personal preferences on things for most of the lakes I fish the other thing you must have you must have in your selections is some sort of soft plastic dragger baby you got to have something to crawl around down there with your plastics whether that be a shaky head on a spinning setup or a big worm setup like I have here this is my favorite of all time for fishing post spawn through summer even in the fall offshore is 10 inch 10 inch worm this is the Mondo worm some sort of purplish color that's my personal preference but throw yourself four or five odd worm hook on there a three eights up to a half ounce and it doesn't have to be a Mondo worm but whatever you're dragging around you know trench hog whatever your favorite bait is put it on there and just drag that around when you when you're fishing around with the moving baits and you see something like oh man there's a there's a good tree I didn't see there oh I think there's some brush or maybe there's a rock pile right here that I really need to focus on that's when you want to pick this up and you want to just fish that thing really slow this is for the little fargic fish like right now in the middle of the day nothing's really happening not seeing any shad popping up no schooling taking place this is this is most likely the move is just dragging this around alright so to get you guys on a real-world example here I'm just gonna show you something that I would fish during this time of the day I'm just gonna look with the electronics a little bit I'm gonna pick up the spoon something I can fish pretty fast and look with fishing these spoons if you guys have never done it it's actually it's pretty fun strike you know off here on a big main lake point we've got some shad this is mostly white bass that are hanging around them and something that I'm gonna look for is a piece of cover that will hold and right now I'm off of a ledge so when I go up closer to the bank a little bit this is gonna this is gonna pop up to like 18 foot and that's most likely where some of the bass are going to be and how I work this bait is I'll throw it out let it sink to the bottom and then I'll hold my rod at about 10 o'clock and as soon as I see my line I'm talking as soon as I see my line go limp I'll reel it up three to five times just kind of depending on how excited these these fish want to get that should my usual retrieve I don't do anything with the rod I'm not lifting it I'll just use the reel for the most part and that's it when a fish hits it you kind of just keep reeling until they till they latch on just saw a little group of something I don't know what it was kind of up here on the hill this would be a good opportunity for really deep dive and crank bait to I just I hate throwing those I would rather throw this or swim bait over you know 18 foot 20 foot dive and crank baits a lot of shad off the off the ledge which is telling me it's not really feed time when when the fish get pretty excited they'll push the shad up onto the flat and they'll they'll use it as a little dinner table start eating them crap came out came out must have been some brush or something there's definitely a pile to my right that I was not aware of which I was probably just chunking my spoon all in and around that so I've got a there's a little brush a brush pile or something right here the rock brush or combination of both I'm gonna back back the boat up and try to focus on this with the worm oh yeah got him on the worm guys oh gosh it's a good one to just took off with that Mondo hot summer mouth usually when they get off I would try to keep them off that hot boat carpet come here there's a good one middle of the day bass right there just a chunk thanks probably a little over four pounds really chunky summer fish and just absolutely suck that Mondo worm we're gonna get this guy right back to the lake because he's basically baking baking out here in the Sun off they go oh my birds of calories out here so that is example number one for me how I like to target midday you know it's it's four o'clock right now that's a good sized bass for out here the next option that we could do is go up and try to find some shade and out here there's there's hardly any overhanging cover you know big cliffs and things like that that create shade in good water depth so it's it means boat docks it's marinas so if I have shade whether that be tree overhangs marina docks tires anything that creates shade I'm gonna go weightless wacky worm and a swim jig that's me that's me personally the reason I go with a swim jig and I'll put some sort of like grub on there like our love grub or something that kind of swims something I can skip good on the back of it 3 8 that's really good even lighter if you can get away with it and you can skip that thing pretty good ways under the cover so if you're if you got tree overhangs you know you got these docks that our fish are suspended under anything fish are suspended under I like to swim that a few feet under the surface and then obviously the weightless wacky worm you can skip a mile and then you're able to work that down to whatever depth you want if you're seeing fish on your electronics or you just you have an inkling or you even see fish you guys just saw a bird a little white heron that was just kind of hovering there I just watched him snipe a shad from a fish that was coming up and trying to eat the shad and anytime that you see you don't have to have shade or anything for this but it usually happens around creek channels I used to see this on fork all the time with the the blue herons but they would sit and wait over creek channels in the late part of the day the hot part of the day the summer into the evening they would sit there and wait because in the evenings those shad about five o'clock or so you know they start rising up and the bass will push them all the way up to the surface and they come right on in and steal those shad away from the fish and those birds fish for a living so that so they know what they're doing that's where you want to have a little swim bait maybe that swim jig anything you can fire over there quick a topwater ready to go as well so we're gonna fish some tires I have a little cover where I've seen this bird and then we're gonna go fish underneath some some big covered docks as well and see if we can get any bites so this is my absolute favorite swim jig combo I was last season I was fishing all my swim jigs on the reaction rod in the in the gold series I loved it it's still one of my favorites for fishing swim jigs but this year I switched to one of these glass composites and I just gets I just get a little better distance with it and the feel on it is amazing with a swim jig your hook is way more exposed so you don't have to worry about setting the hook like a regular jig really wrenching on them but this this this light a light glass I just I'm about it I'm about it for the skippage and I throw mine on braid may not get as many bites but I'm just I'm able to skip really well with that right there yeah skipping mcdoodle obviously like that is going to happen God think that was a crappy the tar off of it little brush a little brush around the docks there's a bass here we go the worm strikes again y'all now that one came out of this brush right here it's not a big one that's what I thought it was crappie it's about the size of one there's some brush right there so pretty close to the dock there's a couple of bass maybe a few crappie down there old Mondo strikes again sprayed lettuce one little summertime color so you could spend all day picking apart these docks swim jigs good because you can move with pretty good speed the wacky rig I'm not gonna show you guys I'm assuming a lot of you know how to fish that wacky rig on a spinning setup if you want to see my exact setup for that I'll leave a link for the video here down in the description where you can go check out my full setup for using the spinning gear to skip up under and that's how I just fish it in open water as well but if you don't have floating docks if you don't have overhanging shade or suspended fish you just have regular docks fixed docks I would fish those with like a jig a Texas rig a shaky head and fish that that worm or whatever you're fishing on the bottom and target those fish so docks if they're fixed those are an excellent way because they got shade you're just gonna have to target that cover post try to get back up under there it's a great way to target bass in the summer as well look at that the white bass are already starting to school here comes the blue heron off to get some shad okay here they are feeding on good size shad throw this two-step out here we can have a little fun get a big bass come up too oh see you buddy never turn my back on you they're busting good size shad right here this is when you want that walking bait this is hottest part of the day right now and you you almost wouldn't expect this to be happening you would expect like right at dark for this to happen but this is a good I'm telling you it's like the second sort of feeding starts happening this time of day and there's not as many anglers on the lake as well because no one wants to be out here when it's this hot so don't be that guy don't pass up the white bass or the striper whatever it is because a lot of these lakes the bass will hang around everything hangs around that it's feeding on shad are you kidding me that's like a buffet so don't be that guy that turned your back on him because you might just throw in there with a spoon or a crank bait something on the bottom and hook into a big bass some of those huge bass hang around white bass schools and we'll eat the falling dying shad and also eat the white bass themselves so don't count that out and look for them look for them just poppin might even get them on top water don't ignore it don't turn your back on them okay do me proud fish freaks never turn your back on a white bass so we have explored catching fish in the midday on the brush around the docks looking for that shade deep water now arguably everyone's favorite is top water so we're coming into the the evening hours and this is really one of the only top waters that I pick up in the blazing hot summer so we're gonna go throw this around some some windy points that probably have some bait fish on them we'll go search around and see if we can get any bass dance on our top water here you want braid or monofilament because they float but I like the connection with the braid and this combination with this rod this is the green series your action rod and with the braid it's it's just perfect for throwing these walking baits like this I'm gonna pause for a second here I'm gonna keep the two-step on hand I'm actually not gonna attach it to the reel I'm gonna put it just off to the side dang it guys yeah just missed one I got another bass on the Mondo worm it's kind of swimming a worm through a brush pile where I was wanting to throw topwater and might be the biggest one of the day oh there's a nice fish yes sir yes sir I just can't deny the Mondo worm man it's just undeniable in the heat of summer all right we'll let this beautiful baby go nice fish oh yeah got something decided to pick up a jigging spoon kind of work it through that same area see in the tops going crazy reaction bite only gets another white bass so large mouth be coming up at the top try to jump that's literally white bass there's crappie in there and there's large mouth on the same point these are these are big this kind of look like large mouth on the graph that one was suspended on the brush this might be a crappie rapid time big small we catch them all three species beautiful fish all right that shows you what the spoon will do power the spoon pretty undeniable worm and spoon just finished up throwing the two-step down the shaded bluff it was gonna happen right here if it was gonna happen at all it was gonna happen right here shade a little chop but I don't see any exploders man no no shad chasing activity which is weird just when I first got out here I saw a shad chasing activity at like 3 30 in the afternoon right now it's a prime time you would think for topwater and ain't happening so I think they're gearing up for the night the nighttime feed up it's been a straight-up worm dangle and that's okay with me and that is my take on extreme heat summer dangling y'all it was a tough day it can be a meat grinder out here but we still were able to catch the bass and it was all about the plastics really I caught some other fish on on different baits but like I said in the beginning plastics plastics plastics the Mondo worm it's just summertime player that's that's just what it is and really every bite that I got was offshore I was hoping to get a late day or even a midday around the bank kind of shallow topwater bite see some fish chasing but I never saw any of that up close to the bank it was all offshore so that makes it more difficult you know finding those fish but again the keys got to find either deep water with cover shade or some sort of current of a dissolved oxygen this time of year is is like gold for bass so anyway they can get it they are going to take advantage of that take care of yourself in the heat drink lots of water definitely cover up with some gear go to googinsquad.com you can get loaded up on boat shorts some of the apparel that feels like you're wearing nothing which helps out here and then get yourself at least some Mondo worms because you don't need them thank you guys for hanging out with me on this scorcher day subscribe to the channel for more outdoor adventures and I'll see you on the next one