Summer Patterns Emerging

Finally, the waters are warming and many of the fish are finishing up their spawn, if they haven’t already. That means the fish are moving out to their summer locations and with that, means fishing deeper water is finally here.

By deeper water, we are looking for offshore structure that the fish relate to as the water warms and this gives them access to the deeper and cooler temperatures and escape routes. Also, these locations attract bait fish, as typically, there isn’t any other cover around, other than deep water and this can isolate a food source for those fish utilizing this structure.

A good contour map and GPS can put you onto these areas quickly as well as some of the new software out there, allows you to make your own real time contour maps. Many anglers fish only on the shorelines and they miss out on the deeper water opportunities that exist.

One lake we fish, there are a handful of sunken islands that can be 20 plus feet on the deeper sides with the tops coming up to 4-8 feet deep. Vegetation right now, the grass is still forming so it hasn’t gotten to its full height like it will be in August.

This allows the fishing to being a bit easier for getting your baits through, as the vegetation doesn’t gum up your baits quite as fast. Typically, we fish all of the vegetation that covers these hump tops as the fish can be relating to any of the edges or buried right in the middle of it.

These type of structures I will typically fish with a jig and plastic trailer for having contact with the bottom. Using the Northland Impulse Core Swimbait on an exposed hook, allows you to working the bait through the vegetation slowly as well as hopping the bait, for giving it different actions.

Was catching a variety of fish, as they all use these types of areas, with bass being the target but also catching pickerel and crappie. Never knowing what you are going to reel in is always a fun surprise and makes for a fun day on the water.