When the weather heats up and the fishing slows down, here's a technique to help you land that lazy Jersey bucketmouth!
By Tom Vassallo
Well, the pre-spawn and post-spawn bass bonanzas have cooled down, and now the temperatures are heating up. When the "dog days" of summer are upon us and the daytime water temps really climb, it becomes a lot harder to get those lazy bass to bite. Knowing a little more about summer largemouth behavior can pay off with some pretty good fishing. Now I have to admit that it is tough to compete with the thrill of a bass hittin' a top water lure or the excitement of that swirl on your spinner bait when you're bashing the bass in the early spring. But come summertime, when the bassin' gets more difficult , and you need a bass "fix", you don't care what you gotta do to get one in the boat or on the shore! So you'll be happy to hear that there's an old "Jersey" secret I'm about to share with you that'll really "rev up" your summer bassin' and get old "bucketmouth" to open wide!
Back when I was just a little tyke about six years old, my Dad would parade the four of us kids down to the Toms River on the west side of the Garden State Parkway. We must have been a real sight to those motorists watchin' us march in a straight line with a fishin' pole in one hand and a folding aluminum chair in the other. Well, he'd get us down to the water's edge to a few small clearings in the tree line and it was fishin' time! You see my Dad had landed a really nice 28" chain pickerel in Culver's Lake up in North Jersey way back when (I still have the mounted fish in my basement!) and he never really lost the pickerel "itch" when he re-located us to South Jersey in 1959. I was raised on live bait fishin' for chain pickerel in the Toms River and I never really caught a largemouth (or fished for one) until I was almost 20 years old! Pickerel...live bait...you're probably thinkin' this guy is some kind of a NUT! I thought this was a LARGEMOUTH BASS article! Well before you leave this page, do yourself a big favor and just keep on readin'. Cause when we were fishin' for those pickerel, we used a favorite Jersey bait for summer flounder fishing...that's right..."killies". We used to maul those pickerel with those killies! And let me tell you something...a chain pickerel fights pound for pound better than most any other gamefish. But that's another story.
You can find killies by the quart or pint in just about any bait store at the Jersey Shore in the summer. However, we would just toss the old killie trap in the salt marsh, wait an hour and we had all the killies we needed for a day's fishin'. However, you GOTTA go get some 'cause you're gonna find that a lazy, old summertime bucketmouth has a hard time passin' up one of these tasty little morsels! But as with anything...TECHNIQUE and TIMING are the key!
First, the timing. Now I don't know about you, but I think those bass have got the right idea on those hot summer days. They're gonna find themselves a nice little hole with a little bit cooler water under some lily pads and just "laze" around down there. If somethin' falls right on top of 'em (like a weedless frog!) then they may grab a noontime snack. But a bass is not much different than us fisherman, because we don't really like bakin' in the sweltering sun all day either. But when the sun starts goin' down and their stomach starts rumblin'...Mr. Bass is gonna move and he (or she) is gonna move to the shallows to feed. I personally have found that the hour or so before sunset is probably the hottest (no pun intended) time to catch summer bass. I have a particular favorite spot where I can catch four to six bass in the hour before sunset nearly every single time I go.
Now for the technique. For gear, you need a medium to heavy spinning rod with 12 to 15 lb. monofilament. Yeah...I said HEAVY! I have seen too many fisherman lose a nice fish because they are simply using gear and line that are just not heavy enough to land a good size bass. Especially if your favorite spot is full of lily pads and stumps! I like to use nothing smaller than a size 14, black, interlocking snap swivel with a snelled, #2 bronze baitholder hook. (It is important to use hooks that will rust in case you should gut hook a fish...leave the hook...save a fish!) You also need a small split shot on the snelled line right at the top of the hook. This is KEY! As the killie tries to swim to the top, it gets fatigued, and it will drop faster with the split shot...I am telling you this makes a BIG difference and is usually when the fish will strike! I also like to use no larger than a 1 1/2" round, red & white, plastic bobber. I have tried and do not like the other types. You need to set the bobber about 12" to 16" above the hook, however you need to experiment a bit. When casting in shallower water, I have found myself moving the bobber right down to the snap swivel! And before you bait up, CHECK YOUR DRAG!! Then lip hook a killie onto the hook so it can swim naturally, cast into your favorite spot about an hour before sunset and hold on!
Now my favorite spot happens to be right where a spillway on one side of the road feeds into the lake through a large pipe. For some reason, the bass always seem to want to congregate around that pipe just about sundown. The other thing I like about fishing at this time is that everyone else has usually given up and left. That is when the lake really quiets down. Keep an eye on that bobber, cause the bass is usually gonna grab that killie and run! The hooking technique is crucial. Do not jerk the rod. Be sure the bobber is completely under water and tighten the line. Use a technique similar to hooking a fluke. Then set the hook with a good lift. I don't know about you, but watching that bobber run and go down is almost as exciting as catching a bass on a top water frog!
I guarantee that some live killie fishing is gonna heat up your summer bass fishing and you'll be enjoying much better success on those hard-to-catch summer largemouths! So put aside your plugs and plastics, dust off your killie trap, get down to the marsh and get the secret bait that's sure to improve your summer Jersey bass fishin'!
Good luck and happy fishin'.
