Catching Bass in July: How-to!

When it comes to bass fishing in July, there are a lot of similarities to June, but a more technical approach is often required to maximize bites. Generally, the locations of fish populations are most dependable during the summer months. That is to say that they move the least. A spot that has schools of bass in June can sometimes hold fish through September. 

This seems like a great thing, but fish that become easy to find are not just easy to find for you. They’re easy for everyone. Pressure starts to affect the lake, and that combines with a decreasing amount of dissolved oxygen and still increasing temperatures to create a more challenging environment than just a month ago. 

Just as was true in the prior month, the majority of fish in most bodies of water are deep and offshore. Shallow populations will be cover oriented and shade oriented. It is hot, and heat tends to keep the fish deep. In addition to temperature gradations throughout the water column, dissolved oxygen also tends to be in higher quantities in deep water during the warm months. 

Handling this slow deterioration that comes as summer ages is dependent on two things

• Finding active fish, not just any fish
• Getting a little weird with it 

Finding active fish

Bass are regarded as opportunistic. They’ll always take a free meal in theory, although we as anglers know this is definitely not true. Highly pressured, cranky fish will usually pass up a free meal during periods of inactivity. Active fish, on the other hand, don’t really do this. They’re eating, and they’ll chase something that looks like food. They don’t need to be coaxed into biting for curiosity reasons or competition reasons. The difference between early summer and late summer is that the latter is much more difficult. 

A great July strategy once you have located areas with fish is to spend less time on those spots but fish them more throughout the day. You want to be on fish when they’re most aggressive because it’s simply harder to get bites when they’re not. It’s much more of a timing deal. You want to maximize your opportunities to time things right by cycling through areas at different times of day. 

Getting a little weird with it

One way to combat fishing pressure is to present baits and techniques that the fish have not seen. Fish are capable of learning. They’re stupid, but they didn’t survive this long by being so stupid that they’ll just eat anything. In the June article, I talked about a three-bait setup to target offshore fish. As summer ages, it’s a good idea to expand that setup and start messing with some baits that are less ubiquitous in your area. 

In lowland southern reservoirs, which is where I personally fish the most and honed offshore skills, the deep crankbaits, big worms, and football jigs tend to dominate. I catch plenty of fish on these, but I like to sprinkle in less common baits later in the summer such as underspins, tailspins, tubes, and various jig setups that deviate from the basic half-ounce football jig. 

Final thoughts

I like to think of summer as a downward slope. When the fish first arrive offshore, it’s the best ti will be all year, and it will progressively get tougher until the fish eventually scatter as fall approaches. How this change progresses depends on a lot of different factors including how much pressure a lake gets, how the weather progresses, the population of bait in a lake, and more. July can be a phenomenal month, and it can sometimes see things get kind of tough. It’s a matter of knowing your body of water and timing things right. Big groups of fish are still out there. Firing them up may not be as easy as it was, but it’s definitely still possible.