Shallow Bass

[Tavery5]

Yesterday morning, Kevin (Pro Reel) and myself decided to get out and do a little fishing at a local watershed. Local temperatures have been over 100 degrees everyday now for 30+ days, the water is warm, the air is hot, and you usually need to be off the water by around 9am.

Yesterday was a little different, there was a thunderstorm that had passed through the area cooling the temps and dumping a little cool water into the watershed. We decided that we would launch Kevin's smaller boat at 6am and take advantage of the cooler air and cloudy skies.

We began fishing the watershed in the deeper parts, somewhere around 8 to 9 foot of water. We tried a number of baits, swim-jigs, spinner-baits, crank-baits without much luck, so we decided that we would move and fish a little closer to the shoreline trying to find whatever isolated cover we could. I switched my setup to one rigged with a 5/16th oz tungsten weight and a Larew Salt Flickr in watermelon color and Kevin changed to a Net Baits Paca Craw in Alabama Craw color. We started throwing along the first break line and hooked up with a couple of smaller bass. A few minutes later I made a long cast that almost landed on the bank in about 1 foot or less water, and bass scattered everywhere, there must have been at least 5 in this one small area, I was able to hook up with a smaller one.

Earlier in the morning, I had told Kevin of a recent experience while fishing in a local sandpit that has water in the 20+ foot range. I was telling him about how lately that I had been catching the bass in 1 or 2 foot of water rather than in the deeper water, where one would expect to find the fish with the temps so high and prolonged. We began casting to the shallow areas of the bank and started hooking up regularly with bass in the 2lb range. We moved to a very shallow flat to try our luck, the water in this area was about 1 foot deep. We started fan casting the area and started catching fish right away. The water was so shallow the backs of the fish were exposed in some cases. I have never experienced anything like this, and by the look on Kevin's face neither had he. We ended the day catching somewhere around 30 fish, 90% of them in water that would usually be dismissed as far to shallow. It was a very fun and productive day of fishing, but was unlike anything that I have ever experienced.

I was wondering with all the areas of the country effected by high temps and lack of rain, if anyone else has experienced this or anything similar.

Kevin took a couple of pics of some of the bigger fish we caught and hopefully he will post pics and add his comments to this post.