Summer bass fishing can give even the best Southern anglers a case of the creeps. Aside from the blistering hot, humid weather, the thought of spending a day chasing fish that seem to have vanished is about as exciting as mowing the lawn. There is hope, however. Anglers willing to go the extra mile can score, no matter what lake they visit. It's not always easy, at least not as easy as it was a month or two ago, but finding and catching Southern bass right now is far from a long-shot.

Go Deep
Hot weather can push bass to cooler depths, but lots of Southern lakes are perfect for deep-water Carolina-rigging, a technique developed specifically for probing offshore structure on Southern reservoirs. While most anglers use lizards or worms on their Carolina rigs, Salem, Va., pro John Crews relies on a 5-inch Gambler Ace, a soft stick bait typically used as a weightless finesse lure in shallow water. That's exactly why he uses it on a Carolina rig.

Hard baits are mostly lipped baits, of course, plus the Rat-L-Trap and spot-type vibrating lures. Topwaters are also mostly hard baits, but when most anglers talk hard baits, they're talking crankbaits. That's the definition we'll use here.

"It's something the bass never see in 15 feet of water. A Carolina rig is a good summer bait, but when you combine it with a different lure, something the bass aren't used to seeing, it's even better," says Crews, who utilizes this technique on lakes with little shallow cover... Read Full Article