Right now, we are in the middle of summer, and fishing is superb. Most bass are off beds and ready to replenish themselves from the spawn. Spawning bass are shallow, where they make their beds and protect growing fry. Typically, you will also find most bait fish in shallow water. Keeping location in mind, how does one tackle this month on the water? 

Like any good book, there is a beginning, middle, and end. Our beginning here is topwater, which is how you typically start your day. Once the sun gets good, it is time to dissect the middle water. Our ending water column is the bottom, which can be fished all day.

So let me paint the picture: It is 5 a.m., and you know the sun is on its way, and you have to race to the water. You prepared everything the night before like a good angler should and are on your way. 

I encourage everyone to be as stealthy as possible to start and fish the area you launch at.

The top water bait for the month of July is the Hedon spook one knocker. This bait mimics bait busting at the top and always triggers excellent bites. I have more productive mornings with this bait than any other top water lure I have ever owned, and I have owned one too many. It is a walking bait with treble hooks, so fish it on the edge of vegetation and landmarks, which I will explain. 

All vegetation is in full bloom, so toss this right along heavy cover like thick lily pads or emerging grass. Bass use that vegetation to hide from the sun since they have no eyelids to blink, and these are great places to ambush unsuspecting prey. Landmarks will be fallen trees, stumps, big rocks, brush piles, main lake points, and shaded areas under trees. Anything that sticks out like a sore thumb in the landscape of the bank or protruding out of the water is a landmark and needs to be fished.

Now that you have successfully slayed the fish in the early morning and the coffee is wearing off, it’s time to work the middle water column. 

Choosing a bait you know the bass are feeding on in your water is wise. Shad, gizzard shad, and bluegill cover it for me anywhere, so I confidently stick to those patterns. You will find me with a new off-the-wall lure that I just had to try because, let’s face it, they make the bait and paint unique to catch us, the angler. 

For the month of July and the middle water column, I went the adventurous route and chose a lure I had not used before: a glide bait. 

July is a great month to try new baits because, at this point, fish are everywhere, and they are biting.  I like how the glide baits have a different action than your soft plastic swimbait, like a magdraft. You can retrieve them slowly and steadily or do half or quarter turns on your reel as you cycle around each time and make the bait turn 90 degrees to the right, left, and back again. 

I encourage all to vary their retrieves with the middle column baits so they stand out from the average angler looking for a tight line. I will be targeting docks, bluff walls, main lake points, open water right in front of grass or lily pad lines, overhanging trees, and fallen timber. With the fallen timber and treble hooks, fish over the deepest part and around the shallow portion. 

As a rule, I always have a spinning rod with some plastic as a backup to my topwater and middle column baits. If you miss a bite on the top water, pull that rod out, drop it in the exact spot where you missed it, and fish it back to you nice and slow. 

I used to hate the lure type I chose for this category, but once it found my “one,” it was on. This lure type is a skirted jig. 

Everyone always said to use them, but they seemed so boring to me that they never made it into my tackle box. It wasn’t until I saw the tightrope jig that I got excited about fishing a jig. I never really liked each jig, chatter bait, swim jig, spinner bait, and buzz bait because of the long skirts, so I cut them to the length of the hook. 

The Googan Squad Tightrope jig 1/4oz comes cut and looks like a firework exploded from the lead jig head. The specific color I chose is real burnt orange, and I coupled that with a new company and new lure. I am speaking of Tactical Fishing Company’s “Kombat Kraw” in the creole color. Since the jig is a smaller 1/4oz jig head, I bit off the bottom quarter inch of the crawdad lure so it looks compact and neat. 

Now, if the vegetation isn’t super thick, feel free to use the missed bite strategy using this bait to back up each of the other baits and the landmark strategy to maximize this lure on the water.

Another location to look out for is hard or rocky bottoms of the water. These are your typical crawdad areas and always hold hungry bass. When retrieving this bait, you want to hop it like a crawdad fleeing for its life. This looks like one big hop, two medium hops, or three short hops, followed by a pause.

How long you pause is up to your style or speed of fishing. Bass will sometimes hit this before it hits the ground, so watch the line. Set the hook if your line swims to one side or the other or never makes it down. The sneaky ones will grab and hold it without so much as a twitch on the line, so stay sharp.

The water is warm, and the bait is breaching the surface in July, so there is no excuse not to take advantage of the opportunities to fish. 

Be smart and remember that we have to learn three columns of water: the top, middle, and bottom. 

There are no rules to this game, but there are smart ways to fish so that you are your most productive on the water. 

Take a page from my book, use my baits, catch more fish, and let the angler who has the most fun win!