The “dog days” of summer can make for some of the toughest conditions a bass fisherman faces. Combine hot air and water temperatures with an abundance of recreational traffic on the lake, and sometimes it seems there isn’t any bass left to catch. The big schools out on the ledges have already seen every bait known to man, and many fish have already been caught.
With all this being said, don’t let it stop you from fishing because bass can certainly still be caught if you keep an open mind.
The old saying “the early bird gets the worm” has never been truer than during the dog days. Bass feed a lot more at night this time of year, and that bite carries over into the first couple hours of daylight. A good place to start looking for early morning bass is shallow rocky banks. Rocks cool down at night, and that slight temperature change attracts shad, bluegill, crawfish and everything else bass like to eat. Shallow boat ramps are also a really good for the same reasons.
My favorite baits for early in the morning are a topwater walking bait and a popper. My personal favorites are a Heddon Super 
Spook Jr. and a Booyah Boss Pop. The key is to start early and cover as much water as you can before the sun gets up. The bites will be pretty scattered, so you don’t want to waste too much time in one place.
My topwater setup consists of an MHX-EPS-86MF rod that I build from Mud Hole Custom Tackle. It’s 7’2″ in length, which allows for long, accurate casts. I use a high-speed reel, usually 7:1:1 gear ratio spooled with 30-pound Vicious No-Fade braid. I also use a 6-foot leader of 17-pound Vicious mono. Sharp hooks are key, so I change out factory hooks with #4 Mustad round bend trebles and put a feathered treble on the back for added flash.
Once the sun gets high, it gets tougher. The best way to keep up with the fish is to watch for shade lines. That’s where the bass will be. Shade could be boat docks, laydowns, overhanging trees, anything in or over the water that creates shade. Shade attracts bluegills, which are up around the banks this time of year to spawn, and that is what attracts bass. One of my favorite ways to catch bass later in the day is a wacky worm. It is easy for me to skip this rig into hard-to-reach places. The key is to cover water and put the bait in the deepest, darkest shade you can find.
My wacky worm setup is a 6’9″ MHX-EPS-81MXF. This rod is medium-power so it has plenty of backbone to get them out of cover, especially when you spool it with 10-pound Vicious Hi-Vis yellow braid with a 10-pound Vicious fluorocarbon leader. The wacky worm I throw is called a True Center Stick from X-Zone Lures, and my favorite color this time of year is green pumpkin/purple flake to resemble a bluegill.