Hot weather, bright sunny days and afternoon showers are the norm here on the Harris Chain of Lakes during September. Scorching temperatures are heating the lakes up so let us look at tactics. I have been fishing in deeper water to find higher concentrations of largemouth bass due to more oxygenated water. This is because of cooler water temperatures. Hydrilla, lily pads, humps and ledges are key areas to keep an eye out for on maps, and on your electronics. Most of the lakes in the chain don’t have a lot of drastic depth changes. Find a few and you can mark them and return during hot weather to see if the fish are there.
Forage that the bass are feeding on is bluegill, bream and golden shiners. You can try spinner baits with some gold, white and chrome on them, ripping lipless crankbaits out of grasses can call for some serious strikes. Topwater baits such as frogs, walk the dog type topwater baits and also buzzbaits can really call the fish from long distances during the heat wave days. If you want to fish later in the afternoon into the evening time you can really do well fishing around canals, rivers and bridges. If you spend a little time checking some computer mapping programs, you can really find some killer spots. Another steady producing bait is any sort of soft plastic worm. Senkos, trick worms or a big ribbon tail worm in a black and blue or a watermelon red is hard to beat. This time of the year can really make for some fun fishing. Book your own charter at cprbasscharters. com.
