By Scott Norton
We are in the middle of summer and fishing is starting to slow down. Bass at this point are either dealing with being caught, or having to adjust to all the traffic in the daytime. Because of this, anglers will have to adjust with them.
If you are noticing bass not chasing and holding tight to cover, you may need to down size and throw your lures on top of them. Looking for wind and current will help with placement whereas bass will be more active in such an area.
Another way to get in on the action will be the night bite during those full moon periods. You will have a peak window a few days before and a few days after the full moon where they will have the most activity. It makes more sense to fish the nights around the full moon since bass will become more nocturnal due to daytime boat traffic, high water temperatures, and fishing pressure from fisherman.
How does moon phase effect the fish? Well, you will have fish cycles that get kicked off during the full moon phase as well as the forage spawn at these times. When bass get an opportunity to feed at night, the moon will provide those conditions for feeding and chasing to occur. If you fish early in the morning you can catch the tail end of the night bite. After the sun rises, the activity will drop dramatically until the late afternoon hours. The angler will have to slowdown and downsize. You will just want to offer them a snack since they fed up the night before.
This is a good time to use your topwater lures and just cover as much water as you can. If the top water lures are not getting the job done, you will have to go sub surface. Go for chatter baits, spinner baits, worms, and jigs. Just keep it simple and see what they respond too, and then you can dial it in once you figure out what they want.
The moon phase will become a thing the warmer the water gets, so give it a try if you haven’t before. Becoming a good angler means you need to change gears when the bite slows down. Enjoy this time!
Scott Norton is a Western North Carolina native. Born in Asheville, N.C., he is a long-time hunter, angler and weekend warrior.