South/Central WI Bass – Keying in on Summer Change

Here is something I thought was of importance to think about as your hitting the lakes for your next bass outing. Over last week or so, I have been finding a distinctive change in the diet of bass and walleyes on the local lakes near me. Young of the year bluegills! These fish have been filling up the food sack, and once located, big numbers are common.

Yesterday following the storms that blew through here, I took Hunter for an afternoon outing on Fox Lake. Having a low pressure mass passing through and intense cloud cover for the majority of the day, I thought we would look for a shallow water walleye bite. Well, like any great plan, it changed on the fly. It didn’t take long to identify that a feeding frenzy was underway, and it was right in front of us.

We made a drift along an area of gravel with dense weed mats close to shore. Our boat positioning was tight to shore making casts to deeper water. Within minutes of starting our drift, we witnessed a couple blow ups tight on shore, and tiny bluegills about ¾” floating on the surface. A couple casts later, we dialed in to a concentration of weeds, bait, and a lot of hungry fish!

The weeds mats along the shore are relatively small clumps, and the fish had all the YOY gills stacked up in them. Our first spot produced a dozen bass and a few short walleyes in an area about the size of a kitchen table. We duplicated this again on another clump of weeds along a dock. In an area less than the size of a boat lift, we caught about 40 fish. Of the 40, mostly were bass, with a good number of walleyes and a bonus toothy critter.

We moved on to check out a few spots that have consistently produced quality bass for me this year. All were predominately dead water. It was obvious the fish had moved off of the “stand-by” type spots I had, and had joined forces to feast upon the new forage. We returned to seeking isolated clumps of weeds along the wind swept shorelines and immediately was rewarded. Cast after cast, we had non stop action of multi-species. We paused for just a couple photo opportunities, and said the heck with the camera……

Especially nice for kids, is getting in on these types of bites. Countless times, Hunter had commented on the fact that he never thought you could ever catch so many fish from such a tiny little area. For me, this is the type of bite that is super easy for kids to enjoy, and practice their techniques. We were casting with 7 foot medium Quantum rods/reels, Cajun braid, and the small Live Target Gizzard Shad. Like previous reports, the fish were just inhaling these baits and getting a good hook set was so easy. We also tried a few plastics, and other presentations with very minimal success.

So if your noticed you bass bite has changed recently keep an eye on suitable habitat for YOY bluegills and adapt your presentation to match. Good Luck!