its all about establishing a pattern. plus it depends on what your fishing for.

Know where the fish are going to be

A) On the bottom, near drop offs or points... to stay cool and find easy food

B) High oxygen areas... cat tails, weeds, submerged grass all great oxygen in the water and when it gets hot the bass will go to these areas where oxygen is more abudant.

C) Structure. Bass love cover... that never changes any time of the year.

D) Banks... during the entire day bass will be on the bank in one way or another for feeding. Blue Gill fry, minnows, shad and other baits are out on the banks right now for easy meals.


Knowing this I am only fishing 3 things right now

1) Jerkbait/Crankbait: This is my search bait.. it helps me locate the bass, I prefer the crank unless the bottom is real sloppy and cant keep grass off the bill... then I switch to the Jerk bait... it has its limitations because you cant throw it into cover like with a crank but it mimics a dying fish very well and bass love easy meals... also larger jerk baits cause the bass to become more terrortorial and will strike because they are pissed off by its presence.

2) Jigs: never can go wrong with a jig, its great for throwing into structure... I use a swim jig currently because i can twitch on the bottom (for the crawdad appeal) or swim it back (For the bait fish appeal) I use swimjigs because regular jigs dont give me the same action if i were to retrieve it back to the boat. I complement it with a dual tail grub trailer for extra action

3) plastic worms/craws: Great for working off the bottom. Im trying out a carolina rig for the first time this weekend, but a texas rig does the job as well... I tend to stay about 4-6 inches as far as size of my bait goes.

Hope this helps.