Blaukat FTM blog/Summer Casting Angles

July is a transitional month for many largemouth bass in man-made reservoirs.

The month of June is considered the heart of the post-spawn, where bass go deep to recover from the spawning ritual. Sometimes, bass will move deeper in June than most any other month in a lake.

However, as water temperatures rise, bass will go against traditional thinking and many of them will begin to move shallow and set up around any shallow cover.

This is especially true if stained water is present.

One of the keys to successful summertime shallow bass fishing is understanding casting angles.

Some of the best shallow water cover comes in the form of isolated wood. Stumps, laydowns, dock pilings and isolated brush.

When you have a combination of water visibilities under 15 inches and isolated cover, this will be a bass magnet. The hard part at times, is triggering these shallow, warm water bass to bite.

There are two main elements to consider under these conditions.

 First is approaching the cover correctly with your boat. Since the cover is isolated, you only get once chance to make the key cast. Positioning your boat quietly and at the correct distance from the cover is of the utmost importance.

The most important part of this is making sure you do not come into a piece of cover too hot, where you get your boat too close to the cover. Taking the current, wind and boat speed into consideration is a skill mastered with lots of practice.

As well, you need to make sure your boat is not too far from the cover to make an accurate presentation. Depending on the technique, this can vary in distance.

Secondly, is casting angles. Depending on how the cover is positioned, and how far it is off the bank, the no. 1 key to triggering strikes from shallow cover is coming past the target at just the right angle and speed.

Most of the time, unless there is a strong current, there is no way to tell this. Therefore, anglers need to make repeated casts from different angles. For example, if you have an isolated log in 2 feet of water on a flat, about 30 years offshore.

Position your boat where you can come across the entire length of both sides of the log. Make at least 5 casts down each side. Then, move to the opposite end of the log and make the same repeated 5 casts. If a bass has still not bit, try casting across the log from both angles.

It is not uncommon to have to make over 30 casts, with different baits to the same piece of shallow cover during the summer to trigger a strike.

Once you have located an area of the lake where you begin to get a few bites off of the shallow cover, it makes it much easier to slow down and make multiple casts to other pieces of cover in the area.

Trigger mechanisms from bass will vary. That is why it is good to throw a moving bait first, backed up by a slow-moving bait. This covers the full range of a bass’ personality and mood at the time.

Fishing shallow water, isolated targets in summer is an artform. It requires a combination of stealth, awareness, casting accuracy, and determination.

But the reward comes from a level of quality fishing that can equal any deep-water patterns that may still exist on other parts of the lake.

Best of luck out there!