Hey everyone.
Mike McClelland, Tour Pro angler, coming to you this morning to talk a little summertime
fishing.
Here with BassResource.
And we're gonna kind of breakdown, you know, one of my favorite ways to catch bass throughout
the course of the summer.
In my opinion, you know, it's one of the most effective ways.
I mean, you know, beyond Carolina rigging, beyond Texas rigging, just throwing a Swing
Head in the summertime is probably a bait that I will always have tied on almost year
round.
But specifically in the summer.
And the reason for that is my ability to fish this bait at any depth, and quick changes
that I can make to fish the appropriate type of Big Bite plastic that I want to fish.
The beauty of this new Gamakatsu hybrid swing head is the fact that I can change out hooks.
Like, right now I've got my little Gamakatsu number two aught hybrid worm hook on this
thing.
And I'm getting ready to go from, you know, throwing some little baits to bigger baits.
And the way this pigtail works, you just take and roll that hook around the pigtail.
It's got a little snap right there where it comes loose, and I can change.
You know, when I start talking summertime fishing, a lot of the fishing that we do is,
you know, focused on bigger baits.
So, I'm gonna upsize that little hook from a number two to a number four so I can do
just that, is upsize my baits.
One of my favorite baits to throw on this little Swing Head in the summertime is gonna
be a Big Bite Fighting Frog.
You know, it's a bait that resembles a crawfish.
It resembles a brim.
There's so many different things that this little Big Bite Fighting Frog can resemble
that just a great bait to throw to cover water, and catch fish that are in those summertime
haunts.
One of the biggest things that I think you've gotta keep in mind and stay focused on is,
you know, summertime can be different anywhere in the country you go.
You know, the lakes that I fish a lot, the Midwestern style lakes, a lot of times once
those fish get done spawning a thermocline is created in our lakes, and those fish tend
to go to the level or the depth that that thermocline has formed.
So, the biggest thing I'm gonna do when summertime hits and the water temperatures have, you
know, climbed up in the upper 70s and 80s, I'm gonna use my Garmin electronics, and I'm
gonna get out there in the middle of the lake, and I'm gonna determine where that thermocline
is.
You can generally see a haze on your screen to establish that.
But if not, you're gonna just start noticing as you idle around out off of points, and
just even out over open water, that all of the bait and all of the life in the lake is
gonna be kind of at the same level.
And that's generally where the thermocline is, and that's where you really want to focus
your attention anytime you're fishing in the summertime.
Probably one of the biggest keys to me is very defined points in the summer.
Ledges, if you're fishing, you know, river type systems.
Things like the Tennessee River, and places like that, you want to follow those flats
out until you find where that main river ledge is.
Or, like, I would do a table rock.
I'm gonna get on those long, gradual, sloping points.
But I'm gonna look to find the area on that point that meets the thermocline.
So if the thermocline's at 18 or 20 feet, I'm gonna idle around all over that point,
use my Garmin mapping, until I find the hardest contour line that is approximately 18 feet.
And that's really where I'm gonna focus my attention.
When it comes to baits and, you know, rigging, like I said, the Swing Head is just a versatile
thing.
You can rig so many different plastics.
A Fighting Frog is a great bait.
It's a four-inch Fighting Frog.
Got a lot of bulk.
Resembles a lot of different things.
But another bait that I really like to throw is a Big Tour Series Swim Worm.
I mean this is a bait, when you throw a hardhead, so often you're wanting to keep that bait
moving all the time.
And this Tour Series Swim Worm with the swim tail that it's got on it allows for a lot
of action.
The fact that the Swing Head, you know, allows the hook and the bait to move so freely, you
can really cover a lot of water, and keep that bait moving.
It's almost like a crankbait you're throwing on the bottom, in a sense.
Another great thing about the new Gamakatsu Hybrid Swing Head is the fact that it's tungsten.
It's gonna be very small profile.
This is actually a one-ounce tungsten Swing Head.
So it gives me the ability to fish at any depth that I want to fish.
Whether I'm fishing from 5 foot out to 40 or 50 feet like we do at certain times of
the year, I've always got the right size to get the baits that I'm throwing.
Big Bite Mag Finesse Worm is another great bait to throw, but these fish really tend
to start really getting in brush piles out on these points.
So use your electronics.
Get out there and do a lot of mapping.
Do a lot of graphing.
Find those schools of bait.
Find the schools of fish, and try that Gamakatsu Hybrid Swing Head.