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Summer Bass’n

The easy spring shallow water bass’n is over. Summer is the time of year that separates the knowledgeable bassman for the also-rans. Some bassmen call this period of times the summer doldrums. Summer is my favorite time to fish, because I can rip lips on 100 to 150 smallies a day and don’t have to share the lake with too many other fishermen.

My secret is not a secret at all. I use a lure called a sweeper. This is a brand name of what most bass fishermen would call a reaper. There are many kinds of reapers. They all catch fish, but sweepers are made with impregnated salt and rolled in salt when they still are fairly warm. This process is what makes these lures different from other reapers. You ask, why salt? Have you eaten any potato chips without salt lately? The salt serves a better purpose other than a flavor enhanser. It creates small holes in the surface of the lure that fill with air after the lure has been in the water a minute or so. These air pockets make the lure lighter than water. Unhooked they actually will float on the surface of the water. Even with light wire hooks some will float. The key here is that they will sink very slowly, to not at all when they are rigged Carolina style.

What is Carolina style? This is a method of fishing a plastic lure where the weight is several feet up the line from the hook. Most fishermen are more familiar with what is known as a Texas rigged worm. This is where the weight is next to the hook. These lures are deadly in brush piles and other places where you need to rig your worm weedless. Carolina style the lure can have the point of the hook bared back into the worm or the hook can be left exposed.

When fishing sweepers the hook is always left exposed. It is not the type of lure that you want to fish around brush or stumps. It’s a great lure for fishing deep water. That is where the bass spend most of their time during the summer. Sweepers have no curly tail or other built in action. When rigged with a hook, such as an Owner Rig’N hook or an Owner J hook they suspend off the bottom. This is another reason for them to be so effective. When they are suspended they are a great deal more visible compared to the Texas rig that is on the bottom.

With a Texas rig there usually is the tale tell tap that telegraphs the signal that a fish has sucked your lure off the bottom. You will see the line move side ways and hook sets that rock the boat can be in order. With sweepers there is no tap. Your line just starts moving and you feel a pressure on your rod. The hook set is nothing more than a tightening of the line and the Owner hooks do the rest of the work.

There is also a difference in rod actions, between worm rods and sweeper rods. Generally worm rods are casting outfits that can be used for pool queues. Sweeper rods are spinning rods, usually six to seven feet long that have a soft tip. They quickly taper to a rod with a great deal of backbone. Five to six pound smallmouth can be handled easily with these soft tip rods.

The last thing that is helpful fishing sweepers is one of the new no stretch lines. Braided lines are fine, but have two disadvantages to fused lines. First, if you are lucky enough to hook that five pounder and he decides to take some line, your braided line may bury itself in the line on the spool. The other disadvantage is if you ever get a tangle or some kind of professional over run, get out the pocketknife. Braided line is so soft that it is very difficult to untangle. Fused lines when they are new are very stiff. The only disadvantage I have found is they aren’t very abrasive resistant. You have to retie every half-hour or so.

Now that you know all about the tackle end of this method, lets go fish’n. First we are going to put the sweeper on the hook. There is a right way and a wrong way of doing this. The rounded side of the sweeper is the heavy side. The shank of both the Rig’N and J hooks are also the heavy side. Bring the point of the hook through the rounded center of the sweeper. Make sure that the hook is centered and not more than a ¼ of an inch from the tip. Now bring the hook all the way through the lure so the point is exposed. If you are familiar with fishing live minnows and hooking them through the lips you will see the similarity.

Generally the larger bass, both small mouth and large mouth spend most of their time in deeper water. Long points with drop offs are a good place to start. Generally I position my boat in 50 to 60 feet of water, off to the side of the point. Cast into ten feet of water and across the point. This way you will be working all depths. When you catch a fish try to remember about where your line was when you got the pick up. Cast to that depth the next time. Large bass are not school fish, but they seem to like the same depth, especially during the summer.

Color of the sweeper seems to make some difference, but generally the clearer the water the duller the color. If you fish lakes that are off color all summer long, such as Owyhee use a sweeper with a chartreuse tail.