Summer Bass Fishing: Boat Docks and Cover

I went to a large private lake not far from my home in South East Michigan. The lake is clear and sandy over most of its bottom.

It has significant weedy flats and strong weed lines in many sections. The size of the lake gives it a lot of variety although the sand and moderate weed cover dominates the underwater landscapes.

I set out in my small 14-foot rowboat and made my way to a small weed line near a drop off to start my mid-morning fishing(read: catching) trip. It was approximately 6-9 feet in that location.

I had a Texas rigged Zoom finesse worm in watermelon red on a 4/0 eagle claw wide gap worm hook with a 1/4 oz. tungsten weight in green pumpkin. I was running 20 lb. Power Pro braid on the rod/reel I had on me.

I also had another reel in my bag spooled with 30 lb. Power Pro braid but I did not need it. The lake has only a handful of spots where the heavier braid would come in handy and I did not plan on visiting them this trip.

I was not having much success to start out and the wind was creating some problems. I decided to make a big move, well big for a row boat, and I oared my way directly into the wind that was blowing steadily out of the South West.

There is a sunken island out towards the middle of the eastern half of the lake so I went there. I switched my presentation to a screw-in style football head jig.

It was a 3/0 standard hook with no other dressings, just the jig head, hook, and a spot to screw your bait on. It was brown with red eyes and 1/2 oz. in weight. The wind made the weight necessary.

I made several casts across the top of the sunken island, trying to hit holes in the weeds. After several casts I decided another move was in order. I headed across a small saddle to a point that extends from the south shore out towards the sunken island.

I could not fish the saddle as it sits underneath a ski course. It is typically a nice sandy spot to find a few small mouth bass. This lake has both large and small mouth bass along with rock bass.

I worked the point and missed on a hookup. Bites were tough to judge with the constant waves from the boat traffic and the persistent winds of about 10-15 mph.  Gusts near 20 mph were the main problem though.

After fighting Mother Nature I decided the best place to fish was the south shore, where I could tuck into the shallows away from the worst of the wind.

Two bays on the south shore provided lots of room to fish away from most of the wind. I slowly oared my boat into position in between two docks.

The shore line on the south shore often has dark patches of bottom with moderate weed cover, including the occasional lily pad patch. Old tree stumps are located through the shallows as well.

They do not hold fish but are used as cover for fish that are on the move. The occasional meal found by these structures cause bass to check them out regularly.

The cloud cover became a little thicker around this time, approximately 11 a.m. I switched back to a Texas rig with the same 4/0 wide gap worm hook and 1/4 oz. tungsten weight. This time I employed a Zoom Brush Hog in green pumpkin.

With the sun still showing strong the dull color