Large bass feed heavily in the shade – A normal part of summer to many of us but why? Negative phototropism is a strong factor which influences the smallmouths feeding, especially in the summer and early fall. Simply stated this means they don’t like to feed in the bright sunlight. Since I like to fish on the surface with deer hair bugs and poppers in the summer and early fall here are some tactics which help me greatly.
Whether I am wading or floating a river I like to concentrate on the heavily shaded river banks where large oak and sycamore trees provide shade well out over the river. If the water along the river bank is three feet deep or more with a cobblestone stream bottom the large bass often feed all day back in the shade of these trees. In order to fish this effectively I position myself 40 feet out in the river from the bank and cast my surface bug right against the bank at a 10 degree downstream angle. By mending the line and using a slow strip-pause-strip bug-action I fish it out 15 feet from the bank then pick it up and cast to a new spot 10 feet further down the bank. Where I find tree limbs hanging down to the surface of the river I cast my bug back against the bank in the closest limb opening upstream and let the current drift the bug back under the low limbs where I impart the bug action. By concentrating on this heavy shad you can catch many large bass on the surface.
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