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A Lake Fork guide’s summer patterns

It was just the other day on Lake Fork; the air temperature and the humidity hovered in the high-90s and most anglers were inside soaking up air-conditioned coolness. But Brooks Rogers and two of his clients were on the water catching more than 40 bass from the famed east Texas impoundment. Most ranged from three to six pounds, with one pushing eight – all in all, a good day on the water.

It was easy fishing too, even though the depth ranged from as shallow as four to as deep as 26 feet; Rogers just wanted to show his two anglers a variety of techniques. In the shallow zone they were flipping jigs and winding thin-water crankbaits, while out deep they used an old standby: a Texas rigged 10-inch red shad plastic worm.

If this sounds too easy to be true, rest assured it is not only true – Rogers duplicates this all summer. And it’s also true that his two shallow and deep summer patterns will work on lakes throughout the country.

“For me, the key to shallow summer fishing is finding dingy, off-colored water,” said Rogers, a veteran guide and former Bassmaster Elite competitor. “If you can locate dirty water, even with visibility a foot or less, you’ll find bass less than about eight feet deep all summer, and if there is visible cover like lay-downs, stumps or boat docks in that dirty water, your chances are even better. The best cover of all in dirty water is vegetation, but it’s not a necessity.

“Fishermen don’t believe bass like dirty water, but they will stay in it during the summer. Remember the 2004 Bassmaster Classic? Takahiro Omori won it by fishing really dingy water all three days and brought in just under 40 pounds, mainly with a crankbait.”

On bright, sunny days, Rogers has realized dingy water bass tend to hold tight to cover, an indication the fish may actually be able to see better under such conditions than generally thought. Thus, while his clients usually prefer fishing shallow water with wobbling crankbaits, particularly the square-bills, he often flips small jigs.

“With crankbaits, I prefer a medium to fast retrieve, and when I’m flipping, I drop a jig, craw-worm or tube beside the cover and just hop it once or twice. If fish are there, they seem to hit pretty quick. It’s probably a reaction strike, because I don’t usually see a lot of baitfish activity.”

Vegetation, of course, will also hold muddy water bass in shallow water during the heat of the summer, and on Lake Fork, Rogers has plenty of greenery to choose from, but he insists that vegetation is not always necessary to catch fish shallow under these conditions.

“Normally, the upper end of a reservoir offers the most off-colored water, and the backs of some tributary creeks may also be dingy and not have a bit of vegetation, but bass will still stay there if other cover is available. Even boat docks, particularly the deeper ends, will hold fish.”

When his clients want to try deep water fishing, Rogers moves to the mid-section or lower part of a lake and looks for long, tapering points that may be 25 or 30 feet deep. Again, if cover is present it’s a bonus, but in deep water it isn’t a necessity.

“Every lake has a basic depth range bass prefer in summer, and this is fairly common knowledge you can learn from marinas, tackle shops and local anglers. At Fork, it’s roughly 22 to 26 feet deep, while on other lakes it may be shallower or deeper.

“What I look for is structure like points or ridges that include that preferred depth range. A point may extend further and a ridge may fall off into much deeper water, but I like to find hard bottom, the top of the ridge or a even a roadbed, for instance, at that depth.”

On some lakes, including Fork, deep cranking or “strolling” crankbaits can be productive at these depths, but Rogers likes fishing deep structure with a simple 10-inch red shad or plum-colored plastic worm, Texas rigged with either a 1/4 or 3/8-ounce sinker. Other lure choices include a sinking four or five-inch swimbait, a Carolina rigged creature bait or a 3/4-ounce spinnerbait.

“Basically, I work all of these lures pretty fast. I reel quickly for five or six cranks to swim the lure off the bottom, and then let it fall back on a slack line, sometimes even putting my reel into free-spool. Then I crank it up again, and I do this the entire retrieve.

“It produces a very erratic rise-and-fall motion that probably imitates an injured baitfish, and the spinnerbait, especially, often produces some big fish this way. It’s a good retrieve for clients because it keeps them interested and occupied, but it’s also highly productive.”

When he’s fishing this way, Rogers often begins with his boat in deeper water off the end of the point, but if casting shallow and bringing his lures down the slope doesn’t produce, he moves shallow and casts deep. Fishing deep structure often requires working that structure from different angles until something works.

If neither of these retrieve angles works, Rogers moves right on top of the structure and literally jigs his lures vertically.

“I do this mainly with the 10-inch worm, fishing it like a spoon with short hops up and down. It’s really effective if I’m fishing around deep, flooded timber, but it works without the cover, too.”