Fishing tip of the week: – 05/20/20

Fishing Tip of the Week

Tuesday, 19 May 2020 09:09

Scanning Key to Summer
by Mike Gerry

There is no doubt that summertime fishing can be a mystery. The bass that were seemingly everywhere have suddenly become hard to find, and frustration sets in. What can you do? Where did the fish go, and how can I catch them? Let me first say that there is no foolproof answer, but there are some common threads that can help!

If you have some decent electronics, like the Lowrance HDS product, you are in business. You can spend hours idling and trying different areas, or you can use today’s technology and eliminate the mystery. In this is the key and information for summertime fishing. I have spent endless hours, in the summertime months, looking for fish on my Lowrance Structure Scan.

Scanning the bottom for fish grouping up on the ledges and drops is the biggest tip I can give. The bass group up in the heat of the summer, and they demonstrate some common tendencies as the water warms up. Scanning the bottom while looking for those common threads can be the key to good days and bad in the heat! Over the years, I have developed some inner sense as to what this all looks like on my Lowrance Structure Scan and how to tell the difference in what bass look like on the bottom as compared to other types of fish. I wish I could actually get into detail on what this all is, but it would take me days to describe every formation I see. I can tell you though that you can also learn this with enough time scanning the bottom. Dedicate some time, and you will learn, as I did, the difference in how they appear on the bottom.

The biggest key to scanning and determining the fish is formation. Each species of fish seems group-up in different ways. Some are solid and in big balls, others appear to be elongated, on the bottom, or suspending. Some appear to be loners, and then some fish are in small groups, directly over structure. What you see does tell you, in the most part, whether they are bass or not, and you can determine them with some dedicated time scanning the ledges in the heat of the summer!

Captain Mike