The Best Bass Bait to Use in Hot Weather

As summer approaches, bass tend to go to deeper waters during the daytime to avoid the heat. Instead of fishing only during the early morning or early evening hours of summer, using a deep-diving crankbait is an effective way to catch bass. Crankbaits must be reeled in more quickly in deeper waters, which can wear on a fisherman's arms and hands. Another challenge with deep-diving crankbaits is they tend to get caught on stumps, brush and underwater debris more easily than shallow-water lures. Deep-diving crankbaits are usually more effective in brighter colors like chartreuse because the deeper water is darker and they will be more visible to the bass. Other popular crankbait colors are silver, chrome, orange and brown. Crankbaits look like small bait fish, and have a plastic lip in the front that makes them swim in a wobbly motion. The intent is to make a bass think the lure is an injured bait fish.

Just the fact that the weather is hot doesn't mean bass do not venture into shallow water. During the warmest part of the day, bass generally head for deeper water. However, there are key times during the summer when bass are active in shallow water, like when they are chasing bait fish. An effective lure for shallow-water bass fishing is a spinnerbait. Spinnerbaits are lures that have an attached spinning piece. The purpose of the spinning action design is to make a bass think the lure is a fish trying to threaten it. Popular spinnerbait colors are white, chartreuse, silver and black.

Plastic or rubber lizards and worms can be effective baits for summer bass fishing. Lizards and worms are often the best choices for fishing at night during the summer, or for fishing shallow areas in the daytime. Whether you're fishing with lizards or worms at night or during the day, the best colors to use are brown, black and blue. Lizards and worms are weighted with lead so they achieve the desired sinking motion to reach a certain depth.