Summer Peak

 summer peak is here now. water temps are in the high 70s to low 80s. its light by 530 am and won't be dark till 730pm. most of the spawning has taken place and there is an abundance of fry milling about. there may still be a tucanare nest here and there but more likely there will be mated pairs guarding fry in deeper water. when they guard their fry off the nests its nearly impossible to get them to bite unlike when they are on the nest. most bass will be scattered at varying depths and in many different types of cover or structure. as long as the water is stable though the general mood of the fish will be positive, and good catch rates should hold. although smaller fish will be the norm now. there is always the chance for a good fish early in the morning or at dusk but its not quite been hot enough to really get the night bite going yet. oxygen should still be good although the lake is starting to stratify by this time with the warmer water rising and the cooler water sinking. thermoclines should be very well defined and thats is always the best place to look for fish.food is plentiful with  all the fry and shad milling about. a lot of the bass and tucanare will now begin to shadow shad schools in deeper water and will often suspend through the midday.right now on our lake the water level was dropped to the 69ft level. not that its a bad thing but most of the grass lines are now high and dry, luckily our weeds are emergent so they will grow further out and thicker so if this level maintains we could have some great weed growth for next fall. the bad thing of course is the fry are pretty exposed and it is our dry season and we could lose a few more feet and be without a ramp to launch our boats. its a great time to get out on the lake. we just had a sewage spill thanks to a power outage so its off limits for a few days  but fishing should be great and the weather is certainly cooperating so as soon as I'm not worried about HEP C i will be out in this early summer season and you should too!