Now that we are in the month of July and water temps are getting warmer with temps steadily in the high 60 degree range pushing 70 degrees in the warmer afternoons most if not all of the spawning activity is done with the occasional fish still guarding a nest here and there but pretty much all spawning is done.
There are still plenty of fish in pretty shallow water especially when the wind is blowing in the shallows but some fish are beginning to move a bit deeper to break lines around 9 to 12 feet of water. In the shallow water we have been using a number of different soft plastics but the Trigger x tubes in the color of green pumpkin along with the smoke with red flake have been our best producers on a 1/8th oz VMC tube jig.
When we have been fishing a little deeper we are still catching fish on tubes but here we are switching jig sizes to 3/16 oz jigs. There have been a lot of Alewives in shallow lately and they are beginning to die so you will see them spinning around in circles and twitching below the surface so we have also been having success using Rapala X-Raps along with some swim baits trying to imitate the dying baitfish.
We will continue to catch nice Smallmouths in shallow water all summer long but soon some fish will begin to move even deeper to some of there summer haunts where you can begin to catch fish using other presentations such as deeper running cranks like the DT series Rapala cranks or drop shot rigs with soft plastics.
Paul Delaney
www.lateeyessportfishing.com