Black Plastic Worm
Fishing at night for bass in summer is one way to beat the heat and increase your odds of catching fish. If your schedule allows such activity, the top lure is a black plastic worm, in the 6 to 10 inch long range, rigged Texas style. By placing the worm on an offset worm hook and then turning it and pushing the hook into, but not through, the body of the worm, you can cast this presentation all night and expect results without it snagging on weeds and wood. Randy Oldfield of the Bass Resource website notes that bass have acute night vision, and that their eyes will pick up black better than any other color against a dark background.
Buzzbaits
Buzzbaits are excellent choices for bass in shallow water that contains enough weeds to make it impossible to utilize other lures. Buzzbaits are a topwater lure, meaning that you must bring them in fast enough to keep them on top of the surface. Buzzbaits typically possess small twirling pieces of metal that act as propellers as you reel them in. By immediately retrieving a cast buzzbait at a good rate of speed with your rod tip up, you can keep the lure on the surface. It will create a commotion as it buzzes by and attract bass, with the hungry bass mistaking it for an insect or injured fish.
Plastic Lizard
The plastic lizard is a very successful bass lure in the summer. You can rig these lures, in the range of 6 inches long, Texas style the same as a plastic worm, making them weedless and able to skim through heavy cover. This gives you the option of throwing it on top of thick lily pads and spatterdock to trick bass or to fish it along the edges of weed beds. These plastic lizards get their action from their tails, which turn and twirl in the water as you reel them in. Bass will hit these presentations in the day or at night during the summer months.
Crankbaits
Crankbaits will catch both largemouth and smallmouth bass in the summer. These baits, which usually imitate the body of a fish, have treble hooks attached and a plastic lip in front that makes them dive beneath the water as you reel them in toward you. The faster you reel, the deeper a crankbait goes, so these lures are good for bass that are trying to escape the summer heat in deeper waters. The lips possess angles that vary, with some meant for you to fish them deeper than others. You will gain experience and learn how fast to bring a crankbait in to keep it at the depth at which you think the bass are.
