Lightly weighted baits often excel at taking summer fish such as the smallmouth bass caught and released last week by Evan Merentein. Jeff Knapp/Special to the Eagle

The spot of Crooked Creek Lake was a familiar one: a large portion of a tree that found itself lodged in the bottom of the lake near the original main creek channel.

Over the past few years, I’ve taken dozens of crappies off it, along with the occasional bass and channel catfish.

On this day, a hazy but thankfully cloudy morning that buffered the rapidly rising temperature, the fish were responding to a light 1/16-ounce jig retrieved slowly over the upper reaches of the tree’s branches, woody cover that extended several feet up from the lake’s bottom. In contrast, several months ago during an early winter outing just days before frigid weather would lock the surface in ice, it was necessary to yo-yo a more heavily weighted rig near the base of the cover to entice the lethargic fish into biting.

From a terminal tackle standpoint, the adjustment was merely the addition of a Size 3 split shot, but from a presentation perspective it illustrates a modification based on season, level of fish aggressiveness, and depth.

Indeed, the weight of a lure or bait is a significant component of the presentation puzzle, one that’s perhaps overlooked. In the scenario that took place last week, when the water temperature was warm, there were fish holding higher in the water column (in the upper branches of a submerged tree).

It made sense to work a jig horizontally over the cover. Keeping the jig light meant a slow retrieve that kept the bait in the strike zone longer. Drop the water temperature 40-plus degrees in the winter setting, and it was necessary to add a bit of weight so the offering could be hovered nearly motionless in front of much less active fish.

In general, when the water is warm as it is now, it’s better to keep things light, as fish are often more active and willing to move for baits hovering, or slowly falling, in front of them.

As an example, the bass in nearby Keystone Lake typically relate to submerged weedgrowth during the summer months. By mid summer this means stands of pondweed, coontail, and milfoil that reach out into depths in the 15- to 20-foot range.

The outside edge of the weeds, where they taper as depths increase, is often the key zone. It’s a perfect area to allow a light jig dressed with a plastic trailer to slowly descend along this outside fringe of growth. One of my favorites is a Z-Man Hula Stick teamed with a 1/8- or 3/16-ounce mushroom-style worm nose jig. It’s an offering where 90% of the bites occur during the initial fall.

Consider another bait option where weight, or lack of it, comes into play. That’s the unweighted soft jerkbaits, commonly called a fluke by most anglers.

A Zoom Super Fluke, which is a 5.25-inch soft plastic bait, when coupled with a 3/0 wide gap worm hook, results in a lure with a slow sink rate, one that can be twitched over weedy and woody cover in a lake or reservoir, and cast tight to the bank of a river where smallmouth bass lie in wait.

These are just a few examples of tuning weight to the situation at hand, ones tailored to keep a vulnerable-looking bait out in front of fish likely to ambush it in the warm water of summer.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.