My last column looked at summertime bass patterns in the weeds, both deep and shallow. This time let’s look at two other hot weather tactics for both lake- and river-dwelling bass.

Expert bass angler Scott Kinard often keys in on deeper offshore structure, places he calls secondary points, when the summer heat kicks in.

“Some of the best areas to look for are roads, railroad beds and creek channels,” explained the Ellwood City angler. “Find areas where these features intersect or make a bend and you’ve located an open-water secondary point.”

Discovering such spots can be time consuming, a task that employs electronics as well as a lake map, if it’s available. It’s an investment well worth the effort, though, as many anglers shy away from such areas since they lack the visible features found close to the bank.

“I put the boat on a road bed or creek channel and run along it, using a GPS to mark any humps, bends or hard-bottom (rubble) areas. These are the high percentage spots.”

With several spots marked, Kinard begins fishing with bottom bumping presentations like a Carolina rig or a heavy jig (at least half-ounce) tipped with a bulky crawfish trailer.

“This time of year bass are feeding heavily on crawfish so you really want to work those rubble areas,” he noted. “Fish underwater points from various angles and experiment with retrieves, lure colors and rattles until you find the right combination.”

Though Kinard prefers to fish heavier jigs and Carolina rigs on deep structure, under tough conditions — like the aftermath of a cold front or during periods of excessively high fishing pressure — he will downsize.

“It can be good to have a shaky head or light Texas-rigged worm rigged on a spinning rod,” said Kinard. “I like to throw a small four-inch straight tailed worm under when the bite is tough, or as a follow-up after I’ve worked an area over with the bigger stuff.”

Flowing waters like the Allegheny River can get dreadfully low, clear and warm during lengthy midsummer dry spells. And while the bass they support still regularly feed, the high degree of visibility allows them to be selective. They can be tough, often following a lure right to the boat before turning a declining nose.

Jerkbaits are often the medicine for finicky clear-water river smallies. Slashing-style hard jerkbaits often irritate bass to the point that they hit the bait out of (I theorize) pure annoyance.

I’ve found the best hard jerkbaits to be suspending ones in the three-inch range. Good colors on the Allegheny have been yellow perch, olive green and rusty crawfish.

The way to fish the bait is to present it like you’re trying to keep it away from the fish. That’s right! Use a random cadence of hard jerks and short pauses to provide an erratic action that turns the head of the bait at least 180 degrees. It’s this violent retrieve that draws out the reaction. Don’t worry about working the bait too fast or too erratically. If a smallie wants it, it will get it.

A key to this pattern is to use braided superline, which has no stretch. Thus the action you employ at the rod end is transmitted to the lure, not partially absorbed by stretchy nylon monofilament. I prefer spinning equipment, which, for me, is easier to achieve a slashing retrieve with.

Interestingly, when bass lack the aggressiveness to track down a head-shaking hard jerkbait, they’ll often respond well to an unweighted soft fluke-style jerkbait fished with little to no action. This is most often the case following a severe cold front that drops the air temperature 20-some degrees.

Simply allow the soft jerkbait to drift with the current, giving it an occasional twitch (reeling in the resulting slack) to not only draw the attention of any nearby bass, but to re-tighten the line to aid in detecting a pickup.