Weather

        Best for rain?

   If it is cloudy, throw black and blue plastics.  No matter what the water color is the bass seem to eat up black and blue in cloudy, rainy weather.  Also throw a black buzz bait with blue flash like a 1/2 oz lunker lure.  Also, run a spinner bait just under the surface and make it wake.  If it is windy or real choppy, be sure to remember to throw a bigger buzz bait that will chop up the surface or they will not key in on it as well as it will not get their attention in all of the chop.  Prop baits are also good in the rain if the top water bite is on.  Be sure to study your map and look for creeks that will be coming out from land.  Normally when it rains, the water will be stained to muddy where they come out into the lake and bass will gang up in that dirty water to feed on whatever it washes out.  You can cull several times in one of these areas if you find the right one.

        On most lakes, the shallower areas have little or no oxygen during the warmer months.  Normally, from June through August the thermo cline level is somewhere around 12 - 15'.  If you are tossing a buzz bait around shallow cover areas, the bait comes back with a slight splash, and no trail.  Of course, you can catch an occasional fish.  After the rain falls, which acts as a natural aerator, you can throw the same buzz bait back into these same areas, and not only catch more fish, but your bait will leave a long trail of bubbles along the surface.  The rain tends to pull those fish up.  It could be that it washed bait into the water, or because it generated oxygen in the water when falling.

       Storm approaching

    As a storm approaches, fish sometimes go completely bonkers before it hits.  The fish know bad weather is coming and they need to eat quickly.  If you are trying to catch a trophy, it's a good move to step up your bait size.  Most bass don't usually change depth, instead, they swim straight away from the bank and suspend.  These bass are actively feeding and their strike zone gets very large.  In this situation, try moving away from the bank and stepping up your bait size, but working this bigger bait at the same distance below the surface where you found bass earlier that day.  But don't push your luck, head in before the bad weather gets close.   

       Sunlight

   Bass like shadows and shade because the low light makes it difficult for prey fish to see the bass, which makes ambushing them easier.  Try to retrieve your lures in the shadows and shade side of objects for this reason.  Spinner baits, crank baits and jigs are a favorite lures in this situation and choose lure colors, according to water clarity, not the presence of sun or shade.