Something you can take to the bank

One thing I like about bass fishing is that I can always find at least a few fish in close-quarters, shallow-water habitat.

Other species — walleyes, crappies, pike and muskies — tend to set up in locations that change from season to season. They range from shallow to deep, depending on the water temperature and the calendar period, and force anglers to go find them.

My favorite ol’ largemouth bass, however, will almost always be up in the skinny water, regardless of how hot or cold it gets. Only during the coldest months of the year, when the water is below 40 degrees, will the shallows be void of bucketmouths.

I love to fish for bass. So it has made sense to me to specialize in plucking them from the shoreline cover rather than bounce back and forth like a pinball between the banks and the depths.

Recent excursions to Berlin and Shenango reservoirs delivered great shallow-water bassing fun. August is not the best bass month on the calendar, but the fish were definitely in a mood to play during both trips.

No doubt the wet summer we’ve had in 2008 contributed to the success at Shenango and Berlin, as the water was up in the shoreline cover and just stained enough to give the fish a sense of security.

At Berlin, we flipped soft plastics into shallow hiding holes in the Mill Creek arm and in another little cove in the midlake area. Bass were using overhead cover like hanging willow bushes, laydown logs and the root systems of washed-out stumps.

We even managed to snatch a 15-inch smallmouth from the rocks at the Bedell Road bridge in the back of Mill Creek. That fish was far from the main-lake hangouts one would expect the smallies to be ganged on this time of the year.

Our best fish that day at Berlin, a largemouth of nearly 3 pounds, bit my plastic creature bait when I pitched it into the shade under a low-hanging branch of a big willow. Another nice bass chomped fishing friend Steve Zarbaugh’s Bronzeye Frog in water that was barely ankle deep.

We finished the day with a tally of more than 15 keeper bass — not bad at all for August on Berlin.

The bass last Sunday at Shenango Reservoir north of Hermitage, Pa., were equally as cooperative. I fished solo and winched up 20 largemouths, including nine that exceeded the lake’s 15-inch size limit.

I started with a buzzbait and quickly hooked up with a fish of nearly 3 pounds that slammed the gurgling lure in six inches of water. Two more bass quickly followed before the surface action died once the sun cleared the morning gloom.

As the sky brightened, the fish moved tighter to the gnarly cover, where I was able to target them by flipping and pitching jigs.

The fish were snug inside the cover, so pulling them out after coaxing bites was a challenge. I lost only one of those wrestling matches, to a solid bass that ate my jig in a thick brush pile and which was able to churn into a position where the line sawed against a rough limb that scraped my fluorocarbon to the breaking point.

The calendar pages are flipping fast this year, but we have plenty of time for much more shallow water bassing. As a matter of fact, the action will only improve from this point through Halloween.

Next time you are confused about whether to fish shallow or deep, head to the bank. Target the good cover and you’ll find plenty of largemouths willing to bite your baits.

jwwollitz@aol.com