June is one of the most consistent months for Bass fishing throughout the country. While there is still some spawning occurring in the far North, almost all of it is done in the rest of the country and the bass are focused entirely on feeding now.
The strongest pattern for June is offshore structure.
Many bass leave the bank and head offshore especially on large reservoirs with current. The current is constantly bringing new water and new opportunities. Bass love to eat big prey that is a little more scarce in the spring. For this reason large worms and lizards get the lots of action in June offshore.
The 12 inch Culprit Original worms are mainstays here. Fish these on offshore structure, especially turns in the river channel where the current runs directly into it. Also look for Points, humps, roadbeds and brush piles, weed lines and shell beds. Find these places and you have more than likely found some bass. To rig, rig them on a Texas rig or large shaky head jig. Start with 1/2 weights or heavier to reach the structure. If it is shallow, a little lighter, heavier for deeper water. My favorite color is Plum apple in the 10 inch — it works well in all water clarities. You really need to experiment however, one color can be really dominate over another. I’ve seen times when one color will beat another 10 to 1 off a school of fish. So if you think fish are present, try a few colors before you leave.
The second soft plastic lure set up is a Carolina Rig. The 7’’ Water Dragon is phenomenal on the big rig and you can quickly cover areas looking for bass and the right kind of bottom. Fish the Dragon on a 1 oz Carolina rig for water deeper than 10 feet and go really heavy if you want to fish it super fast up to 2 oz or so. I like a 2.5 ft leader and 14 lb fluorocarbon line and 15 lb Yo-Zuri Hybrid leader which floats the lure a little better. Lighten to 12lb leader in clearer water. Fish on the same structure as the big worms, but use this as a search tool as well. Often if you are willing to try you can find little sweet spots with Carolina rig that depth finders and other lures have a hard time picking up.
June fishing boils down to having the right lures on the right spot. Some of the schools you can find have hundreds of fish. So it is well worth the effort in spending time searching of the right spots.