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Hot weather fishing tips from a pro Although Prattville's Russ Lane plies both his passion and his vocation on lakes all over the nation as a Bassmaster Elite Pro, Lane honed his skills on the rivers and lakes in Alabama. Currently, in the middle of a month-long break between tournaments - the next event is the Empire Chase on Lake Erie at Buffalo, N.Y. - Lane mellows out during the break on the familiar waters that are near his central Alabama hometown. Lane mainly fish lakes on three Alabama river systems - Tallapoosa, Tennessee and Coosa. On the Tallapoosa, Lake Martin is the largest and most popular impoundment and is what Lane calls a highland lake. "My belief is that during extreme conditions, like the hot summertime, fish will go as deep as they can, depending on the clarity of the water," Lane said. "On a lake like Martin, that's pretty deep. On the lower end of that lake, in the hot summertime the water clarity is better than any other part of the lake, so you might find those fish in 50 to 60 feet of water. "What I'm looking for are deep drop-offs near a main river or main creek channel swing. Take a creek like Parker's Creek where it intersects with the main river channel. That is where I would start looking for them." Obviously, when you're fishing water that deep, Lane said quality electronics will help locate the schools of fish. A good topographic map will also help pinpoint the most probable fish locations. "When you're fishing that deep, you're going find the schools on the breaks," he said. "You're probably going to have to use some sort of vertical presentation like a jigging spoon or a drop-shot. If the deep-water pattern doesn't pan out on lakes like Martin, he'll head up the lake. "You can go to the upper third of the lake, where the water is more stained," Lane said. "The fish will be shallower. Then I start targeting boat docks. Fish that are shallow in the hot summertime are looking for one thing and that's shade. The best place for shade is boat docks. I'll flip a worm or jig around the boat docks. "If the boat-dock pattern doesn't work, then I'll look for fish in 10-12 feet of water and I'll throw a big crankbait like a Fat Free Shad, a Carolinarigged worm. It's the same type of stuff. I'm looking for drops, creeks channels or even river ledges. It's just going to be more shallow because of the water clarity." On the Tennessee River lakes, like Wheeler, current is the driving factor, according to Lane. "You've got to look for current in the hot summertime, and that's something Wheeler has plenty of," he said. "Of course, you've got the Decatur Flats that is a favorite spot. There you've got a lot of current, plus you've got milfoil and stumps in 6 to 8 feet of water. Current will help fish stay shallow, along with the grass and hard wood cover. Then if you go to the south end where the water is clearer, you switch back to the drops - the creek channels and river ledges. "There are also a lot of bluff banks on Lake Wheeler. Any of those bluff banks that are in a bend in the river are the best ones. When they're generating electricity, you get current on those bluff banks. When I'm fishing the bluff banks, my favorite baits are a Shaky Head and a Ð-ounce football head jig that I just crawl along the bottom." Although Wheeler has a smallmouth bass population, Lane said the hard-fighting smallies are hard to come by when it's hot. "Most of the fish you catch on Wheeler in the summertime are largemouths," he said. "When it's hot, I think the smallmouths do a lot of suspending. A lot of the bait will be suspended out in the river channel and the smallmouths tend to roam around under the baitfish. A largemouth wants to be up against something, like a drop, a bluff or a dock." The Coosa chain of lakes - Weiss, Neely Henry, Logan Martin, Lay, Mitchell and Jordan - provides a different fishing opportunity and one of his favorites - deep cranking. "Lake Jordan may be my favorite lake," Lane said. "Most of the fish I catch on the Coosa lakes in the summer will be on a big crankbait. They'll be 10-15 feet deep and I catch them on a Fat Free Shad using 10- or 12-pound Vicious fluorocarbon line. That helps that bait get down. I catch most of my fish on a crankbait, but I will throw a football head jig or a 10- or 11-inch Texas-rigged worm. On the football head jig, I worked with Vicious to come up with the Russ Lane Big Daddy Craw and that's what I use as a trailer on my jig. I'll use 14-pound Vicious fluorocarbon with the jig."
"I'll fish the first few hours in the morning and then I'll go back out for the last couple of hours before dark," he said.
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