This is a short bibliographical essay for anglers who want to get a historical perspective of how, when, and where Midwest finesse anglers caught largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass in Julys of the past.
Since 2011, we have published 77,891 words about the July endeavors of Midwest finesse anglers. Some of these words reveal that July is always a difficult time for Midwest finesse anglers to catch vast numbers of black bass that abide in the flatland reservoirs of northeastern Kansas. But we also observed that the last week of July is usually more fruitful than the first three weeks.
Traditionally, we spend many of our days in July with our children and grandchildren in northeastern Kansas and on a lake or two in the heartland region of Minnesota. And when we fish together, I rarely pick up a rod unless I am helping one of them execute a cast to a difficult lair. Instead I will have my foot on the trolling motor’s switch and watch all that transpires. Occasionally, I will express a quiet suggestion about places to cast and ways to execute a retrieve and how to battle and land a fish. Across the years of raising four children and relishing 10 grandchildren, we have found that it is usually best to fish with just one youngster on each outing. And until they are nearly teenagers, our outings are never longer than two hours, and many of them are slightly less than an hour.
In short, I do not fish as much in July as I fish in March, April, May, June, August, September, October, November, and December.
In our “Month-by-Month Guide to Midwest Finesse for Bass,” we wrote a 780-word synopsis about fishing in July in northeastern Kansas before 2012. We noted that our historical average is 31 black bass during each of our outings in July, and 85 black bass are the most that we have caught during one of our four-hour outings. These averages do not reflect the hours that we fished with our children and grandchildren. It is also important to note that our outings take place during the midday hours, and many…
