Summertime Bass Fishing with George Cochran
Top-Water Bites Are Over, Now What?
 Editor’s
Note: George Cochran of Hot Springs, Arkansas, won the
FLW Championship in 2005. In August, 2006, the FLW Championship
will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, on Logan Martin
Lake. Cochran should feel like Brer Rabbit being thrown
in the briar patch because if there’s ever been
a tournament where Cochran’s the odds-on-favorite,
it will be this year’s FLW Championship. When
the Bassmasters Classic was held on the same lake, Cochran
finished 9th, and he also won the Bassmasters Classic
held on nearby Lay Lake in August, 1996, under extremely-hot
weather conditions. The city of Birmingham has been
good to Cochran’s reputation and his bank account
just about every time he’s fished there. We asked
Cochran how he plans to fish the Dog Days of August
during the FLW Championship when the surface temperatures
will reach over 100 degrees.
Question: George, what will you do the first hour or
two of daylight when the top-water bite is over?
Cochran: I’m going to look for key areas that
I believe that bass move to after they leave the shallow
water. On Logan Martin, those key areas will be docks.
Question: Why are docks so productive during August?
Cochran: There are always bream and shad around docks
on a lake like Logan Martin and many of the other lakes
we fish in suburban areas. This lake doesn’t have
a lot of grass on it, so when the bass move into the
mid-range water, they’ll move to the docks. Docks
have plenty of cover with pillars and pilings, and often
they’ll have brush under them. The docks also
provide shade and places for the bass to hide. Therefore,
boat docks have always been a major key for catching
bass on Logan Martin. Most of the bass that are caught
on this lake by fishermen are caught around docks. So,
as soon as the top-water bite is over, I’ll move
to shallow docks first because that’s where the
bass will usually move when the sun comes up, and the
water gets warm before they move into the deeper docks.
My favorite  lure
to fish around those shallow docks is a Strike King
spinner bait.
Question: What size and what color of spinner bait
do you like?
Cochran: I like the new Strike King Perfect Skirt spinner
baits because I’ve been highly-successful with
them this year. My favorite size is the 3/8-ounce. My
favorite blade combination for this time of the year
is a No. 4 willow-leaf that’s chrome colored,
with the gold Colorado blade above the willow-leaf blade.
I like a green-and-white head. I like the silver skirt
with the green flake in it because with this bait when
you reel it around the boat docks, it looks exactly
like a minnow.
Question: What do you expect to catch with a spinner
bait on the shallow docks?
Cochran: If my plan is working, I should catch three
or four good bass on those shallow docks during the
morning with the spinner bait. But the spinner bait
isn’t a lure you can fish all day long this time
of the year. It produces best early in the morning  around
shallow-water cover after the top-water bite is over.
Question: How will you fish the spinner bait?
Cochran: I’ll usually make a long cast past the
dock, and then reel the spinner bait up to the shade
of the dock. I want the spinner bait to hit the poles
or the pilings and bounce off of wood, which usually
triggers a reaction strike from the bass.
Question: When your spinner bait hits the wood, do
you kill the spinner bait or continue your retrieve?
Cochran: I keep the bait coming because in the hot summertime,
most lures produce better the faster you retrieve them.
During the summer months, you need lures that you can
move fast and get a reaction bite. So, when the spinner
bait hits the pole, I never stop reeling. I just keep
the bait coming to me, and the bass generally will come
and get it.
Question: Where will you fish next when the shallow
docks stop producing?
Cochran: I’m going to move out to the deeper docks.
Tomorrow: Phase Three –
Deep Dock Tactics
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