"Later in the spring and summer, I fish the main points with topwater baits," Chatham said. "I like poppers, Spit'n Images and Zara Spooks. It's nothing to catch an 8-pounder in the summer on a topwater bait early in the morning right against the bank."

Bends in creek channels also make excellent places to find summer bass on Caney. These old creek channels sometimes contain fish-holding holes. During extremely cold or hot weather, these holes can offer bass sanctuary and comfortable temperatures. Drop-jigs, drop-shots, Texas-rigged worms or tubes into these holes and around the edges. If that doesn't work, slow-roll spinnerbaits around the edges.

"The two most versatile baits in bass fishing are a spinnerbait and a jig," said Denny Brauer, a former Bassmaster Classic champion. "One of my favorite ways of fishing a bait in the summer and winter on deep structure is worming a spinnerbait. Throw it out and let it fall all the way to the bottom until you see slack in the line. Raise it off the bottom by raising the rod tip to the 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock position. Drop the rod tip back down, letting the bait helicopter down and following it down until it hits the bottom, and do it again."

Fishing becomes tough in the heat of late summer, as most bass stick close to the bottom in daylight hours. At night, however, big bass move into the shallows. On a bright full moon, the light penetrates extremely well in the clear waters of Caney Lake. At night, lunker bass lose a bit of their wariness. Except for the spawning time in the spring, the full moon of late summer probably offers the best time to land a bigmouth lunker.

"During the summer, fishing gets really tough," Chatham said. "Then I use a lot of finesse worms and plastics. I use a small worm with a split-shot about 12 inches above the worm and work it slowly. Quite a few people fish at night. By early November, I start going back to soft plastics. I don't use the big bulky plastics at that time. I'll use smaller plastics, 6- to 8-inch worms. I also use a lot of centipedes on Carolina rigs."

In a clear lake with huge bass, one bite could produce the fish of a lifetime. Big bass want big baits, and often feed on threadfin shad, crappies or bream. In clear water, more realistic baits often work best. For calling lunkers in clear water, a soft-plastic swim bait makes a mighty tempting target.

Essentially large soft-plastic shads with internal weights and single hooks, swim baits closely mimic live baitfish. Storm Wildeye Shads and Calcutta Flash Foil Swim Shads come with soft holographic bodies in several natural colors. Coming in versions up to 6 inches long, they create tempting side-to-side action when cranked and odd wobbles when dropped. To lunker bass, they look and feel like natural baitfish.