Julys of the Past

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 of them are less than four hours in length. Some of the outings are solo endeavors, and on some of the other ones, I am joined by another Midwest finesse angler or two.

Here is a summary of what has transpired since we compiled the month-by-month guide: In July of 2012, we fished seven times for a total of 21 hours, and we inveigled 220 largemouth and 31 smallmouth bass, which was an average of 35.8 black bass an outing and 11.9 an hour. We fished eight times and a total of 20 hours in July of 2013, and we caught 192 largemouth bass and four smallmouth bass. We caught of 104 largemouth bass and 16 smallmouth bass during five outings, which encompassed 19 hours of fishing, in July of 2014.  We fished six times, which incorporated 26 hours of Midwest finesse tactics, and we caught 227 largemouth bass, 44 smallmouth bass, and two spotted bass in July of 2015. During July of 2016, we fished five times, which involved 16 hours of fishing, and we caught 122 largemouth bass and 13 smallmouth bass.

Besides my logs and the ones from other northeastern Kansas anglers, our July guides  feature logs from Midwest finesse anglers in Arkansas, Canada, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, North Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.

As more and more anglers across the nation become serious Midwest finesse practitioners, we are hoping that we will be publishing logs in our monthly guides from other locales. And if any readers are interested in contributing logs, please call Wendy Shamp at In-Fisherman at 218-829-1648, and she will tell me how to contact you.

Here are the links to four monthly guides that focus on July and two links to other Midwest Finesse columns that focus on July:

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(1) This is the link to the guide about July of 2012: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/an-addendum-to-the-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-july/. This a guide contains 9,305 words.

(2) This is the link to the guide about July of 2013: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/midwest-finesse-fishing-july-2013/. This guide contains 12,561 words.

(3) This is the link to the guide about July of 2014: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/midwest-finesse-fishing-jukly-2014/. This guide contains 18,645 words.

(4) This is the link to the guide about July of 2015: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/midwest-finesse-fishing-july-2015/.  This guide contains 12,415 words.

(5) Here is the link to the guide about July of 2016:  http://www.in-fisherman.com/gear-accessories/line/midwest-finesse-fishing-july-2016/. It contains 24,185 words.

(6) Here is the link to the Midwest Finesse's "Julys of the Past" that we published in 2015: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/julys-of-the-past/.

(7) Here is the link to the Midwest Finesse's "Julys of the Past that we published in 2016: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/julys-of-the-past-2/.

(8) This is a link to "A Month-by-Month Guide to Midwest Finesse for Bass:" http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/a-month-by-month-guide-to-midwest-finesse-for-bass/. It is a historical analysis of Midwest finesse fishing that we wrote back in 2011. It focuses on each month of the year and how, when, and where we caught black bass from 2006 to 2011. It contains 779 words about Midwest finesse fishing in July.

(9) This is a link to our daysin Minnesota: http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/vacation-notes-and-photographs/.

Photographs from Julys of the past: