Depth, color, cadence, change one or all until the fish tell you what they want and how they want it. It can be time consuming but well worth the effort! I was fishing (getting skunked) on that lake one day and decided to just camp out at the end of the pilings at the end of the launch where it drops off to deeper water. I tossed jigs, Texas-rigged worms, crankbaits, Senko's and not a bite! Finally I set up a Carolina-Rig and got bit! 4lber! In 3 out of the next 5 casts I caught fish and didn't move the boat! My point is this, short strikes are telling you something, speed up? slow down? go darker color? lighter? bigger bait? smaller bait? deeper? shallower? switch it up and see what happens?! Typically I've found color to be the bigger ingredient with depth and cadence a close second!

On that lake right now I would focus on drop off's with 7-10 inch worms, slow rolling a spinnerbait or lipless, heavy weighted swimbait, 1/2oz+ jigs on the outside weed edges in deeper water and do the same process, depth, color, cadence, the fish will tell you when you're right! Good luck and how was the algae on that lake??

Dang! That's a ton to consider. I'm give it a go though. Maybe one of these days I should hire a bass fishing guide to actually show me what the heck I am suppose to be doing, but I digress. All in all, we only had about an hour or so of actual fishing time, so there wasn't much experimenting going on.

So here's a question - would you fish all of those same approaches in a sunny, hot afternoon versus a quiet clear evening? I am thinking of heading back out today, but I am debating between going when I get off of work or waiting til a bit later.

I've found summer to be either shallow early morning as they've had all night to feed shallow before heading back out deep or deep mid day and outer edge of pads as it gets dark to maybe an hour after dark? Night fishing can be great but most of our launches don't allow you out during "hours of darkness", not too mention the types you run into when you float into a launch at 2am :O

If you start getting short strikes again change colors of the same offering, try darker first, then lighter and see which they respond to better? Usually that's the quickest easiest way to start to dial in. If I'm fishing shallow this time of year I would opt to try darker first as shallow fish tend to pigment darker from being in direct sunlight more frequently, that's not to say that dark colors won't work deep, it's just part of the figuring out process.

That particular lake can be tricky due to the amount of pads! They provide an oxygen rich, very shady environment that bass can stay in all day everyday. Crawling large frogs or mouse baits can produce some great strikes but the hook up ratio usually isn't that great due to the thickness of the vegetation. Wait to "feel" the fish before setting the hook and use heavy braid or it's game over.

I'm up that way fairly often, I am in no way a "guide" but if you ever see me say hi, I would be happy to go over every piece of tackle on my boat with you! Post up how you do?!

That would be awesome, and thanks so much for the tips! Clear Lake is the closest lake to my house and so I tend to fish it when I don't want to go too far. Maybe one of these days we'll cross paths. Aside from all of that, you asked about the algae. It's patchy. There will be these blooms, but they might be dying...? I'm not botanist. They are like these thick, small (4' ish), masses that are covered in bubbles like they are starting to die and give off some gasses. Not really sure. They are around, but pretty easy to avoid, at least where I was fishing last. I'll know more tonight and let you know if the rest of the lake is any different.