Bass Fishing Report
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August 14th - 18th, 2025 Bass Fishing Update 🎣
Bass fishing fanatics! Dive in and explore all three Bass Fishing Report heat maps below. Make sure you don’t miss it — scroll down to check out the latest Bass Season and Bass High Wind maps to stay ahead of the game. Know-Adapt-Catch® more Bass.
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Bass fishing report for this week brought to you by:
🎣 U.S. Bass Trend Overview: August 14 - August 18, 2025
The latest outlook signals above-normal temperatures across most of the U.S. in August, especially over the Northwest, Plains, Midwest, and Northeast—propelled by a persistent ridge of high pressure.
Expect continue hot and dry conditions in many areas, meaning bass are likely shifting deeper—until those rare cooler mornings or storm setups spark unexpected bites.
Your Adapted Patterns® feature in the Bass Forecast app can help you capitalize by matching day- and location-specific bait, presentation, and zone recommendations to conditions in real time.
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Learn how fishing heavy cover increases catch rates!
When fishing heavy cover, Shimano Pro Alex Davis emphasizes the need to cast strategically into irregular mat edges when targeting bass or by occasionally jerking the handle during retrieval to trigger strikes.
Watch Shimano Pro Alex Davis discusses the advantages of fishing technique-specific rods within the Curado lineup. The 7'8" Extra Heavy fortifies the Curado tackle system for punching mats and throwing Alabama rigs because of its strength, sensitivity, and components, making it ideal for heavy-duty applications.
Regional Bass Fishing Forecast Breakdown:
August 14 – August 18, 2025
Because the weather and water conditions are rapidly changing this time of year, be sure to check your local bass fishing top 5 baits and lake location recommendations using your Bass Forecast mobile app Adapted Patterns® feature.
Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho)
Heat is building across the interior, while coastal areas remain slightly cooler. Bass are settling into deeper summer holds, feeding briefly in low-light windows. Target deep transition breaks, drop-offs, and shaded reefs using finesse swimbait, spinnerbait, and soft tubes.
Top Bait Pick: Throw Spinnerbaits
Southwest (California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico)
Classic desert dog-day heat persists, though monsoon-fueled afternoon storms are possible. Bass cling to deep structure and feed early/late. Early topwater near vegetation gives way to carolina rigs and swimbaits over brush and ledges in deeper water.
Top Bait Pick: Cast Swimbaits
Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Utah)
Expect a noticeable warm-up across higher elevations. Bass shift from spawn to summer staging in 8–15 ft zones around humps, weedlines, and flats. Morning: try popper or walking baits; midday: switch to wacky-rigs, small jigs, or shaky-heads.
Top Bait Pick: Throw Poppers
Great Plains (Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle, South Dakota, North Dakota)
A smoky mirror of national heat trends—unrelenting warmth with minimal relief. Bass collapse to deep structure, but early mornings may see activity near windblown points and flats. Use wakebait or flukes early, switching later to carolina rigs and creature baits around cover.
Top Bait Pick: Cast early morning Wakebaits
Midwest (Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota)
Warmth continues, with some areas possibly seeing higher-than-average rainfall, particularly through the Ohio River Valley. Expect deep-holding bass, with topwater action pre-storm or early morning. Midday strategy: deep-running crankbaits, jigs, or craw-pattern soft plastics near thermoclines and cover.
Top Bait Pick: Cast out Deep Diving Crankbaits
Southeast (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky)
Hot and humid with daily thunderstorm chances—shallow bite narrows, but reacts sharply under clouds or storms, especially near grass or docks. Early topwater is strong; transition to flipping into vegetation or dragging deep-rigged plastic past drainage edges.
Top Bait Pick: Throw early morning Topwater
Northeast (New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, New England)
Above-average heat is expected here too, especially in inland areas. Bass are predominantly deep but will feed shallow early in the day, especially near cover. Use topwaters, then transition to tubes, drop-shots, or jerkbaits in 10–20 ft. Keep a radar eye out for pop-up thunder showers—pre-storm barometric dips may trigger action.
Top Bait Pick: Cast and twitch Jerkbaits
🔥 PRO TIP: Use the Bass Forecast PRO app’s hourly weather graph to watch for cloud cover, pressure drops, or temps cooling overnight. Even a 90-minute bite window at dawn can make or break a day—especially in this heat.
The key is timing: Be on the water when that first break in the heat hits—not after everyone’s already talking about it. That’s where Bass Forecast PRO gives you the edge—with 7 to 10 days’ notice of EPIC and GOOD days, you can plan ahead and be there when it turns on. Don’t wait until it’s obvious. Fish the front edge of change.
Bass Forecast season brought to you by:
Stay ahead of the bite by leveraging your Bass Forecast app's features, including the Adapted Pattern® Top 5 Baits and Lake Locations, to maximize your success this weekend. To see exactly when bass will be turned on in your area, open your Bass Forecast mobile app and get PRO.
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Bass Forecast Tip:
Over 1.5 million+ Bass Forecast anglers have used these tips to boost catch rates during the cooler season.
1. DO NOT rely on “what worked yesterday”. It's not a solid strategy. The trickiest part of figuring out the bite in bass fishing is that patterns can change daily based on the weather, thus changing the feeding behavior of bass. Use the Bass Forecast app feature Adapted Patterns® to help adapt your strategy in real time. Bass Forecast Adapted Patterns® has predicted the winning pattern in 86% of top flight bass fishing tournaments 7 to 10 days before the tournament began.
2. Select best odds days up to 10 days in advance by getting Bass Forecast PRO inside the app. While there's no ‘guarantee’ of success on any single outing, double blind research has shown that season long average catch rates during GOOD/EPIC rated days are 68% to 305% higher than the average. Fisheries biologist research has also proven that bigger bass are caught during GOOD/EPIC days due to proactive vs reactive feeding behavior.
3. NO MATTER WHEN YOU GO, the BFR combined with the Seasonal Pattern (see map below) guides the 3 key elements of a successful bass catching pattern: 1. Baits to use. 2. Best bet fish feeding locations. 3. Best bet presentation speed.
Tight lines and happy fishing!
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