That lack isn’t any reflection on the fishery. Hodges is a great place to cash in on good numbers of small bass. Finding 1- to 4-pound fish won’t be a challenge.

Hodges will likely sport the best frog bite in the region. But jigs, plastics and topwater baits will keep pace. It’s tough to beat the action available when flipping jigs in the brush, and buzzbaits through the evening hours are tough to beat.

“I know in August there’s a great frog bite,” explains Giusti. “Go up toward where the bridges are and fish the trees. That’s an all-day thing when it’s hot in the summer.

“There are bullfrogs in that area. Anyplace where you have tules and shallow flats, you’ll tend to get fish on frogs or mice or something like that.”

DIAMOND VALLEY RESERVOIR
Diamond Valley’s bass population continues to age -- and improve. The older trophy fish keep getting bigger, and the middle class is evolving.

According to the DFG, this reservoir has a population of more than 60,000 bass longer than 12 inches.

Of those bass, 40 percent are longer than 15 inches.

Summer isn’t prime time here, but anglers can still manage to find banner days, especially if they focus on fishing in and around schools of shad. While crawdads, minnows, trout, panfish and other food sources are available, late summer and fall is when the bass key in on shad.

Shad become the main diet for Diamond Valley bass during the warmest late-summer months. During that time frame in 2007, anglers experienced catch rates of 50 to 100 bass per day when using live shad. The same is expected this season.

On the other hand, only a handful of anglers are experienced enough to cash in on this stellar action.

You can’t buy live shad at the marina or in a tackle shop. You’ll have to catch them live from the reservoir. And that can be a chore!

Shad move shallow here during late summer and early fall. That means that you can find massive bait balls of live shad in 10 feet of water or less, and tight to the bank. Finding those shad is your first step to success.

Some coves tend to harbor shad more often than others. Many anglers use birds to spot the schools. Birds always find the shad before anglers do. If you see congregations of birds dive-bombing the surface, there’s a good chance that the shad are below. Once you spot them, you’ll need to use your boat to corral the shad toward the bank.

But use a trolling motor, not your outboard. The main engine will spook the shad to deeper water.

After corralling the shad, use small dip nets to scoop them up. Shad are too small to be caught in normal nets used to contain game fish. Have two anglers with nets work the shad into a corner and then net the fish.

Once the shad are caught, back off the school and pull out a small bait hook rigged on 6-pound-test. Larger hooks are too heavy and can cause the minnows to tire out and die quicker.

It’s best to hook the shad in the tail or right above the upper lip. This allows them to stay alive longer -- bass generally won’t eat dead shad.

Many bass spend their days shadowing schools of shad. Meanwhile, live shad can be fished anywhere in the reservoir. Bass will eat them whether or not you cast them near schools of shad. Also keep in mind that catfish, trout, panfish and other species will eat the shad, too.