When the surface water temperature rose to 95 degrees in Lake Richard B. Russell on the South Carolina-Georgia border in late July and early August, bass fishing could be summed up in one word: tough.

Now, even, though there has been somewhat of a cooling off spell and the water temperature has dropped down into the upper 80-degree range, bass fishing is getting a little better – but it’s still pretty tough when it comes to quality fish.

“Normally, this time of year you can fish the deeper drops in the 25- to 35-foot deep zone with a big worm and catch some good quality fish, but it just hasn’t happened this year,” said veteran Russell bass angler Chip Grice of Belton, S.C.

The reason, Grice thinks, is that the fish are suspended in the timber lines off the points. When Russell was flooded it backed up over large areas of standing trees and that flooded timber habitat offers vast havens for suspended fish.

“You can key in on the tree lines adjacent to the points and catch a few, but it’s hard to pinpoint the fish in the trees,” Grice said. “We’re just not catching them on the bottom like normal this time of year.”

During the hot weather the best bass action has come in the late afternoon and at night, he noted.

“I think there may be a daytime bite going on a little bit on the deeper humps, but by late evening that bite is fizzling out,” said Grice.

“We went out at 4 o’clock last Saturday afternoon and caught two nice fish on a 22-foot-deep hump, two 4 ½-pound largemouths, down from the 72 Bridge about 5 o’clock in the afternoon. We also caught a2 ½-pound spotted bass, doodling a drop shot,” he said

“But then we were catching a lot of smaller fish, from a pound and a half to two pounds in 18- to 20-foot deep brushpiles close to deep water, using finesse worms and Mag 2 Texas-rigged worms.”

Grice has concentrated his efforts within about five miles of the 72 Ramp area, fishing all the branches in the area, including Beaverdam and Rocky Creeks and the Savannah River. Catching numbers of bass has not been a problem, he said, but quality bass have been few and far between this summer.

“We’ve been averaging catching 15 to 18 fish in four hours in local pot tournaments, but for the most part it’s been a struggle to get a 2- to 2 ½-pound average. That’s the quality fish that are turned on right now. We get a lot of smaller fish and a few 2- to 2 ½-pounders.”

While they have picked up the occasional fish in the 3- to 4-pound class, throwing bigger worms, 8-to-10 inches long, on the 20- to 25-foot drops, those bites are random and not anything to depend on. However, some anglers are getting on good quality bites on occasion, he noted.

“One of our buddies caught 19 pounds fishing in a tournament Saturday night. He didn’t say how he caught them, but he was fishing the Rocky River arm, so there may be some better fish turning on in the Rocky River area. At least there are some quality fish to be caught.”

One reason the fishing has been tough, he said, is that there is a super abundance of shad in the 25- to 35-foot range where the bass mainly are concentrated in the cooler water layers.

“Anywhere from the 72 Ramp area, anytime you come over a drop or point in that range, you will see so many shad suspended down at those levels. I think that is what is making fishing so tough at those levels – they have so much to choose from.”

But, he pointed out, some of those fish can be caught.

“If you watch your graph you will see tremendous amounts of shad and fish mixed in. If you see an area where the fish have been feeding and have the shad scattered out you can drop a drop-shot rig down to them and catch a few fish that way.”

The slight change in the hot summer weather has brought a welcome change to the tournaments, too, Grice said.

“Two weeks ago we were in a really bad hot spell and all of the fish in the tournaments were dying. This past weekend we didn’t have many dead fish.”

The summer phase is about to end and daytime fishing should pick up considerably in a few weeks, Grice said.

“I think we need to have a good cool spell and the daytime bite will start getting better. In early September we’ll probably be getting into some good daytime fishing. Night time fishing always slows by mid- to late August in Russell.”