The best time to catch lots of bass is throughout the pre-spawn, spawn and post spawn periods, when bass are concentrated near the shorelines. During the summer, bass generally move into deeper waters, but at times, you can still find them in the shallows. Both small and largemouth bass can be located around docks and in weed beds that are in waters ranging between 5 to 25 feet deep. Summer bass will hit on both surface and subsurface flies. Surface poppers usually work best on bass in fairly warm, calm, shallow water.
Poppers are especially effective during the low light periods of dawn and dusk or on overcast days.
In areas where you have heavy cover, such as milfoil and lily pads, bass will feed on poppers just about any time of the day. Subsurface flies that work great are wooly buggers, Clouser minnows, and jig fish. These flies work best when fished with a uniform sinking line.