Cropy fishing during the early part of the summer can be a great time to put a ton of fish in the boat, but you first have to understand how to locate these fish. In this video I'm going to break down where I'm going to be finding these fish on natural lakes, rivers and reservoirs, and then what baits you can use this time of year to hopefully put a ton of fish in your boat. The first huge thanks to their sponsor, two more cast tackle box. Right now you can get multiple packs of these right here. These are the Euro Tackle B-Vibes of ARA Swimbait Style Cropy Plastic and they work phenomenal during the months of May and June. Early summer just casting out over weed bed on our natural lakes, maybe around some lay downs or some shallow rocks on the river systems up north. Down south you guys fish a lot of docks, these are great to cast around and catch those Cropy suspended up under them. Right now when you sign up for your very first month you can get three packs of these. It's $12 value for just a $1. That's right, $12 bucks worth of baits for just $1. That's your very first month so sign up right now, click the first link in the video description. So before we get started on talking about locations and baits on different lakes and rivers and reservoirs, first you need to understand what early summer means to you because way up north where I'm right now early summer is like tail end of May first couple weeks of June. If you're in South Texas your summer probably starts in late April maybe, early May sometimes, so fish are going to be doing the same thing. You just might have to either push the date forward or push the calendar back depending on the state that you live in. We're going to start up north on our natural lakes where I'm at right now and these Cropy what they're going to do towards the end of May first couple weeks of June, the females are going to push off to the furthest out weed edge. So whatever the freshest weed growth is that could be in five feet of water, it could be in 10 feet of water depending on the clarity of that lake. That's where the females are kind of push out to. The males are still going to be up shallow being the fry gardener so you're going to find them in five to six feet of water maybe a little bit shallower but that's where they're going to be in our early summer pattern. There's pretty much a post-pawn pattern for us up north. What will happen towards the later part of as we get into like the dead heat of summer in mid-June towards July, the males will come off the beds, females will start pushing out further and then they're just going to find the edge of that weed growth and depending on the lake clarity it could be 10 feet, 15 feet, 20 feet of water by the time we get to mid-June. So tactics I would use, first search spates work really well during that early part of the summer pattern, late-May, early June. You got your any type of boot tail swim bait, any type of curly tail swim bait, beetle spins, jerk baits, crank baits, any type of search bait works really well, cast it over top of these weed beds, cast it down the edge of these fresh growth of weeds. Again that could be in five feet of water, it could be in 10 feet of water depending on how clear the lake is. Bobber and jig tactics do work but you do have to find where there's a big school of fish and typically you'll find a pocket or a point within the weed bed and that's going to kind of help those fish kind of stage in that area to ambush bait fish as they're swimming by. So search baits work phenomenal this time of year if you can kind of get on a school of them because they're at a pinch point or they're at an ambush point in the weed bed, Bobber and jig setup works great in that situation. So now let's jump to rivers. Rivers this time of year typically they're going to fish a little bit shallower because it has current, current brings oxygen and bait fish and any other food towards them so they can stay a little bit shallower. Again this time of year males are still going to be a little bit shallow five to six feet or less. They're going to be frigating right now so Bobber and jig tactics work for them but our females are going to be pushed out a little bit deeper and again search baits work great. You're probably going to be targeting more of your structure or your cover on top of the water so with rivers I always want to start on a confident spot no matter what part of the country that I'm in. Confident spots are your bridges, your marinas, any type of big dock system and because it's really part of the summer I'm going to start shallow. I'm going to cast beetle spins or just a curly tail or some sort of boot tail plastic up in the shallows maybe catch a few males still kind of frigating but I want to figure out where those females are in the depth of either that dock or that bridge. They could be in five feet of water it could be in 10 foot 15 foot it really depends on the water temperature at that time of year and it depends on what state you're in. You know early June up north water temps right now I think are upper 60s low 70s just touching low 70s if you are in Texas right now I'm guessing water temps are probably in the 80s or at least the upper 70s so that's going to depend on if they're how deeper. The warmer the water temps they want to seek safety in terms of cooler water so they're going to push out deeper the cooler the water temps they can stay a little bit shallower so live minors and bobbers do work year round I probably would start using them towards the middle part of summer as fish start getting stacked up on any brush piles or rock piles in a slightly deeper water 10 to 20 feet of water they'll start to school up a lot better as we get deeper into the summer months so that's probably when I'd use a slip bobber tactic with live minors. Now on reservoir systems I actually did a video about this fishing bulls shoals I actually fish back in February a couple of years ago now and I talked about how crop you use creek arms during their spawning phase so during the actual heat of the spawning phase which in Arkansas is probably going to be April maybe late March they're going to push all the way to the back of these creeks and they're going to find these kind of shallow flats maybe it's a shallow stump field or something like that they're going to do their spawning and for Arkansas probably like late April early May they're going to start pushing off on the edge of where this flat kind of drops back into the creek channel that's kind of where they're going to start to be in this early summer months you're going to still find some fish a little bit shallower and shallows again relative to that creek channel it could be in two feet of water can be in six feet of water it depends on how deep that creek channel actually gets as you get into the summer months of May and definitely into June they're going to push off back into the main creek channel where they first migrated through there during the pre spawn and they're going to try to find some piece of ambush point like a stump maybe there's a brush pile or a stake bed anything kind of along the contours of that creek they're probably not going to suspend too much directly in the main part of the channel they're going to look for pieces of cover for safety and for ambush points for baitfish swimming by so probably focus on like 10 to 15 foot contours close to that spawning flatter that stump field or wherever they spawn way back in that creek channel as a summer months roll on there are going to start pushing out so some of them will suspend over the top of that creek channel just in open water a lot of them are going to find deeper stumps or brush piles or any type of croppy what do they call those crappy hotel type of things people drop along these creek edges mid-summer let's say June to July they're probably going to be in that 15 to 20 foot range they could be a little bit shallower depending on how much current is moving through there and the water temp but to target those fish if they're really shallow search baits work as they get out to deeper water you're going to see a lot of guys with long rods 10 12 foot rods vertical jigging approach maybe they're pitching it out kind of away from the boat and letting that jig just pendulum back to the boat they're probably using more of a straight mineral plastic like a crappy monster small fry or something like that and that's a great way to catch them because in my experience early summer patterns these croppy will start stacking up on those shallow or brush piles maybe not all the big fish are on those shallow brush piles but if you're looking to catch a good meal it's a good way good tactic to find some fish and put a bunch of fish in the live well at vertical jig approach over those shallower 10 to 12 foot deep brush piles those are the tactics that I'm going to be using for early summer croppy if you got any comments or questions you can post them in the comment section below do me a favor click the top link in the video description get yourself a couple packs of these I think he's going to send you three packs of these it's $12 worth of lures for just one buck it's a heck of a deal subscribe to the two more cast tackle box system click the top link in the video description appreciate you watching as always we'll see you in the next one