Hey everyone, Captain Anthony Awgul here! As part of my mission to help people catch more and bigger bass, I post free Nockamixon fishing reports at the beginning of each month from April through November as I guide on this lake full-time 5-7 days per week. Also, if you're interested in extra detailed weekly Nockamixon fishing reports and monthly livestreamed Nockamixon fishing seminars, be sure to subscribe to, "The Nockamixon Fishing School" by visiting www.awgulfishing.com/nockamixonfishingschool
June 2024 has seen extreme temperatures, fluctuating conditions, and hit or miss fishing. We ended June 2024 with 3 bass over 5 pounds, 1 bass over 6 pounds, and 1 giant bass over 7 pounds. Also, we've caught exceptional quantities of fish ranging from 1-3 pounds and a decent amount of fish ranging from 3-5 pounds! Water temperatures have been ranging from 77-87 degrees throughout the month.
One of the most noticeable changes lake conditions this past month has been the sudden decline of milfoil grass. This has made the shallow bite much tougher, but this phenomenon can be explained. Typically in our region, milfoil grass will grow from spring through fall and then die off in the cold winter months when ice covers the fishery leading to a lack of sunlight penetrating the water. However, last winter wasn't consistently cold enough to kill off the milfoil grass, so it survived (Overwintered) through the spring. Therefore, we saw extremely abundant and thick vegetation present and growing in March, April, and May (Which created some of the best shallow water bass fishing I've ever seen on this lake), but it started dying off suddenly in late May and early June. Fortunately, the milfoil grass is already growing back in.
Although the milfoil grass has almost completely disappeared in Lake Nockamixon during the month of June, the lily pads grew in very thick all around the lake. Historically, we've caught a lot of bass in lily pads throughout the year, but it seems like more Nockamixon bass tend to feed in thick milfoil grass. When we found milfoil, we frequently caught fish in it! Without too much milfoil though, we've been relying on lily pad patterns throughout the month! We had several great days of fishing by punching a 4" Awgul Fishing Clumsy Craw through the pads or fishing a 5" Awgul Fishing Silly Stick on the edge of the pads (Usually wacky rigged). In the beginning of the month, we had a couple of really good days fishing topwater over lily pads with the Awgul Fishing Freaky Frog. Other baits that we caught fish on up shallow included spinnerbaits, swimbaits, jigs, and shallow crankbaits. All except for one of our bigger bass over 4.5 lbs in June 2024 came from shallow water. During the beginning of the month, we were averaging 10-20 bass per trip up shallow. Then in the middle of the month, we started averaging 5-10 bass per trip up shallow as more fish started moving offshore. Then at the end of the month, we were only averaging 2-5 bass per trip up shallow. I assume this decrease is attributed to the progression of seasonal patterns, the disappearance of the milfoil grass, and varying weather conditions.
As the shallow bite started dwindling as the month progressed, the deep bite really picked up. We've had several days with exceptional quantities of fish caught! We had 2 trips in June 2024 with over 40 fish caught out deep! All of the deep features we caught fish on this past month were located pretty close to locations that the bass spawned in during the spring. For example, features like artificial structures, road beds, and submerged cover in 10-20 foot deep located near spawning areas produced best. The jig head minnow (1/8 oz ball head jig and a 3" Awgul Fishing Finesse Fry) was the technique that produced more fish out deep than any other technique this past month. Although we caught a lot of fish out deep, almost all of them were small with the average sized fish ranging from 10-15 inches. The occasional bigger bass would appear out deep, but if you wanted to catch a lunker in June it seemed like you needed to be fishing shallow.
I always preach that bass on Lake Nockamixon seem to love consistency in weather and conditions. As usual for southeast Pennsylvania, June 2024 lacked consistency with some days experiencing heatwaves in the 90's with other days seeing lows in the 50's. Whenever there was consistency for at least a few days, we caught them pretty good! One of the most common patterns I saw this past month was that almost all of our fish were caught in the middle of the day (Between the hours of 10 AM and 3 PM), including the days during the heatwave. Also, whenever there was a sudden drop in air temperature and/or water temperature, the fishing got extremely difficult. For example, towards the end of the month a cold front came through and we experienced our most difficult day of fishing since the end of March (Catching only 2 small bass).
With water temperatures warm and the summertime pattern established, I predict that the bass fishing will get even better in July. More and more bass (Especially the average sized fish between 1-4 pounds) should continue following baitfish out deep on features like ledges, bluff walls, points, and submerged cover. Historically, thick vegetation in shallow water is a summertime go-to when trying to catch above average sized bass. My theory is that the bigger bass utilize compressed shallow water environments with thick cover and structure to feed extra efficiently; maximizing calories consumed while minimizing calories burned. With the thick lily pads and the milfoil grass that's coming back, I'm excited to see how the shallow bite plays out in July.
Stay tuned for my Lake Nockamixon Fishing Report for July that will be posted at the beginning of next month. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to The Nockamixon Fishing School at www.awgulfishing.com/nockamixonfishingschooland book your guided fishing trip with me as soon as possible! We're already booking out until September and October, so be sure to get a spot on my calendar so we can target giant late summer or fall bass! Book now online at www.awgulfishing.comor call/text me at (267) 730-3203.
Tight lines and I'll see you out on the water!
-Captain Anthony Awgul
