PHOTO BY JOHN NEPORADNY JR.

It was my favorite time of the day, and the day was about to be a good one. I was on Lake Wylie in early July and I was hunting for largemouth bass. The muggy air was a harbinger that the day ahead would be a hot one. But for now, the calm lake and comfortable pre-dawn air felt perfect. I had motored out of Big Allison Creek to an area between two main-lake points where I'd found schooling fish on previous trips. I cut the big motor and allowed the electric kicker to slowly and quietly slip me toward my target as I sipped my coffee.

It was a weekday and all was quiet on this normally bustling lake. In one sense, it was almost a shame a largemouth had to bust into that school of shad. Just kidding . . . I set my coffee cup down in haste and promptly knocked it over as I hustled to get my rod. I kicked the electric motor into high gear and closed on the target. Another fish broke into the baitfish in the same location. By this time I was within casting range. A side-armed, rifled cast put my lure just past the schooling fish. I was hooked into a chunky largemouth within a few seconds.

That action lasted for a few minutes, then some fish broke on the other point. By the time I slipped over to it, the topwater schooling action was over. However, with my trusty June bug Trick Worm, I managed to hook up with two additional hefty largemouths.

When the sun crept over the horizon, the shallow-water action slowed, then died. But it had been a good start to a good day of summertime bass fishing on Lake Wylie. Since I was committing the entire day to fishing at this fertile bass lake, I had good reason to believe it would end in basically the same manner, in the same general location. In between would be a day of probing the depths with worms, crankbaits and spinnerbaits, just to keep things interesting.

Summertime certainly doesn't mean the end of good largemouth bass fishing in South Carolina. There are many lakes that produce quality fishing throughout the summer if you know where, when and how.

Lake Wylie and Lake Russell are two of those potential hotspots. While Russell is a much clearer lake than Wylie, there's plenty of woody cover in the lake and the opportunities to make excellent summertime catches exist. This is especially true if you'll fish during the nocturnal hours for the shallow-water action. But first, we'll take a more detailed look at Lake Wylie.

A good bet on Lake Wylie, if you're not familiar with the lake, is to begin the day by fishing points and pockets. A good choice of lures would be topwaters, such as buzzbaits as well as plastic worms. Under the right conditions, particularly cloud cover or wind, this pattern can hold throughout the day at times. But typically, you'll need to look toward deeper structures as the sun gets higher in the sky.

Fishing the points is one of the proven techniques for Lake Wylie hot-weather bass fishing. But even if you catch a couple of fish early in the day, don't get locked solely into this type of fishing throughout the entire day. In some cases, you'll find it very productive, although you'll generally need to back away from the shallow-water action you can sometimes enjoy right at dawn and dusk. If point fishing for largemouth bass gets slow, mix it up with other techniques.