Jax
I have spent a fair amount of time fishing the shield in August. I think much might depend on the lake. A few years back I had stellar fishing for size on basswood with my biggest walleye and biggest laker coming on that trip. Usually I say I'm not going in August after several poor trips so go figure. Last summers August trip was reasonably decent. I hooked one very memorable fish which pulled my boat some ten feet before breaking off and she hit shallow at dark in 15 ft.

But here is my suspicion and it is a strong suspicion. I like to travel so my mornings are usually spent breaking camp and moving on down the road a bit. I usually fish late and with only the Basswood trip as a notable exception late evening fishing in August is usually poor.

If I were base camp fishing in August my focus would be very, very, very early in the morning. Did I mention fishing early? I think I might of. I would get up while it was still dark and be on the water as soon as it was light enough to see. I think the big girls could be quite vulnerable up to about 9 and then my guess it is over. Go back to bed for a few hours.

Then in the afternoon I would concentrate on jigging spoons which provoke fish to bite wether they are hungry or not. They don't have to hunt something down and kill it like with a crank bait but rather instinct kicks in to kill the injured erratic fluttering piece of annoying metal which is just daring something to end its suffering. Of course good electronics would be vital to pinpoint key areas, the fish will show up while trolling your taildancers. Then drop your butterfly jig down (jigging spoon) right on their nose and pop it a few times. Braid helps........I did this on Conmee last year, that being trolled a taildancer and marked fish and dropped the spoon.......2 snaps was all it took before I was hooked up. Unfortunately the hooks pulled but the important aspect was the fish ate. Sooner or later I will spend some real quality time with the butterly jigs and give them a thorough test but they are the bomb offshore......the fish get frustrated and worked up in a lather by them.