Late Spring is generalized as the water temperature climbs above 60 degrees and the bass have moved off the beds. This is also known as the post-spawn stage. This can be one of the hardest times of the year to catch decent size or sometimes any bass. If the body of water is large enough you can catch shallow fish (pre-spawn/bedding) starting at one end of the lake and by the time that they have finally all moved off the bed they are back to a regular pattern at the other.
The best tactics for this time of year is to go a little deeper. Usually around 12 to 15 feet (or more depending on where you live). Look for ledges or areas where the depth drops off rather rapidly. That area should also have some type of cover, weeds, stumps or large broken up rocks. It should also be near where they were just last week or the last time you were in the area. While bass will sometimes travel great distances from their Winter areas to their Spring areas usually they will not travel too far during the Late Spring to Fall time frame. As with all rules there are exceptions. On some bodies of water the bass will spend their entire warm water season following baitfish around the lake. If that's the case then of course you will have to look for the baitfish and fish the area around them.
Fish around boat docks, fallen trees, rocks and other shallow areas first before going deep as there should be at least some fish that remain shallow. In each body of water there is generally a percentage of bass that will always remain shallow and some that will always remain deep. If you know of some place that you always catch bass shallow then of course you should concentrate on that area.
Lures for this time of year are as follows: Topwater or shallow water lures in the morning. If nothing produces after a few hours then you should concentrate on going deeper into that 12 to 15 foot area with deep running crankbaits, worms, jigs or even spinnerbaits.
This is the time of year that bass are really in transition. They just finished their Spring pattern and are starting their Summer pattern. If you had a good shallow water area that produced last week and they are gone this week start shallow and continue working deeper until you connect. Usually they really didn't go that far away.
