Bass anglers are entering the season when they can practice catching fish on a variety of lures and tactics.

The largemouth bass spawn is finished, the females have recovered and the bucks have abandoned their guard duty over this year’s fry. Water temperatures at our local reservoirs are in the mid 70s, and the bass are feeding throughout the day.

Early summer bass are active and scattered in all kinds of cover and structure where they can eat crawfish, perch, bluegill and shad. All of this means those who want to try their luck on bass can experiment with tried-and-true techniques and learn some new tricks.

Anglers can drag crankbaits over rocks and rip-rap, pitch jigs and Texas-rigged soft plastics to stumps, logs and weed lines, twitch hollow-body frogs across matted vegetation and lily pads, or bounce plastic worms off bottom structure. Any and all of those tactics will produce now that water temps are prime.

I got a chance to work some bassy water last week. The water was clear and the surface was calm, so I decided to sharpen my efforts at drop-shotting for the largemouths that showed up as blips on the sonar screen on the Bass Cat’s front deck.

Drop-shot fishing became popular 20 years ago as bass anglers began to benefit from advancements in fish-locating sonar. They learned they could drop lures directly under their boat to tease Great Lakes smallmouths and reservoir largemouths.

The drop-shot rig features a weight secured at the terminal end of the line and a hook secured with a palomar knot a foot or 18 inches above the weight. The set-up typically is fished on a spinning rod and enables the angler to make a relatively straight-line vertical presentation.

I selected a spinning rod with 15-pound test braid to which I tied an 8-pound fluorocarbon leader with a size 1 circle hook. The calm and clear water called for a finesse lure, so I threaded a four-inch Zoom worm on the hook.

The bass did not seem to be impressed with the little worm, so I went back to the bags of bait I haul to the lakes and selected a six-inch Yum Dinger in the baby bass color. I rigged it through the egg sack in the middle of the worm in the fashion bass anglers call “whacky.”

I pitched the offering off the bow and waited for it to touch down on the lake bottom 10 feet below me. Soon enough I noticed the line didn’t relax in the manner that indicates it’s on the bottom and, in fact, it was inching out toward the open water.

I tightened up on the line and pulled the circle hook into the jaw of a big fish that surged away from the boat. The rod bucked and bowed as I worked the bass toward the boat and finally worked it close enough to grab its lower jaw.

At four and a half pounds, the bass was the perfect reward for my tinkering with the drop shot. The next 15 minutes produced two more bass in the same size range, both putting a serious bend in my 7-foot spinning rod before surrendering.

I have learned over the years that when the fish are in the mood, it pays to gain experience in tactics other than those on which I typically rely.

It’s also a fair bet that the next time I’m on the lake, that drop-shot whacky-rig worm will get another opportunity to shine.

Jack Wollitz’s book, “The Common Angler,” is a collection of stories that explain why anglers are passionate about fishing. Send a note to jackbbaass@gmail.com.