If Gaines spots a school of fish on his depthfinder, he might switch over to a metal jig that's just heavy enough to allow vertical jigging on a taut line. And when he's having trouble finding fish, he'll employ a rattling lipless crankbait to cover more territory. However, he doesn't waste time with aimless casts.

"Too many anglers pull up on a piece of structure and cast over and over to the same spot, using the same retrieve," Gaines said. "Never do that unless you're getting bit. Move your casts around with varied retrieves to get different actions and reach different depths until you find out where the fish are and what they want. Don't just cast randomly. You need to follow a plan."

Gaines begins formulating his plan before he ever hits the water. The first step is deciding where to fish, a more critical task in summer when clean water and oxygen are often at a premium.

"The three things you need to attract and hold game fish in hot weather are food, structure and water quality," Gaines said. "During July and August, water quality is the really big deal because there is less inhabitable water. You don't need a whole lot of structure if you have water with enough oxygen. That's where the bait and the predators are going to be."

Whenever water quality is a problem in summer, Gaines immediately rules out flats and other stagnant or shallow water that will be warmer and hold less oxygen.

"Current is the key in summer because it creates oxygen," said Gaines, who usually finds the strongest currents around the mouths of tributaries, which also provide structure. "Take a chart and check just inside and outside the mouth of any tributary, looking for channel edges and other structure, such as wrecks, oyster bars, rockpiles and humps."

Gaines recommends fishing around channel markers just inside the mouth of a river or creek.

"They are usually placed right along the edge of a channel, or they mark the edge of an underwater point. That's exactly where you want your lure," he said. "They should be called 'fish here' signs."

Gaines also relies on his depthfinder to show him where in the water column there is some form of life. When he finds it, he knows he's found good water, and makes sure that his lures are working in that depth range.

While Gaines primarily fishes bays and rivers, his fundamentals for finding and catching fish during the summer are applicable to other inshore environments as well.

The mouths of ocean inlets are especially productive places to fish in summer, offering strong currents, cooler water and plenty of fish-holding structure. Sharp channel jetties and dropoffs near the entrance to the inlet will hold baitfish, which in turn will command the attention of a number of game fish species. When water is discolored inside the inlet, these outer areas are especially productive for sight-feeding species, such as flounder that will move to clearer water in order to find their prey.

Channels inside an inlet will provide the current and structure sought by game fish, and action can be particularly good around the rips formed where one channel meets another. These protected channels afford light-tackle anglers the opportunity to fish for flounder and other bottom fish without being weighted down by heavy sinkers.

Farther back in the inlets, red drum and speckled trout will feed in the marshes along the edges of grass lines. Fishing around the tides, light-tackle anglers casting small jigs and grubs can enjoy some of the finest laid-back fishing of the summer.

Light-tackle fishing can be as complex or as simple as you want to make it. But even if you don't hook up with a world-record fish, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better way to spend your time this summer.