Tree houses hold a special place in many of our summer memories. Trees can house many bass in the summer, as well, especially on clear lakes; but it’s less about imagined pirate lairs and secret handshakes and more about the habitat preferences found in deep wood.

Emergent, or fully submerged, summer bass favor flooded trees. Bassmaster Elite Series pro Brent Ehrler is partial to the deep trees found in highland reservoirs like those of the White River, where old cedars sport extensive limb structures. In any case, waterlogged wood offers luxury suite accommodations for bass.

“Fish really do key on submerged trees because they create everything they want — a lot of shade, a lot of cover,” Ehrler said. “It gives them an area where they can sit at whatever depth they want to be at on that piece of cover. They can be over 30-40 feet of water but only 5 feet deep.

“They can be in deep water really quickly, they can be in shallow water really quickly and there’s the whole food chain. You have the algae on the trees, you have the baitfish that eat the algae, and the bass eat those baitfish.”