Deep brush piles, suspended schools, and thermocline points – How to fish each one with Garmin’s latest technology
The water is warming. The shad are spawning. And somewhere in your favorite lake, bass are already starting their seasonal move towards their summer haunts. The ones that were crushing spinnerbaits in 3 feet of water last month are beginning to creep deeper. By July, they’ll be parked on brush piles in 20 feet, suspended over deep basins, and hugging the thermocline on main lake points.
The anglers who consistently put 20-pound bags in the boat during the hottest months are the ones who prepared for summer before the dog days arrived. They spent the late spring dialing in their electronics, building their waypoint libraries, and learning how deep bass behave before the pressure was on. The tools that make all of that possible are Garmin LiveScope, the new 360-degree sonar system, and the revolutionary motorized Spy Pole.
Before LiveScope, summer was the season of frustration. You’d see marks on 2D sonar – blobs that could be bass, carp, logs, or nothing at all. You’d drop a bait and hope. Most of the time, you were fishing blind. LiveScope changed that forever. Now you can see fish in real time – not as historical blobs, but as living, moving targets. You can watch a bass swim toward your bait, see it open its mouth, watch it turn away at the last second, and adjust your presentation instantly.
And now, with the new 360 sonar system and Spy Pole, you can do even more. You can see in every direction around the boat. You can control your LiveScope transducer completely independent of your trolling motor. You can lock onto a specific target and scan automatically. Summer bass fishing isn’t about luck anymore. It’s about efficiency, and the anglers who master these tools as the season transitions will be the ones holding up the big bags when the heat is on.
Deep Brush Piles: The Hidden Summer Haunts
All winter and spring, anglers sink brush piles – Christmas trees, bamboo, PVC structures, purpose-built fish attractors. By summer, most anglers have forgotten they exist. That’s your advantage. Bass stack on these man-made havens, using them as ambush points to pick off passing baitfish. A single brush pile might hold 10 to 15 bass. Sometimes only one – but she’ll be a giant.
Here’s where LiveScope and 360 sonar change everything. Instead of idling over a brush pile and hoping fish are home, you can use the 360 system to scan the entire area around your boat without moving an inch. You’ll see brush piles to your left, right, front, and back – spots you would have completely missed with traditional sonar.
The GT360UHD transducer gives you a bird’s-eye view of structure and fish in every direction. Once you’ve located a promising pile, switch to forward LiveScope. Scan from 30 to 40 feet away. You’ll see exactly how many bass are holding on that pile – distinct arches suspended just above the brush or tucked tight against it. More importantly, you can tell if they’re worth your time. Watch their orientation. Bass facing into current or toward the bait are actively feeding. Bass parked sideways or buried deep in the brush are inactive. Don’t waste casts on fish that won’t bite.
This is where the Spy Pole becomes a true game-changer for summer brush pile fishing. For years, anglers have dreamed of controlling their LiveScope transducer independently of their trolling motor. The Spy Pole makes that dream a reality. You can position your boat directly over a brush pile using Spot-Lock, then use the Spy Pole to scan around the pile without moving the boat. You can see fish holding 20 feet away from the pile, off to the side, behind it – places your trolling motor transducer would never reach.
And because you’re not bumping the brush pile with your motor, you’re not spooking the fish. Summer bass on deep structure are already finicky. The Spy Pole lets you scout them from a distance and make precise casts without ever getting close enough to shut them down.
Once you’ve confirmed active fish, switch to down mode on your LiveScope and make a long cast past the brush pile. Now the magic happens.
Watch your bait fall on the screen in real time. You’ll see a bass rise from the brush to investigate. You’ll see if it follows, if it turns away, or if it commits. Maybe it follows but won’t eat – so you speed up your retrieve. Maybe it turns away at the last second – so you kill the bait and let it hover. You’re not guessing anymore. You’re seeing exactly what the fish is doing and adjusting on the fly. That’s the LiveScope advantage. And when you do see that bass open its mouth and inhale your bait, you set the hook before you ever feel the bite. By the time you feel it, it might be too late.
Suspended Schools: The Open Water Puzzle
Throughout summer, bass suspend along creek channels or over deep basins, chasing schools of shad. This is one of the most frustrating patterns to fish without electronics – and one of the most rewarding with them. The bass are there. They’re feeding. But finding them and triggering them requires precision.
Without LiveScope, you’re looking at a 2D sonar blob – a massive cloud of bait with some fish arches mixed in. You know fish are somewhere in that mess, but you don’t know which ones are active, which direction they’re facing, or whether they’re feeding up or down. You drop a bait and hope it lands in the right spot. Most of the time, it doesn’t. The new 360 sonar helps you locate these schools faster than ever. With the Spy Pole in SpyScan mode, the transducer automatically sweeps back and forth across a wide area, covering water far faster than you could manually. When it finds fish, you get an alert. No more blind searching over empty water.
Once you’ve located a school, LiveScope takes over. In Perspective Mode or forward view, you can track individual fish within the school. Look for hovering arches that are separated from the main bait ball – those are active bass picking off stragglers. Watch their orientation. Bass facing up are feeding on bait above them. Bass facing down are hunting below. You can see which fish are worth casting to and which ones are just along for the ride.
Cast past the school and work your bait through their depth zone. Then watch the screen. You’ll see fish break from the school to chase your bait. That’s your cue. If they follow without eating, speed up your retrieve – sometimes a fleeing profile triggers a reaction strike. If they turn away, slow down and deadstick it. You’re not guessing. You’re seeing their reaction in real time and adjusting immediately. Suspended bass often have a strike zone of only a few feet. LiveScope lets you see exactly where that zone is, so you can keep your bait in it on every cast.
Main Lake Points and the Thermocline
Points extending into deep water are summer magnets. Bass stack on the break line where deep water meets shallow flats, often relating to the thermocline – the invisible layer where oxygen and temperature meet in that perfect sweet spot. The thermocline shows up on 2D sonar as a distinct line across the screen. Bass position themselves just above it, sometimes by only inches.
Here’s where traditional sonar falls short. You might see the thermocline. You might see fish arches on your screen. But you don’t know if those fish are on the bottom, suspended 5 feet up, or cruising along the break. You don’t know if they’re relating to a specific rock or just roaming. You drop a bait and hope it’s at the right depth. Most of the time, you’re fishing too high or too low by just a few feet – and those few feet make all the difference.
The 360 sonar system lets you scan the entire point without moving your boat. You can see the whole structure – the shallow flat, the break line, the deep drop-off – all on one screen. You’ll identify exactly where the fish are holding and at what depth, all before you ever drop a trolling motor.
Once you’ve located the active bass, LiveScope solves the depth problem completely. Use forward mode to pinpoint their exact position. Are they hugging bottom in 22 feet? Suspended at 18 feet right above the thermocline? Stacked like cordwood on a specific rock pile? You’ll see it all in real time. The Spy Pole gives you even more control. With SpyLock technology, you can lock your LiveScope transducer onto a specific target – a single stump, a particular rock, a bass you saw but couldn’t catch. Your sonar stays focused on that spot, even as wind and current try to push you off. You can fish other water, then return later and instantly find the exact same target.
Switch to down mode and watch your bait fall to that exact depth. A drop shot or Neko rig can be positioned perfectly in the strike zone. When a fish rises from the bottom or moves horizontally to intercept your bait, you’ll see it happen. Set the hook as soon as the fish commits – by the time you feel the bite, it might be too late. On summer points, bass often school by size, too. Use LiveScope to identify which part of the point holds the bigger fish. Larger arches mean larger bass. Don’t waste time culling small fish when you can see giants 50 yards down the point.
Living with LiveScope, 360 Sonar, and Spy Pole All Season
Once you’ve dialed in these patterns, the real key is efficiency. Summer days are long, but the active feeding windows can be short. These tools help you maximize every minute on the water by eliminating dead water and dead fish. Start each trip with your waypoint library – all those brush piles, points, and ledges you’ve marked. Use the 360 sonar to check them quickly from a distance. Don’t drop the trolling motor unless you see active fish. If a spot doesn’t show feeding arches within a few minutes of scanning, move on. There’s no prize for fishing empty water.
Justin Hamner, 2024 Bassmaster Classic champion and Garmin pro, put it simply: “Since the introduction of LiveScope, anglers have been dreaming of a way to control their LiveScope independently of their trolling motor. With Spy Pole, that’s now possible, and you can even control your LiveScope while in anchor lock – that’s a true game changer for the way I fish.”
When you do find active fish, slow down and work them thoroughly. Switch to down mode. Watch your bait fall. Adjust your presentation based on what you see. And when you catch one, don’t leave immediately. Watch the area on LiveScope. Bass often travel in pairs or small schools. The fish you just caught might be the smallest one. Stay put for 10 or 15 minutes and watch for other arches still holding tight to the cover. You might catch two or three more from the exact same spot. The Spy Pole’s ability to scan without disturbing the fish makes this even more effective – you can check the surrounding area for more fish without ever moving your boat.
Summer used to be the toughest season for bass anglers. The fish were deep, scattered, and picky. You’d spend hours grinding and come home with nothing to show for it. LiveScope changed all of that. The new 360 sonar and Spy Pole have taken it even further. Now you can see in every direction. You can control your sonar independently of your trolling motor. You can lock onto specific targets and scan automatically. The fish are down there – sometimes 25 feet deep, sometimes suspended at 15, sometimes buried in brush piles you’d never find without these tools. But they’re there. And now you have everything you need to find them, fool them, and bring them to the boat.
For more information on Garmin LiveScope, the new 360 sonar system, and the Spy Pole, visit garmin.com/marine.
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About Garmin International, Inc.
Garmin International, Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE: GRMN). Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in Switzerland, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Garmin, GPSMAP, ActiveCaptain and NMEA are registered trademarks, and Auto Guidance+, ClearVü, EmpirBus, Garmin Navionics+, Garmin Navionics Vision+, LiveScope, OneHelm, Panoptix and SideVü are trademarks of Garmin Ltd., or its subsidiaries.
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