Fish Like a GIRL

The answer is yes. It is too hot for me to fish. However, fortunately for me, I have a tournament schedule that makes me get out on the water, no matter how hot it is. I say fortunately for me because, let us just be honest: the summer season is altogether too short anyway. And if a person does not fish when it is hot, does not fish when it is raining, does not fish on Thursday, does not fish during a full moon… honestly, there are a host of times when a person could say the conditions are not perfect, so they are not going out. That is one of the things I love about tournament fishing, and it is something my late husband Rod used to say all the time:

“If you show up at the ramp with a positive attitude despite whatever the weather may decide to try to pull against you, you have already beat half of the field.” He was not wrong. I see it a lot, though. Guys show up to fish mad because it is raining or looking forward to being miserable later when it hits 85 degrees with high humidity. 

For me, I am happy to be out on the water. With as busy as life can be sometimes, it would be easy to not spend that day on the water, but that is one of the cool things about tournaments. I am not going to not show up on tournament morning, and I am not going to give the day anything less than 100%.

That said, I am truly not one who enjoys hot weather. I blame my Finnish blood. I have never been one to love the heat, and I seem to get less tolerant as the years go on.

But now, on to the question of whether it is “too hot” to fish. There is certainly a concern for bigger fish. I know several guides who do not guide for muskies during the midday especially when the weather is as hot as it has been as of late. Those big fish, even when they are released “healthy,” do have a chance of not making it long past the fight to the boat. That is simply a fact of life, and something I feel anglers should take into consideration. There has even been a push of late to not put a heavy fight on with a northern pike that plays that fish completely out, can have an adverse effect. I could say the same thing with bass, especially those that are caught out of deep water by someone who does not understand how to treat a fish in such a way that they are able to go back to the depth of water from which they came, likely by “fizzing” that fish. There are certain things about which an angler needs to think when fishing in warmer water.

With that said, people often ask me what baits to use or where to fish at certain times of the year. So I thought, why not talk about warm weather fishing. Obviously, not all fish thrive in hot water temperatures. Cooler water has more dissolved oxygen. Fish need oxygen, just like humans do. 

That said, looking for those areas where there is more dissolved oxygen can help put more fish in the boat. Deeper water, or even water that is shaded, then, are good areas to target.

Docks

One place where there is obvious shade is under docks, as well as any boats that may be at those docks. Swim platforms, too, are good places to target. With that said, not all docks and swim platforms are created equal. When fishing docks, for instance, it is a good idea to understand what is around the dock, how deep the water is, and what other factors may have fish holding on that particular dock.

Docks that are close to deeper water often produce better than docks that are on big, shallow flats. The proximity to deep water means there is another place a fish can go to find a reprieve from the heat, and to find more comfortable conditions as well as a better shot at food.

Docks around vegetation, too, can be more productive. 

Vegetation

As I said, vegetation creates oxygen. But it also creates shade. 

Also, as with docks, not all vegetation is the same. Floating vegetation will have areas under water where fish can hang out, waiting for a meal to swim by, or just rest until evening, night, or early morning brings cooler conditions. 

When fishing vegetation, the angle of the sun is also important. If sun is in a place the means the vegetation is casting a shadow on the outside edge, for example, that may be where the fish are holding.

Some vegetation, too, is too thick to hold a lot of fish. Fish like to sit in empty pockets within vegetation, or on the outside or inside edges, where there is a pocket — where the weed bed dents in a bit. These outside edge pockets do not have to be big to allow for a big fish to sit there waiting for an easy meal.

Offshore stuff

“Offshore stuff” is an oft heard expression when a tournament angler asks another what they were fishing or where they caught them during the day. “Offshore stuff,” can be a lot of things, and all of those things can hold fish at any given time. 

At times this could mean cribs or other human-made structures in the water. At other times, it may be wood or other natural cover that is out deeper than a person may see by just driving by in the boat. At still other times, this may mean rocky points that stick out and fall off into deeper water.

When water temperatures rise, fish tend to go deeper, as I said. One of the keys to finding fish in water that is a bit deeper than many people will fish will be finding that “stuff” that is offshore to which fish will relate. 

The good news is, once I find to what fish are relating off shore, the odds of replicating that in other places around the lake are high. 

Current

If I am fishing a system with current in the hot weather, I will always try to find the current in that system. There may be times in some systems where the dams are closed and the current just is not flowing. But at other times, current is easier to find. Moving water will be cooler than the water surrounding it. It will also hold more oxygen. As I said, both of these things are good for fish.

The thing with current, though, is that it takes a lot for a fish to be in the current, fighting against it. A fish would expend far too much energy trying to stay in the current waiting for a meal to float by.

When I am fishing current, I look for eddies, or places where the water swirls. It may swirl around a rock or a fallen tree or log. What happens is the water comes by a rock, for instance, and it swirls around behind that rock. The water behind the rock is slack, or somewhat stagnant. A fish does not expend much energy holding there, but bait fish can be pushed around behind that rock with the water. 

“Hey! There’s some food!,” I imagine a fish saying. It may be that the bait fishes’ food, phytoplankton, is being pushed around the rock and the bait fish follow that. It is also common to see crayfish float by and wind up in those eddies as well. Fish in many systems in the Northwoods find crayfish as their primary food source. 

People seem to think fish such as bass are always after bait fish. But I can say, as a tournament angler, it is much, much more common to find crayfish or crayfish pieces in the bottom of the live well at the end of the day than it is to find bait fish or pieces of bait fish. For that reason, I tend to follow crayfish when looking for fish. They can be found in moving water, often literally going along with the flow.

When temperatures rise and the water warms, these are four good places to look for fish. Anglers should remember the exact circumstances and how the area set up, including depth of water, bottom contour and what other structure or cover is nearby. Once an angler finds fish in one place, it is likely that the same thing can be replicated in other places around the lake. When the weather gets hot, as it has here lately, it does not mean the fishing cools off. Those who know where to look will still be able to boat good fish all summer long.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].