Hot summer

It's above or near 100 so much this summer it has been almost impossible to fish. It's almost 80* at sun rise and above 90 before noon. Not much wind, which is unusual for Kansas, but the main thing is, IT'S TOO DARN HOT!!!!

Here in SC it is hot but not quite that hot. Our problem has been muddy water most weekends from rain. I will never understand how our parents and grandparents survived without AC.

I still fish in the heat but I stack the deck by fishing rivers where there are shoals that put 02 in the water. If I go to the local ponds, I just catch nothing but a heart break. Water is too hot and the poor fish are near suffication. I've never been to KS but I can imagine a river with shoals may be hard to come by.

Maybe night fishing?

Good luck!

Joe, I've noticed that the fish have all but completely shut off for me the last two weeks or so. I may try some night fishing for white bass along the dam at a reservoir here soon, but I think my fly fishing is done for awhile for the most part. July and August are just the pits.... :(

It's been that way here in Georgia for the last 6-8 weeks as well; just too hot to bother fishing. I did get lucky the other day and we had a very nice thunderstorm in the early afternoon which cooled things down quite a bit and gave a nice shot of fresh water to the lake I live on. It started out slow for the first 45 minutes or so, but then at 6 PM exactly it was like somone rang a dinner bell and the fish started hitting like crazy. I was using my 3 wt "bream" outfit, but it was mainly bass that were hitting, some pretty nice ones. I also caught some very nice blue gills and one Pumpkinseed that was so big that it was ugly. I only measured the Pumpkinseed with my outstretched fingers but it was between 12-13 inches long and loaded with eggs. It was really great to spend an evening in my kayak out on the lake and catching fish was just a nice bonus.

Jim Smith

In the really hot months, I restrict my fly fishing to very early or very late in the day. I switch to other tactics during the heat of the day. The fish are still there, and they will hit.

I know this is going to sound crazy, but I can fish this one farm pond every year during mid-day when the temperature is 100 degrees and catch bass right and left. It's amazing and the only fishery I have access to where I can do that. I wish I knew what made the pond different. It's not unusally deep or spring-fed but just seems to have active bass regardless of how hot it gets. For example, two weeks ago I fished it at 3 o'clock in the afternoon in 101 degree heat with a cloudless sky and caught twenty bass in the 10-13" range. Most of them were on a popper with a prince nymph dropper and twice I landed two bass on a single retrieve at the same time. I also caught several other bass a little deeper using a 1/64oz. jig head woolly bugger. I waded the pond in a swim suit which made fishing bearable but I wish I could duplicate that kind of success in other places during mid-summer. That same pond will consistently produce bigger bass in the 2, 3 & 4 pound range during the spring and fall. Can someone tell me what makes this pond click in the heat of summer? If I knew I'd write a book and be famous!

I went to Fish Cove at Cheney this morning about 07:30. It was very muddy, but i tried anyway. Grounded the skeg on my yak and had to push for several yards with my hands in a mud bank. I guess it was a bit skinny. No fish either. Some guys showed showed up with a throw net and got some little shad, but that was it. Then it got windy and I went home.

I feel your pain guy's. Here in south Texas drought and very high temp's has kept me from fishing for week's except on a few occasion's. Most people on the board talk about waiting out the winter to get out but I seem to always be waiting out the summer.

I went fishing Saturday evening, knew it would be challenging when first rowing my kayak across the pond, I could feel the heat coming off the water. I caught plenty of gills and crappie but no bass. I fished until 9:15pm and did'nt notice the normal bass activity I would see just after Dusk.

wayneb