Best Time of Day?

[Wild One]

We have been having abnormally hot temperatures here for the past month or so and the lakes, ponds and rivers are pretty low and really warm. I spent a few hours last week from about 7 til 9ish in the evening at a pond I always catch fish at. Even at that time I only caught 2 decent gills and a smaller LMB and they all came within 10 minutes of each other just after 9 o'clock when the sun went behind the trees. Then it was like they all knew at the same time "Ok, dinner bell, lets eat!" They started taking bugs off the top and hit my buggers like they were starving to death.

Most people that I have talked to tell me that when it gets this hot it isn't even worth fishing during the day. My thought is, well the fish are still feeding--they're fish. You just have to get down to where they are. I read some articles in the Panfish archives yesterday and got the feeling that you can still catch warm water species fish in the heat of the day. In fact, several articles mentioned that you can find em with poppers and dries during the middle of the day. Well, I didn't see a single fish util the sun went down.

So, what are your mid summer fishing tactics? What time of day are you still catching fish?

[rrhyne56]

I believe that you are right, that it's a matter of getting down to where they are holding. That can involve sinking lines and counting as well as standing out in the sun getting hot Therefore I am wont to wait for sundown or sunrise and enjoy the easy fishing.

Heresy alert! An ultralight spinning rig (and I do mean ultralight) with some splitshot in front of a nymph can be easier to fish deep than a sinking line.

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[dryfly2010]

hey WO

my tactic if thats what you want to call them are fishing in the shade
if you bounce a popper off a tree into the shade then twitch it a little it usually entices the bass to strike
if not try something down deep with alot of weight and movement

best wishes
dryfly

[MikieFinn]

In my expirience the heat does not stop fish from feeding it changes their location only. For best success use Solunar tables (they work great for me) to decide on the time of day for fishing. The challenge is to find the fish. Shade and deeper water are good beginning but not a rule. My son in law pulled a 35 inch catfish form 1 1/2 ft of water at 90 degrees around 1:00 PM. The air temperature was about 98 and not a darn cloud in the sky.

[Wild One]

MF

Never heard of Solunar tables before but just looked at one on line. It was pretty cool. The one I viewed even gave their predictions & forecasts for the rest of the month of specific days and how well they thought the fishing would be. Do you figure these out on your own, or do you have another method?

[Jed]

Because Bass are sensitive to light I tend to avoid the brightest times of day. I tend to go out between 5 and 9 AM and have the best success during that time. I work the shaded areas with the most success.

jed

[MikieFinn]

No I read an article about this long long time ago. It was interesting so I tested it multiple times and it always worked. I have a calendar from primetimes2.com. And use it for a few years. As a matter of fact most of our weekends are scheduled aroud it.

You can get them foe free from in-fisherman website too.
I also know a hunter that swears by them.

[flyandtie]

EARLY in the morning or LATE at night for me.

also i actually have had wierd success with solunar tables,,,they seem to always work for me.

[Brown_Trout]

evening

[Big Bad Wulff]

Our pond fish seem to like to hit around lunch time. That sure is convenient for me