Hi!

 

As I said in my first few posts, this is really my first year fishing. So....this is my first summer to fish through.

 

I fished from 1pm-4pm today in a local creek in lows 90s, sunny weather. Is this basically a bad idea all the time? If so, I'm assuming the recommendation to fish would be before 10am or after 5pm?

 

I used Zman fluke, Zman shadz, beetle spin, bisty minnow, Zman craw and trout magnet today. Only caught one longnose gar (that's a first...so that was an interesting unhooking adventure...) and a few bites after that. No more fish.

Personally, if I’m catching gar that typically means I won’t be catching bass. I’ve caught catfish and bream around them, but never bass.
 

Gar can get by with significantly less oxygen in the water than a bass can. They roll to supplement the water’s oxygen with air from what I’ve always been told.
 

I also feel like I see them the most active in hot, stagnant water which in theory isn’t the best conditions for bass fishing.

You are gonna get all kinds of different responses from people on this. A lot of guys will tell you to fish early, late and overnight avoiding the hot midday. Some guys will tell you don't believe it there is a bite midday even when it's super hot. Both camps are right. To me in summer when it's the hottest time of year like July and August I have my best luck from 6 a.m. Til 9 am and again from 7pm til dark. Night fishing can also be fantastic...but my local lakes are closed to fishing after 10 or 1030 so I don't have much to say about that.

Midday can be awful tough but you can still manage to scratch some fish. I throw a mojo or slip shot rig a lot with a small finesse worm and although it's not fast and furious it's consistent. The strange thing about it is it seems to work better the hotter it gets. Another way I've caught fish is to fish shade lines along shore with a frog or a popper. Fish tuck back into the shadows especially under over hanging trees but they won't pass up an easy meal.

I think two factors play into why guys aren't successful in summer. 1) Fish are postspawn so the bites aren't as plentiful as prespawn..they really seem to bulk up for the spawn plus the bite wanes some as it gets super hot and fish tend to conserve more...because of this guys get impatient and frustrated so they spin out

2) The weather affects more than just the bass. I know people have different levels of heat tolerance. I grew up in Texas so I'm tougher when it comes to heat than my girlfriend who has lived here in Iowa her entire life. But I dont care how tough you are being outside when it's 100+ with 80% humidity sucks. It can sap your energy pretty quick no matter how much water you drink.

You take the hot miserable weather and couple that with naturally slower fishing and a lot of guys are defeated before they even wet a line. If you go in with the mindset of I'm gonna be miserable and not even get a bite...well guess what will happen.

These are just my opinions based on my observations of fish and people behavior during hot weather over the past 20 years of bassin. 

 

 

 

What do you define as a creek? What species of bass do you catch?

Tom

Caught 23 this morning, between 6 -10:30 am on horny toads & a Jackall Gavacho at my 4' deep 88 degree beaver pond. Big fish was 3 lb 14 oz. Going tonight at 10 pm to a big deep clear lake that's 86 degrees. The daylight bite has really dropped off so I'm going nocturnal. If possible try different bodies of water at different times and you'll cross paths with feeding fish.

I dont fish creeks but fish small rivers . Summer is a great time to fish . Places to try are below and above ripples , deep holes and cover . Cast upstream when possible . I like spinnerbaits , poppers , buzzbaits , texas rigged craws , jig and craw and poor man Neds [half a stick worm on a jig head ] . I have found for smallmouths they like plastic craws , hula grubs , baby brush hogs,any plastic with tentacles .

Recently I’ve had better luck mid day at my local lake. I’m always on the water by at least 6am typically getting that topwater bite,, but lately the bite as come more mid day when they are tucked up in the shade under cover and just tossing the old wacky rig. Yesterday prime example. Both my son and I .. no bites til the sun got hot.. we worked opposite side of lake working multiple rigs.. met back up around 11:30.. no action..both switched up and just used wacky rig ..at this point was getting hot, we went back up side of lake he just worked and the bite was on for both of us right up against the bank .Some times that simple wacky rig just beats everything.. crawl bait this, fancy over priced jig that .. than u have this what probably is just this most annoying action of that simple wacky rigged worm bopping around them . They may not be hungry so they don’t want that crawl bait or the jig with that skirt and appendages hanging out the end. But the annoying thing ticks them off and they hit it. All water ways tell a different story while similar or oddly different.. this has been this lakes story lately. 

10 hours ago, bigbassin' said:

Personally, if I’m catching gar that typically means I won’t be catching bass. I’ve caught catfish and bream around them, but never bass.
 

Gar can get by with significantly less oxygen in the water than a bass can. They roll to supplement the water’s oxygen with air from what I’ve always been told.
 

I also feel like I see them the most active in hot, stagnant water which in theory isn’t the best conditions for bass fishing.

Yeah. I caught the gar in stagnant water. I immediately started fishing above and below the waterfall section after that. 

10 hours ago, WRB said:

What do you define as a creek? What species of bass do you catch?

Tom

This creek is about 20 yards wide in most places and 6”-5’ deep from what I can tell so far. Mostly smallmouth and rock bass so far. With some sunnies mixed in. 

1 hour ago, TcRoc said:

Recently I’ve had better luck mid day at my local lake. I’m always on the water by at least 6am typically getting that topwater bite,, but lately the bite as come more mid day when they are tucked up in the shade under cover and just tossing the old wacky rig. Yesterday prime example. Both my son and I .. no bites til the sun got hot.. we worked opposite side of lake working multiple rigs.. met back up around 11:30.. no action..both switched up and just used wacky rig ..at this point was getting hot, we went back up side of lake he just worked and the bite was on for both of us right up against the bank .Some times that simple wacky rig just beats everything.. crawl bait this, fancy over priced jig that .. than u have this what probably is just this most annoying action of that simple wacky rigged worm bopping around them . They may not be hungry so they don’t want that crawl bait or the jig with that skirt and appendages hanging out the end. But the annoying thing ticks them off and they hit it. All water ways tell a different story while similar or oddly different.. this has been this lakes story lately. 

Wacky rig is one I’m not familiar with. I’ll give it a shot! Can it be rigged weedless?

Where I fish, during the day the fishing is great between 11 am and 1 pm but falls off after that until 4 or 5 pm. The earliest I usually fish is around 7 am but really haven't had any luck. Plus, the humidity is unbearable in the summer mornings.

 

It's tough for me to get out on the banks earlier than that because it's dark out and we have to be wary of alligators. With that I prefer not to fish in the dark.

40 minutes ago, fixxer12 said:

Yeah. I caught the gar in stagnant water. I immediately started fishing above and below the waterfall section after that. 

This creek is about 20 yards wide in most places and 6”-5’ deep from what I can tell so far. Mostly smallmouth and rock bass so far. With some sunnies mixed in. 

Wacky rig is one I’m not familiar with. I’ll give it a shot! Can it be rigged weedless?

Yes.. many hooks available with weed guards.. thats usually how I fish it.

Other than good fishing early and late in the day you need to fish same areas a little deeper, drop offs, 8 yo 12 feet or fish marinas tire reefs and docks that provide shade 

 

Down size up catch!
most bass in any lake are under 2 pounds, especially spotted bass, 
and small is must less expensive!
Light line 4 to 8 lb test
Small lures 1/32 to 1/8 oz
Shad patterns
Grubs, 3 and 4 inch worms some weightless, sassy shad, Ned rigs, no. 7 rapala’s, small crankbaits and inline spinners, maribou jigs,