We had a nasty heat wave that lasted from mid July until mid September.  It's still in the mid 90's.  But it's finally cooling off a bit.  As such, the bite has been shut down for almost two months straight.  Fishing has been tough.

 

Yesterday I caught one on my lunch break, which I fish every day and haven't had much luck during the heat wave, but a cold front had moved through and suppressed the temperatures and sun a bit.  Not only was this bass pretty skinny for it's length, but he didn't fight at all!  I thought I got a bite, set the hook, but then just kept reeling in what I assumed was a huge chunk of grass.  Nope.  It was a bass.  He just went limp and let me pull him in.  He didn't have the energy or desire to fight.  Poor guy.  But it's cooling off now, so maybe they'll have time to fatten up and the bite will pick back up.

 

 

We had a really prolonged heat wave without any rain or weather changes in the first half of summer last year (2021).  It resulted in the worst drought here since 1988.  Forest fires up north in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, burn bans all over, drier than a cork.  River levels were at an all time low.  The fishing was terrible.  Downright awful for almost 2 months.

 

When August hit, the weather pattern shifted and the bite immediately improved.  We get nasty humid hot days here in the summer, but rarely do they last more than a couple days at a time.  That first half of summer last year it lasted for such a long time here which is very unusual.

 

Its been very comfortable here since early August again this year and the fishing has been very consistent.  I haven't had a poor outing since July.  We could definitely use some rain here though.

59 minutes ago, gimruis said:

We had a really prolonged heat wave without any rain or weather changes in the first half of summer last year (2021).  It resulted in the worst drought here since 1988.  Forest fires up north in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, burn bans all over, drier than a cork.  River levels were at an all time low.  The fishing was terrible.  Downright awful for almost 2 months.

 

When August hit, the weather pattern shifted and the bite immediately improved.  We get nasty humid hot days here in the summer, but rarely do they last more than a couple days at a time.  That first half of summer last year it lasted for such a long time here which is very unusual.

 

Its been very comfortable here since early August again this year and the fishing has been very consistent.  I haven't had a poor outing since July.  We could definitely use some rain here though.

Yeah, my primary lake is about 10ft. below normal.  Another foot and the last boat ramp will get closed and the lake shut down (again).  We all need rain.  Though our west coast friends have it the worst right now.  

 

I'm betting that the bite will pick back up in a week or so.  I hope so for the health of the fish.  The only problem is, usually once it starts to cool off, the winds come back.  But adapting to conditions is what bass fishing is all about.  If fishing were easy every day, I'd have lost interest in it years ago.