6 minutes ago, SJS said:

I don't follow tournament fishing, do they still hold pro tourneys in the deep south in this kind of weather?

The top circuits generally don't. They usually do their first half events down south starting in February/March and then by July they are doing their "northern swing" for smallmouth.

I imagine there are still amateur events in the south all summer though.

5 hours ago, SJS said:

I don't follow tournament fishing, do they still hold pro tourneys in the deep south in this kind of weather?

BASS did twice in 2024 in Alabama and this year in NC. BPT was recently in Oklahoma, not sure how hot it was tho

I also saw a clip from NPFL recently where a guy got so dehydrated he started chugging mustard while saying “I hate mustard too.” He said it easy the cramps in his hands immediately, I had never heard of such

"BASS did twice in 2024 in Alabama and this year in NC. BPT was recently in Oklahoma, not sure how hot it was tho"

Any idea of how the total aggregate poundage compared to cooler months? I am wondering if the pros keep on chugging regardless, or if they are as affected by bad heat as mere mortals.

30 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

BASS did twice in 2024 in Alabama and this year in NC. BPT was recently in Oklahoma, not sure how hot it was tho

I also saw a clip from NPFL recently where a guy got so dehydrated he started chugging mustard while saying “I hate mustard too.” He said it easy the cramps in his hands immediately, I had never heard of such

Lifetime southerner and never once heard of that. Pretty strange idea 🤣. We usually do half strength Gatorade.

5 hours ago, SJS said:

"BASS did twice in 2024 in Alabama and this year in NC. BPT was recently in Oklahoma, not sure how hot it was tho"

Any idea of how the total aggregate poundage compared to cooler months? I am wondering if the pros keep on chugging regardless, or if they are as affected by bad heat as mere mortals.

They caught monsters in NC, I think it depends more on the body of water than the weather. They could fish guntersville tomorrow and catch huge weight and fish smith the next day with the same weather and weights would be way down, some places just have bigger bass. On the flip side, they fished guntersville in February this year and every cove was frozen over during practice, weights were still big. I would say they are affected by heat and cold but absolutely keep on chugging regardless, just like us mortals have to keep chugging working on a roof all day in July

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I would say they are affected by heat and cold but absolutely keep on chugging regardless, just like us mortals have to keep chugging working on a roof all day in July

There goes my excuse for the last several days.

Around here we usually switch to night tournaments around the first of June into September.

The US Open used to be held in July, if anyone wants to imagine fishing a 3 day tournament in Las Vegas in July🥵 . Those were the Ironman days!!

21 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Having had chemo and immunotherapy, I'm in the same boat. Currently I'm in a holding pattern - regular CT/PET/MRI scans to make sure things aren't taking off again - but the treatments i went through did do a number on my ability to withstand heat.

Hang in their my friend.

I enjoy the banter.

A-Jay

On 7/2/2026 at 7:23 AM, the reel ess said:

Understand that the first day of hot temps hasn't turned the water to bath temps yet. That takes a couple days.

That is spot on. I saw so many posts on social media the DAY the heat hit with bass fisherman asking how to find fish in this heat. Dude, the water temps here were still 76 degrees. The water didn't hit 90 overnight. But they are going up. The closes nuke lake went up 6 degrees in 8 days.

4 minutes ago, BigAngus752 said:

That is spot on. I saw so many posts on social media the DAY the heat hit with bass fisherman asking how to find fish in this heat. Dude, the water temps here were still 76 degrees. The water didn't hit 90 overnight. But they are going up. The closes nuke lake went up 6 degrees in 8 days.

Also don't forget that water doesn't heat up evenly. The readings you're taking are at the surface while temps at 5', 10' or lower will be less...sometimes upwards of 5-10 or more degrees lower than what your graph is showing you. Deeper basins it might still be only 50-55 at the bottom while the surface is showing 80-85

6 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Also don't forget that water doesn't heat up evenly. The readings you're taking are at the surface while temps at 5', 10' or lower will be less...sometimes upwards of 5-10 or more degrees lower than what your graph is showing you. Deeper basins it might still be only 50-55 at the bottom while the surface is showing 80-85

Absolutely. That's an excellent point which, I feel, leads to a completely different discussion starter. Such a good point that I will create a separate post for it.