Extreme Heat Arizona Fishing

[gavinfaulkner]

Hey all,

I have been fishing some local urban ponds lately. I have been fishing buzzbait, wacky rigs, texas rigs, carolina rigs, crankbaits, and jigs. honestly i have no clue what to do anymore. it’s 106 outside and these ponds are shallow. so anyone have advice on what to do? 

[Dorado]

I live in Phoenix and have tried to get the bass bite every summer and I just can’t figure it out. So, I catfish until mid-September. That’s when the top water and wake bite starts. October and November is generally awesome until mid-December. Good luck!

[WRB]

Fish at night when cools down to 100

Tom

[Caliyak]

Here is the California's Central Valley, we can get to 100' for 30 days straight. Not comparing it to AZ, no one can. ?

So, late evening, early morning and night fishing during the summer is the only way. get a good head lamp and enjoin fishing under the stars.

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

Down here in Yuma the fish are very catchable, but ya gotta put the work in.

 

Early am they are cruising the shallows and are willing to eat just about anything but the moment that the sun hits the water they are not tight to cover, they are back up in it.

 

I fish canals mainly, so parallel to bank casts are paramount. I cast parallel down stream and then allow the current to sweep my bait up under the cover lining the bank and then work bait back to me. This works great for wacky worms, ned, jigs. Up stream I cast as close to cover as I can and fish baits as close as I can, the current doesn't play along this way as well so several cast to cover the same distance are needed, I also must slow way down when fishing up stream as my bait is usually a foot or two outside of cover, the fish are often reluctant to come out and play so a little extra time and action are needed. If plastics are not working then I will present a jerkbait, crank or swimbait right along the edge of cover. I lose a lot of baits!

 

Fishing the opposite bank is much more difficult, current pulls bait out of strike zone pretty quickly so a lot of accurate casts with heavily weighted T-rig, swimmbait or jigs. I really have to pick the far bank apart, I like to hit the far side at about two foot interval one way and then hit it again in the other direction. And then switch up baits and do it again.

 

Bridges, tunnels, irrigation grates always hold fish, deep shade structure, current breaks. This is where I get a break and get my skip on, I can loosen up on casting accuracy. I get about 50-60% of my fish off of these features. Heavy jigs and swimbaits in the fast water and wacky/ned in the slack water.

 

No fish then I get some A/C as I drive to the next opening and do it all again.

 

Around dusk the bass come back out and unlike the morning they tend to stray further from cover and structure, topwater, wake baits, spinnerbaits are pretty effective as are jerkbaits. And that evening breeze, bliss!

 

Secret weapon: live shad. If all else fails I'll take a drive and net some shad. I present shad weightless in the same ways as above.

 

I feel ya on the heat and as we know here in AZ 106 is a cool day, Attitude and tenacity, sunscreen and WATER got to have all four or I'm in for a short trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WRB]

You can get out of the heat somewhat by going up to the Mogollon rim lakes. Today there is a major fire burning.

When I lived in Scottsdale going to ASU 106 wasn't uncommon during the summer at night

Tom

[schplurg]

100+F at night? My honest advice - move! 

 

My brother moved to Arizona a few years ago and encourages me to do so. The heat alone is enough for me to say no way. No job could pay me enough, no woman could be beautiful enough and no fish big enough.

[Way north bass guy]

42 minutes ago, schplurg said:

100+F at night? My honest advice - move! 

 

My brother moved to Arizona a few years ago and encourages me to do so. The heat alone is enough for me to say no way. No job could pay me enough, no woman could be beautiful enough and no fish big enough.

Man that’s the truth. It hardly ever gets that hot here during the day in the summer. Not sure if my northern blood could handle heat like that. 

[Tennessee Boy]

I went to Arizona in the Summer many years ago.  It was 112 degrees but with the low humidity it only felt like 105.

[Fishnski48]

I often hit the lakes at safe light and fish until about 10AM during June, July and August .  I've had some great mornings Ned rig fishing and then switching to creature bait Texas rigged.  It is just great to be out on the water.  Around 10 the pleasure boaters and Skidoo folks show up and it is time to leave.  I traded my Sea Ray 180 for a 10 ft TwinTroller,  Easier for me to launch and haul by myself, but i still get to enjoy a cigar and cast a line.  

I will take a ride up to the Rim to catch a couple of the lakes up there for Bass and Trout.

[zeth]

Go fish the Salt River and catch dinks, go fish the banks at Saguaro or Canyon

This is all assuming you are in Phoenix area. 

I've caught bass at all of these places mid day during the summer. 

Your best bet however will be morning or evening or even night.

[gavinfaulkner]

On 6/20/2020 at 2:02 PM, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

Down here in Yuma the fish are very catchable, but ya gotta put the work in.

 

Early am they are cruising the shallows and are willing to eat just about anything but the moment that the sun hits the water they are not tight to cover, they are back up in it.

 

I fish canals mainly, so parallel to bank casts are paramount. I cast parallel down stream and then allow the current to sweep my bait up under the cover lining the bank and then work bait back to me. This works great for wacky worms, ned, jigs. Up stream I cast as close to cover as I can and fish baits as close as I can, the current doesn't play along this way as well so several cast to cover the same distance are needed, I also must slow way down when fishing up stream as my bait is usually a foot or two outside of cover, the fish are often reluctant to come out and play so a little extra time and action are needed. If plastics are not working then I will present a jerkbait, crank or swimbait right along the edge of cover. I lose a lot of baits!

 

Fishing the opposite bank is much more difficult, current pulls bait out of strike zone pretty quickly so a lot of accurate casts with heavily weighted T-rig, swimmbait or jigs. I really have to pick the far bank apart, I like to hit the far side at about two foot interval one way and then hit it again in the other direction. And then switch up baits and do it again.

 

Bridges, tunnels, irrigation grates always hold fish, deep shade structure, current breaks. This is where I get a break and get my skip on, I can loosen up on casting accuracy. I get about 50-60% of my fish off of these features. Heavy jigs and swimbaits in the fast water and wacky/ned in the slack water.

 

No fish then I get some A/C as I drive to the next opening and do it all again.

 

Around dusk the bass come back out and unlike the morning they tend to stray further from cover and structure, topwater, wake baits, spinnerbaits are pretty effective as are jerkbaits. And that evening breeze, bliss!

 

Secret weapon: live shad. If all else fails I'll take a drive and net some shad. I present shad weightless in the same ways as above.

 

I feel ya on the heat and as we know here in AZ 106 is a cool day, Attitude and tenacity, sunscreen and WATER got to have all four or I'm in for a short trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i hear you brotha. it hit 116 a couple weeks back and i had to stop the fishing for a little.. they are only biting on small profile chartreuse and white baits. i will basically do anything to throw topwater. anything reaction strike based in in love with. i’m a high paced human being so i typically like to be moving frequently. so buzzbaits, poppers, spooks, frogs, etc. are my favorite. i had some guys talking about getting a nasty shad bronzeeye frog popper. for the shad bite going on. walk it and pop it slowly. i’ve been throwing flukes and we get bites but nothing big. i’ve been trying to get up to my cabin and fish up there. it’s 60s-70s right now and water temp is great for fishing. but for now i gotta deal with the pressures ponds near me. we just went through a storm so i am planning on fishing today. but it’s goin pretty slow as of fishing... and it’s not like there’s a bunch of cover that i can target. there’s little to no cover on those ponds. i’d be skipping jigs under it if so but i haven’t been able to.. thanks for the help guys. let me know what you think

On 6/30/2020 at 9:01 AM, Fishnski48 said:

I often hit the lakes at safe light and fish until about 10AM during June, July and August .  I've had some great mornings Ned rig fishing and then switching to creature bait Texas rigged.  It is just great to be out on the water.  Around 10 the pleasure boaters and Skidoo folks show up and it is time to leave.  I traded my Sea Ray 180 for a 10 ft TwinTroller,  Easier for me to launch and haul by myself, but i still get to enjoy a cigar and cast a line.  

I will take a ride up to the Rim to catch a couple of the lakes up there for Bass and Trout.

that’s awesome brotha. i love sea rays. we used to have a slx 270 a couple years back and sold it. we have a little fishing boat now but d**n do i miss that boat. i want to go up and fish lake powell a little too. one of my dream spots. but good luck out there!!! 

On 6/21/2020 at 5:04 PM, Way north bass guy said:

Man that’s the truth. It hardly ever gets that hot here during the day in the summer. Not sure if my northern blood could handle heat like that. 

haha. we hit 124 a couple years back and we hit 118 2 weeks ago. 110 and under is cool for me. but lately it’s been 108 with 30% humidity and oh lordy that suffers me. 

[islandbass]

On 6/21/2020 at 4:21 PM, schplurg said:

100+F at night? My honest advice - move! 

 

My brother moved to Arizona a few years ago and encourages me to do so. The heat alone is enough for me to say no way. No job could pay me enough, no woman could be beautiful enough and no fish big enough.

Now that’s funny but just about true for me too, with the exception of a woman because I’m already married. Got family encouraging me to join them in Tucson. I made the mistake of visiting my sister for the first time in July.

 

People don’t go out until about 9:30pm and it is still so hot. I also noticed that compared to Tucson, Phoenix was 10 degrees warmer. Dang!
 

Don’t know if I can give up the temperate evergreen state for desert and saguaro, lol. I also imagine there aren’t too many lakes in the Tucson area either.