Southern vs Northern Fishing

[Koz]

I haven't fished much in the past month because the fishing has been just lousy. Water temperatures were 90 degrees and even the local fishing guides were lamenting how poor the bass and striper fishing was. Then I come here on Bass Resource and see mostly northerners posting about all of the great summer fishing going on and frankly, I got a bit jealous.

 

But then I remembered - come December my lures won't bounce.

[A-Jay]

2 minutes ago, Koz said:

I haven't fished much in the past month because the fishing has been just lousy. Water temperatures were 90 degrees and even the local fishing guides were lamenting how poor the bass and striper fishing was. Then I come here on Bass Resource and see mostly northerners posting about all of the great summer fishing going on and frankly, I got a bit jealous.

 

But then I remembered - come December my lures won't bounce.

Perhaps you don't fish while it's too hot

and we can't cast when it's hard water.

Decent aspect of it is that there's a bit of a pay off at the end for us both.

Mine comes in the form of a few of these . . . . 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

[Functional]

I feel the fish are more active up north and easier to catch through the summer than the south. The south I get to fish year round though, may be tough in 90deg water temps but you can still coax some bites. Unless you are fine with sitting on a giant ice cube up north that isnt happening in the winter though.

 

Both have their strong points. Coming from 30 years up north to my 3 years down here...i find it much harder to fish in the south.

[TnRiver46]

Big smallmouth have been biting pretty good for us lately in East TN summer hot weather. I’ve only been home a week and seen 4 of them over 17” hit the deck and one 21” 5 lber. 
 

I was up north the first week of sept and fish were biting up there, although I didn’t have a boat so I was limited. 
 

There are 3 main differences I notice from north to south, although I’m sure this varies depending on where you travel.
 

The first difference is water depth.

There are miles and miles of shallow weedy waters up north. I’m used to 20+ feet of water right next to the bank and that’s rare where I’ve traveled. Granted, I’m sure it exists in steeper mountainous areas but when I go up north I see a lot of lily pads, reeds, and sand.

The second difference is wind.

Now this is widely variable by region but the wind seems to blow way more often and way faster up north. I imagine there are several days you literally just can’t go fishing due to waves. Now I have experienced some places down south where the wind makes some big waves like pickwick and Guntersville but for the most part you can find coves and creek arms and still go fishing somehow. 
 

The third thing I notice is a lot of northern anglers don’t care one bit about bass fishing. Most anglers are after salmon, walleye, perch, or trout.  This creates a wonderful side effect of bass that don’t get pounded to death with lures all the time. 

[gim]

17 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

The third thing I notice is a lot of northern anglers don’t care one bit about bass fishing. Most anglers are after salmon, walleye, perch, or trout.  This creates a wonderful side effect of bass that don’t get pounded to death with lures all the time. 

 

Pretty much everything you said in your post was true.  I will personally tell you that here in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and both Dakotas, bass are clearly not the top target.  In fact, they aren't even in the top 3.  Walleyes, panfish (crappies, sunfish, perch), and probably trout are the top 3 targeted species here.  The reason is that most anglers after those species are in it to harvest them and eat them.  Very few people eat bass here when you have those other coldwater species available that taste a lot better.

 

We had a blistering hot and dry summer here.  In fact, we have the worst drought since 1988 going on.  It has relented some lately, but it will take a while to get out of it.  When it was so hot and dry and miserable for weeks on end in June and July, I did very little fishing.  Mostly because I can't stand it out there but also because the fishing was poor.  I admire you southern guys for fishing in that swampy, hot weather for months on end.  There's no way I could do it.

 

We may have 5 months of "winter" here but there's no hurricanes coming our way either.  I'll survive a blizzard or a week of subzero temps.  My house may not be left standing after a category 4 hurricane comes through though.

[DitchPanda]

The fish just started biting here the last week. Our water temps never get that high here...maybe mid 80s...but the fishing still sucks when its like that. We had a very hot summer this year...we had July temps starting in June lasting until labor day with very few relief days.

[WRB]

The water column isn’t 90 degrees, too hot to hold dissolved oxygen levels without green plants and wind to generate it.

The bass are simply deeper cooler water or in very heavy cover then you are fishing.

Night fishing is your highest percent time during the warm water summer period. 

The biggest difference is the bass species, NLMB are more aggressive then FLMB but FLMB get a lot bigger. Both Spotted and Smallmouth bass roam more then LMB that tend to stay in one area.

Go night fishing.

Tom

[gim]

14 minutes ago, WRB said:

Go night fishing.

I didn't do it this season but last year I went 3 times at night and they were all very productive.

[king fisher]

Bass fishing south of the boarder is good all year.  My favorite lake's surface temperature peaks around 80 degrees in late Sept. and gets down to 66 degrees in early Jan.  Most of the time it is between 70 and 80.

      July is my favorite month because the water is low concentrating the fish.  August thru October is the rainy season, and the bass are in flooded shallow cover.  Buzz baits and frogs all day.  Problem is the bass are spread out, only catch one here and there.  No bad time to fish here. 

      

[Catt]

Dog Days of Summer ?

 

 

[Koz]

2 hours ago, WRB said:

The water column isn’t 90 degrees, too hot to hold dissolved oxygen levels without green plants and wind to generate it.

The bass are simply deeper cooler water or in very heavy cover then you are fishing.

Night fishing is your highest percent time during the warm water summer period. 

The biggest difference is the bass species, NLMB are more aggressive then FLMN but FLMB get a lot bigger. Both Spotted and Smallmouth bass roam more then LMB that tend to stay in one area.

Go night fishing.

Tom

Yes - I understand that my transducer reading is only the temperature at that shallow depth, but it is relative to the depths throughout the lake. In the part of the 29 mile long lake that I fish, there is very little cover other than docks. There's no aquatic grass along the shore, no lily pads, and almost no aquatic vegetation. It's also relatively shallow (3-20 feet deep), compared to other areas of the lake with depths approaching 100 feet and areas with more drop offs and depth changes. Nighttime fishing didn't offer any better results.

 

That being said, when the guides that make their living from finding the fish aren't locating or catching the LMB and stripers you know it's tough out there. The good news is daytime temps have been in the mid to low 80's and we've had a week plus of nighttime temperatures in the 60's Next week the nighttime temperatures will be on the 50's. According to the guides, my area of the lake should become more active again soon.

[WRB]

NLMB require dissolved oxygen no less then 3 mg/L, no greater then 12 mg/L. 

90 degree water can not hold 3 mg/L of DO. This is why bass die in livewells, water is to warm and DO levels too low.

Your bass are deeper near a thermocline or they moved to find water and prey that will sustain them.

Wind, rain or vegetation supplies DO to 90 degree water.

Docks provide shade, only green plants create DO during daylight. 

Your sonar can display a thermocline and baitfish, the bass will be close by.

Most guides are live bait anglers to satisfy their clients. Hard long day on the water doesn’t pay. Summer dog days are real.

Fast cool down can also create the lake to turn over, Dead Sea for a few weeks.

Good luck.

Tom

[TOXIC]

That’s why I have a trailer hitch!?. Have boat will travel.  Florida in February, Michigan in March and Wisconsin in August.  Luckily here in Virginia we can get out of the really bad heat in some of our rivers that keep the water a little cooler and the oxygen levels up.  

[soflabasser]

In my experience I found northern bass fishing to be much easier than bass fishing in South Florida. Florida strain largemouth bass are known for being harder to catch when compared to Northern strain largemouth bass. 

[papajoe222]

28 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

In my experience I found northern bass fishing to be much easier than bass fishing in South Florida. Florida strain largemouth bass are known for being harder to catch when compared to Northern strain largemouth bass. 

I've found this to be true also, especially when targeting largemouth.  The southern strain, IMO, are much more difficult to catch under post front conditions. Smallmouth are also, but not as much as the largemouth.  However, both are easier to catch when the water up here gets hard. We did have a January a few years back when the fishing was awesome, but two weeks later and we were back to watching videos of guys catching hawgs down south.

[soflabasser]

1 hour ago, papajoe222 said:

I've found this to be true also, especially when targeting largemouth.  The southern strain, IMO, are much more difficult to catch under post front conditions. Smallmouth are also, but not as much as the largemouth.  However, both are easier to catch when the water up here gets hard. We did have a January a few years back when the fishing was awesome, but two weeks later and we were back to watching videos of guys catching hawgs down south.

Fishing during and after cold fronts in Florida can be challenging that is for sure. Bass still have to eat so you can catch them. Slower techniques work well during this time. January is a great month to fish for bass in Florida.

[Bluebasser86]

My baits don't bounce in the winter, just have to be willing to deal with the cold. 

[Tatsu Dave]

Here in the north I fish spring to Sept. and then transition to hunting Oct. and Nov. Then enjoy a white Christmas till hard water hits, used to commerical smelt on the ice thru winter because the money was too good to pass up. Spring starts off with bass spawn and away we go. Used to live in mid atlantic state and have to say didn't like it near as much. 

[Captain Phil]

Summer bass fishing in Florida can be tough.  It's not the fish that are to blame, it's just too hot to be comfortable.  When I was younger, I could sit outside all day in 95 degree weather.  Now, the heat tires out me.    The water this summer has been consistently in the high eighties and low nineties.  There is little deep water and practically no offshore structure. Despite this, I have been catching at least one nice bass on each trip.   It's all about reaction strikes.  In the summer our fish are inactive much of the day, so you have to fish within inches of them or they won't bite.  Night fishing is great if you don't mind missing sleep and fighting mosquitoes.  I have fished in Canada and Lake Erie in summer and fishing is much better.  If you want to take a bass fishing vacation in Florida, don't come in the summer.

[FishinBuck07]

Well I don't know who these guys are or where they are fishing in the north that it is so great in the summer, but I would like to find out.  Oh yeah I live in Ohio where most of the bass fishing sucks!  haha

[soflabasser]

1 hour ago, Captain Phil said:

Summer bass fishing in Florida can be tough.  It's not the fish that are to blame, it's just too hot to be comfortable.  When I was younger, I could sit outside all day in 95 degree weather.  Now, the heat tires out me.    The water this summer has been consistently in the high eighties and low nineties.  There is little deep water and practically no offshore structure. Despite this, I have been catching at least one nice bass on each trip.   It's all about reaction strikes.  In the summer our fish are inactive much of the day, so you have to fish within inches of them or they won't bite.  Night fishing is great if you don't mind missing sleep and fighting mosquitoes.  I have fished in Canada and Lake Erie in summer and fishing is much better.  If you want to take a bass fishing vacation in Florida, don't come in the summer.

Well said @Captain Phil. Summer fishing can be hard as well since the temperature is often +90 degrees with +85% humidity with real feel temperatures of over 100 degrees. Like you I do well with reaction techniques in the Summer. Fishing in and around heavy aquatic vegetation is also productive. Any person that can do well in the Summer from public lands in South Florida will find northern bass fishing much easier. That is why it is best for Northerners to come to Florida during the Fall to early Spring when bass fishing is the easiest.

[Tatsu Dave]

1 hour ago, FishinBuck07 said:

Well I don't know who these guys are or where they are fishing in the north that it is so great in the summer, but I would like to find out.  Oh yeah I live in Ohio where most of the bass fishing sucks!  haha

Well I'm one for sure, should have been with me yesterday........only sucking sound I heard was bass sucking in my stickbaits ? It won't get any better than right now.   Dave

[FishinBuck07]

55 minutes ago, Tatsu Dave said:

Well I'm one for sure, should have been with me yesterday........only sucking sound I heard was bass sucking in my stickbaits ? It won't get any better than right now.   Dave

Well I am without boat at the moment so not happening for me?

[Catt]

While most Southerners dislike like the Dog Days of Summer I love it.

 

In my little peabrain they're more predictable because the weather trends are mostly stable for longer periods of time.

 

With water temperatures higher they're metabolism is higher so the feed more often. Timing is extremely critical during hot weather & hot water temperatures.

 

I deal with the triple digits heat indexes by turning off the heat source.. I go nocturnal!

 

[BassNJake]

After living near Lake Erie for 35 years and living in East TN for 10

I would much rather deal with summer in the south.

 

Heck, I think it was more humid during the summers in Ohio than here

I hated the days where its 92 during the day and 84 at night

 

Maybe because I live on the backside of a ridge but there is always at least a 20 degree difference in night and day temps