What would you do?

[-HAWK-]

Here is the scenario, I fish a lake (Lake Wellington) that I know has tons of bass, and some Big bass at that. But during the Summer I have very little luck enticing even a nibble. This lake is in South Florida, very thick grass, stained/ murky water, average water depths 8-9 feet with drop offs too about 30 feet, lots of docks, very little botom structure. Average water temps during the summer months is 88-89 degrees during the day, 85-87 at night. I have tried buzz baits in a variety of colors, trick worms, rattle traps, top water jitter bugs, t- rigged worms, live shiners, crank baits. Nothing works. Should i just give up until the water temps drop a bit or is there something else I can do? Sometimes fihing can really drive you crazy when you just cant figure them out. Just figured Id vent about it.

[family guy]

take a yama 8inch worm color 157,1/0 hook and a 1/8 bullshot 3-4 inchs up your line, cast. just leave it,every 1-2 mins just lift your rod tip.if you see/feel your line go "tick"" tick" set the hook! i have almost the type lake by me. just not as deep though.  you have "lazy" fish!

[roadwarrior]

Man, if you haven't caught bass on shiners, I don't have any suggestions.  

[-HAWK-]

Man, if you haven't caught bass on shiners, I don't have any suggestions.

I have tried wild and domestic, No luck during the Summer. In the Fall, Winter and Spring I can nail Big Largemouth and Peacock Bass all day. Do some bodies of water just turn off when the water gets close to 90 degrees?

[DADto4]

Do you have any creeks or other moving water that is near to home?In Indiana when the lake temps rise or the watersports come around, the only solitude we can find is in the creeks and rivers. Moving water stays cooler and you don't have many if any "leisure" boaters!

Just a thought

   -John

[JShrock07]

Man, if you haven't caught bass on shiners, I don't have any suggestions.

I fish a lake that is almost the same way. Different temp up here then in Fl but The way I started catching larger fish is by throwing a HUGE 12" red shad culprit worm, or a 12" purple culprit worm. I rig it weedless and let it slowly sink to the bottom and once it hits bottom (which it rarely does) just pull it VERY VERY SLOWLY. Bass that are larger will go after a larger profile bait (IMO) Some people do not agree but I think so. Try it don't give up after 30 mins take it out and try it all day long.

Let me know how well it works for you.

[-HAWK-]

Man, if you haven't caught bass on shiners, I don't have any suggestions.

I fish a lake that is almost the same way. Different temp up here then in Fl but The way I started catching larger fish is by throwing a HUGE 12" red shad culprit worm, or a 12" purple culprit worm. I rig it weedless and let it slowly sink to the bottom and once it hits bottom (which it rarely does) just pull it VERY VERY SLOWLY. Bass that are larger will go after a larger profile bait (IMO) Some people do not agree but I think so. Try it don't give up after 30 mins take it out and try it all day long.

Let me know how well it works for you.

I just started using 10 inch worms, around docks and cat tails. If I switch to the 12' inch should I focus on deeper water?

[Paul Roberts]

Curious:

Is what you are seeing in this particular water body unique in your area? If so, what is different, in appearance, about this water?

Here's some background on what high water temperatures can mean, what to look for, and/or why you MIGHT legitimately be beating a dead horse:

The "optimum" temperature for largemouth bass, determined in the laboratory, is around 82-83F. This is the temperature at which bass can convert food quickest into flesh, resulting in peak growth over time. Above this bass realize diminished returns and must decrease activity and/or find cooler water. These numbers are for northern largemouths. I'm not sure, off the top of my head, how high Florida largemouths can operate well at. Most likely they are metabolically efficient at somewhat higher temps.

But, there's a big BUT...

To realize this "optimum efficiency" bass must be eating an awful lot, otherwise they simply burn more calories than they can take in. It appears that few waters produce enough food to allow for this, especially in the north, so bass hunker down during hot spells, down-shifting into maintenance mode, or use deeper cooler water their preferred temperature for the existing feeding regime. Many, especially shallow bass, go nocturnal. Some waters, especially in the south, can produce enough food for bass to make use of such optimum water temps. This is primarily why southern (northern strain) bass grow bigger, and more of them, than do northern waters.

The take home message is: Such temperatures may be potentially optimum for growth, but they may never be realized in your chosen water body. So, it's not optimum for fishing. This may vary year to year with available prey (notably in the north), so it's not always an open and shut case. You can expect though, in many if not most waters, that bass fishing will slide as water temps get high certainly for horizontal presentations. Have you tried punching heavy jigs or plastics vertically into the densest cover? You tried shiners...so...unless you just haven't put them back under where the bass are, you might really be beating a dead (or torpid) horse. Next up is night fishing. Otherwise, find another horse to whip.

You could try fishing deeper, as you questioned. You are measuring very high surface temps, so you would probably need to go at least 10 feet or better to get an appreciable temp difference from the surface in mid-summer. If you are fishing deeper than say 15 feet in a fertile water, you'll want to be sure there is adequate oxygen down there. If the water body is exposed to wind, has good clarity, it most probably has oxygen in the depths. If it's sheltered from wind, has poor clarity, and you see much dead vegetation and algae, it may not have a good deeper fishery. Fish it at peaks times and see.

You could try very early morning, especially if there is good water clarity and the vegetation is healthy. In poorer water quality, oxygen may deplete overnight forcing the bass to hunker down by morning. I fish a shallow heavily vegetated pond with reasonable clarity (~3feet), that gets hot (mid 80s) and has an intense crack of dawn bite in mid-summer. This bite is really noteworthy. It probably fishes really well at night too, but I haven't tried it. I get myself to a prime spot at first light and bang a few before the sun hits the water and things fall silent. Then, unless I get a heck of a dark T-storm I've found I'm better off packing up and heading to a different water body.

Springs, if there are any, could be a really great find. I have several ponds I fish that receive ground water: One has a lot of it and it is actually 58F at the 10 foot bottom in mid-summer! The bass are excluded from much of it and are found under shoreline vegetation, where the slop bite is usually very good. You'd never know all those great offshore weedlines would be better suited to trout, if you didn't drop a thermometer down. Another pond is shallow and weedy and gets hot in mid-summer, shutting down the daylight bite during hot spells. But there is a small spring seep (I found while fishing in a float tube I could feel the cool water on my legs) that gives up big bass at mid-day.

Good luck in your efforts on this water. Let us know what you come up with. And don't beat yourself up: You may be beating a dead horse.

[DADto4]

WOW... what an educated answer.I love this forum 8-)

[snapper G]

Well i would try a floating frog, and if that didn't work, i would try live bait!

[-HAWK-]

Curious:

Is what you are seeing in this particular water body unique in your area? If so, what is different, in appearance, about this water?

Here's some background on what high water temperatures can mean, what to look for, and/or why you MIGHT legitimately be beating a dead horse:

The "optimum" temperature for largemouth bass, determined in the laboratory (repeatedly), is around 82-83F. This is the temperature at which bass can convert food quickest into flesh, resulting in peak growth over time. Above this bass realize diminished returns and must decrease activity and/or find cooler water. These numbers are for northern largemouths. I'm not sure, off the top of my head, how high Florida largemouths can operate well at. Most likely they are metabolically efficient at somewhat higher temps.

But, there's a big BUT...

To realize this "optimum efficiency" bass must be eating an awful lot, otherwise they simply burn more calories than they can take in. It appears that few waters produce enough food to allow for this, especially in the north, so bass hunker down during hot spells, down-shifting into maintenance mode, or use deeper cooler water their preferred temperature for the existing feeding regime. Many, especially shallow bass, go nocturnal. Some waters, especially in the south, can produce enough food for bass to make use of such optimum water temps. This is primarily why southern (northern strain) bass grow bigger, and more of them, than do northern waters.

The take home message is: Such temperatures may be potentially optimum for growth, but they may never be realized in your chosen water body. So, it's not optimum for fishing. This may vary year to year with available prey (notably in the north), so it's not always an open and shut case. You can expect though, in many if not most waters, that bass fishing will slide as water temps get high certainly for horizontal presentations. Have you tried punching heavy jigs or plastics vertically into the densest cover? You tried shiners...so...unless you just haven't put them back under where the bass are, you might really be beating a dead (or torpid) horse. Next up is night fishing. Otherwise, find another horse to whip.

You could try fishing deeper, as you questioned. You are measuring very high surface temps, so you would probably need to go at least 10 feet or better to get an appreciable temp difference from the surface in mid-summer. If you are fishing deeper than say 15 feet in a fertile water, you'll want to be sure there is adequate oxygen down there. If the water body is exposed to wind, has good clarity, it most probably has oxygen in the depths. If it's sheltered from wind, has poor clarity, and you see much dead vegetation and algae, it may not have a good deeper fishery. Fish it at peaks times and see.

You could try very early morning, especially if there is good water clarity and the vegetation is healthy. In poorer water quality, oxygen may deplete overnight forcing the bass to hunker down by morning. I fish a shallow heavily vegetated pond with reasonable clarity (~3feet), that gets hot (mid 80s) and has an intense crack of dawn bite in mid-summer. This bite is really noteworthy. It probably fishes really well at night too, but I haven't tried it. I get myself to a prime spot at first light and bang a few before the sun hits the water and things fall silent. Then, unless I get a heck of a dark T-storm I've found I'm better off packing up and heading to a different water body.

Springs, if there are any, could be a really great find. I have several ponds I fish that receive ground water: One has a lot of it and it is actually 58F at the 10 foot bottom in mid-summer! The bass are excluded from much of it and are found under shoreline vegetation, where the slop bite is usually very good. You'd never know all those great offshore weedlines would be better suited to trout, if you didn't drop a thermometer down. Another pond is shallow and weedy and gets hot in mid-summer, shutting down the daylight bite during hot spells. But there is a small spring seep (I found while fishing in a float tube I could feel the cool water on my legs) that gives up big bass at mid-day.

Good luck in your efforts on this water. Let us know what you come up with. And don't beat yourself up: You may be beating a dead horse.

Good info!! Thanks for the response.

[Paul Roberts]

I think the coverage surrounding the pro tour, held on top waters (often at at peak times), skews what average waters can really offer in terms of "good" fishing. I've heard of local tournaments with many boats that have weighed in NO fish on certain days, or that only took a few lbs to win. This is not JUST a matter of fishing skill, it's also a matter of fishery quality, which is a matter of water and habitat quality.

If you aren't catching, it may NOT be entirely your fault. If you really want a real challenge, try to figure out an unsung local water body, at all seasons. And don't use what you read in the magazines as the yardstick of success.

This is not to knock tournament fishing coverage, it's about proper perspective.

[Raul]

Well i would try a floating frog, and if that didn't work, i would try live bait!

Dude ...... PLEEZ !!!!:

I have tried buzz baits in a variety of colors, trick worms, rattle traps, top water jitter bugs, t- rigged worms, live shiners, crank baits.

:

[Paul Roberts]

So, Raul, our furthest man south,

What do your bass do in that sweltering heat? Do they seem to have adapted to such high temps? Do they seem to avoid them in any way? Do you fish any shallow waters that bass cannot escape hot water? I'm really curious. How do they cope?

Oh yes, do you have florida's, or northerns, or both?

[-HAWK-]

Update, I tried switching things up and fish a new body of water. I hit up a small private pond that normally produces big numbers. Nothing not even a bite. This is rough, I cant wait for things to cool down.