Fishing the heatwave

[kb55]

How would you fish the heatwave?  Would you go out at the end of the day as the air temps slowly drop and the sun sets, or go in the morning before the heat of the day?

[Grey Wolf]

Get out there before the sun comes up.  JMHO

[NateFollmer]

Anytime!

Morning and late evening: Topwater (you could try this all day depending on cloud cover and temp).

Extreme heat and cloudless skies (even after a front): Slow and small. You don't HAVE to fish deep, but it's a good chance the big ones will be deep. If you stay shallow (3 to 8 ft) look for grass. Wacky rigging over grass is killer in the heat, so is pulling t-rigs though (although your going to pull up a lot of salad. Just keep bringing it in and re casting). Sometimes if you give it a quick jerk, you can pull the salad off and keep fishing. The small profile of smaller baits tends to go weedless better than big bulky baits.

If the water temps are dropping after extreme heat, I like to clip the tops of grass with a floating crank. Once you feel the grass, stop cranking and let it float up, then repeat.

[bilgerat]

On the water an hour before sundown and fish on into the night. That's been my thing for several weeks now and it's been working out good for me.

Internally weighted tubes worked sloooooooow across the bottom has been my ticket. Jigs are another option also.

[Nitrofreak]

Anytime!

Morning and late evening: Topwater (you could try this all day depending on cloud cover and temp).

Extreme heat and cloudless skies (even after a front): Slow and small. You don't HAVE to fish deep, but it's a good chance the big ones will be deep. If you stay shallow (3 to 8 ft) look for grass. Wacky rigging over grass is killer in the heat, so is pulling t-rigs though (although your going to pull up a lot of salad. Just keep bringing it in and re casting). Sometimes if you give it a quick jerk, you can pull the salad off and keep fishing. The small profile of smaller baits tends to go weedless better than big bulky baits.

If the water temps are dropping after extreme heat, I like to clip the tops of grass with a floating crank. Once you feel the grass, stop cranking and let it float up, then repeat.

Good post!!

Me personally, I love the mornings and the evenings, Either one will do but if I get a chance to be on the water I am there ALL DAY LONG and I usually pay for it too with a sun burn or something. ;D

[roadwarrior]

Yesterday I caught two monster bass on consecutive

casts during the hottest part of the day, between 1:30

and 2 o'clock. 3/8 oz GMAN jig (black)/ Rage Tail Baby

Craw (blue).

8-)

[brushhoggin]

Water temps here have been upper 80's this past weekend and i've done really well with just a white spro in the pads from 530 till about 1030, then they just hit the off switch and you gotta move away from the bank and fish ledges. I mentioned in another thread about the possibility of shad not being big enough from spawn to excite schools of bass, and i know different lakes all over are in different stages, but could this partly explain the stalemate fishing in some areas? :-?

RW, how deep were u fishin?

[kb55]

Well I guess Im just going to have go when I can, and try again.

Thanks for the replies, and other helping tips?

[CAdeltaLipRipper]

last summer we had a heat wave come in.High was 105. Me and my dad went late in the afternoon at 5 to new melones and the water was all churned up from all the wake board boats etc. Fished a stretch that was all muddied up caught a few dinks at first throwing red eye shads. Then it was freakin on. In about 15 or 20 min we caught 11 good 2 to 2 and half pounders on that stretch alone, having several come off. We actualy caught a good number of largmouths,which was pretty cool because sometimes all u can catch out of there is spots. After that, we buzzed all around, actualy caught some on topwater. Stayed till 9 and just caught a bunch on roboworms.  ;D so going late in the day on heatwave days can have GREAT results

[Fat-G]

Yesterday I caught two monster bass on consecutive

casts during the hottest part of the day, between 1:30

and 2 o'clock. 3/8 oz GMAN jig (black)/ Rage Tail Baby

Craw (blue).

8-)

I've caught big ones in the middle of the day two. I like bright colored plastics, specifically Smoke/Red Flake Senkos. Deadsticking.

[iceintheveins]

I go out and fish from about 5:00 am till about noon. It's already close to 100 around 11:00 am here in Western Colorado. They feed pretty good in the mornings.

[kb55]

Well I went out this morning from 6am to noon, marked allot on the ft, but didn't catch much.  Picked a few small bass up, but no luck on the bigger ones.

I marked the larger fish just below the thermocline, at approximately 17 feet.  Lots of smaller fish above the thermo.

I mostly threw crankbaits, and wacky style worms.

[Jigfishn10]

I'd rather go out at night, but these days it's anytime I can get out.

Jigs and spinnerbaits haven't been working for me lately, but I am getting decent numbers by walking the dog.

[Raul]

The "heatwave" in my neck of the woods begins around mid February and ends around mid November, most of the 10+ pounders I 've caught throughout the years have been caught between 1 - 5 PM under clear blue skies, scorching heat ( 100+ ) and under the blazing sun.

So I 'm used to fish in very warm weather, and actually care less about the fish than I care about my comfort, seen the film Lawrence of Arabia ? that 's pretty much how I dress for fishing.

[brushhoggin]

The "heatwave" in my neck of the woods begins around mid February and ends around mid November, most of the 10+ pounders I 've caught throughout the years have been caught between 1 - 5 PM under clear blue skies, scorching heat ( 100+ ) and under the blazing sun.

So I 'm used to fish in very warm weather, and actually care less about the fish than I care about my comfort, seen the film Lawrence of Arabia ? that 's pretty much how I dress for fishing.

Raul how deep were you fishing?

[Team9nine]

By and large I really don't think it matters. There are some bass biting most any time of the day or night on my waters. I'm not a morning person, so I've been doing most of my fishing from Noon until sometime late afternoon during the hottest parts of the day. I'm still catching plenty of fish, and not so certain that some of the excess boat traffic encountered might actually help the bite.

I think as long as you tailor your presentation to the conditions at hand, regardless the time of day or night fishing, you are just as likely to do well. Outside of comfort or traffic concerns, I often think anglers use the very early morning bite as a crutch.

-T9

[Raul]

Raul how deep were you fishing?

That 's the beauty of it, no particular depth, there 's no trend, like if trying to establish a pattern by saying: during X time of the day, at around X temperature you will find them at this depth. Some are caught shallow ( 2-5 ft ) others caught more deeply ( 12-20 ft ). The only trend I have seen is that most of them were orbiting around drop offs ( creek and river channels ). A large percentage were caught on jigs.