Summer Daze

It's hot. Dry. Bright. Long.

It is summer. Not my preferred season. After a colder than average spring July kind of came in saying "things are going very different around here" and it has been hot. Really really hot. This weather can lead to some consistency in warmwater fishing but some species seem to take longer to get into the pattern than others. Carp lately have been erratic. Last week I went out one morning and found a few fish but couldn't connect. Another night on the same water I found a few fish in one of the reliable spots, but there were none in the street light lit spot that produced most of my night carp last summer. The lake level is lower, which I thought would be a good thing because overall last year sucked for carp on the lake with a higher levels. This morning was really lame. I saw two bubblers and one tailing fish. Wah wah wah.... Thank God for smallmouth and hybrid sunfish

The Bell Pond this morning did not suffer the same lack of carp feeding but they were in the nearly impossible to land, supper deep in the pads feeding mode. The was exactly one that wasn't and I'm not sure exactly how I blew my shot but I did. 

Creek resident bass are generally more consistent this time of year, but in places with tidal water there is still patterning to be done and it seems I've been out of that fishery for too long to have it down. In hopes to rectify that I just payed a visit to a bass spot that I can count on holding a few good fish this time of year, and it was. There were plenty of small fish and a few decent ones. I however, was on a rock bass tear in didn't catch largemouth or smallmouth. 

Is there a lesson here? I don't know. It's pretty clear that I've spent a fair amount of time away from my local warmwater fisheries over the last two years, and unfortunately it shows. I can't catch big fish nearly as consistently in the summer here as I used to.