Beat the heat

It is that time of the year again – hot summer days, ice cold drinks, flip-flops, holiday feeling, fishy waters beckoning....
Long daylight hours mean lots of time to spend on the water fishing, but the truth is that it is usually so hot during the midday hours that it is impossible to be comfortable out fishing the whole day.
I have learnt to make the most of the early and late hours of the day during the summer. I get up while it is still dark and make sure that I am already at my fishing spot as the sun peeps over the horison. As soon as it starts getting uncomfortable on the water, I get off.  Time to have lunch and take a long siesta. When it starts cooling down again later in the afternoon, I get back on the water. Often, I will stay on the water after dark and fish until the moon starts dropping out of the sky, or I can’t stay awake anymore. Full-moon periods are best for night-fishing episodes.
Low-light periods traditionally produce the best during the summer, as this is when the fish feel more comfortable. In the early
morning, the water has had the whole night to cool down and will be at its coolest temperature for the day.  Take advantage of this period, as it is the most likely time for summer bass to feed actively.
I like to fish with a spinnerbait and a buzzbait during the early morning hours, casting right up to the bank into the shallowest water possible and then reeling in slowly toward the boat. The buzzbait needs to be worked fast enough to stay on top of the water surface, but slow enough so that it just ‘bloop-bloop-bloop’s on the water surface. Any kind of surface lure can be fished successfully during low-light conditions. Fish with the lure you are most comfortable with.
When the sun is up, the day has
brightened and those rays start burning, I like to switch to a crankbait. If the fish are still active, but have only moved a little deeper as the sun rises, they will readily take the crankbait. The crank can be fished throughout the heat of the day if the fish stay active.
Just adjust the diving depth of the crankbait as the fish move deeper through the day. If the bass are not active, I will fish with a skirted jig and trailer or a shaky-head jig with finesse worm.
Again, fish to your strengths. If you are more comfortable fishing with a Texas-rig, Carolina-rig or drop-shot rig when the fish are less active, do so.
Night fishing has often been more productive for me than daytime fishing during mid-summer. I have often fished the whole day, out in the blistering heat, and only caught one or two bass, and then gone out at night and caught multiple limits in the same spots where I could not buy a fish during the day.  And as an added bonus, there is
nothing that can beat the peace and tranquillity of being out on the water and listening to the night sounds in the dark, while waiting to feel the tug at the end of the line. - Christie Thomas