How You Can Cope with the Midsummer Blues

by Spence Petros

Since fish are cold-blooded animals and their metabolism burns up food faster in warmer water than it does in colder water, why is it so difficult for most anglers to make good catches in midsummer when fish are eating more?

All over the country anglers have difficulty catching fish after the "easy" spring period has ended. Many quit for the year and wait out the warmer months until the so-called fall feeding period.

On the other hand, good fishermen are touting the fast action and consistency of summer fishing.

What's going on here?

Many anglers fall victim to the midsummer slump because they don't understand what goes on under the surface and what to do about it. It gets even more difficult when you add weather, water, and forage changes.

The first key to catching summer fish is to not beat the shoreline to death--drop back to the cover, edges, and structure bordering or coming out of the deeper water. If you're casting to the shoreline, 90 percent of the fish are probably behind your back.

BUT FIRST A DEFINITION. Structure is not a big rock, fallen tree, pier, clump of weeds, or any other isolated piece of cover. Structure is the "bottom of the lake extending from shallow water to deep water, with some unusual features that distinguish it from the surrounding bottom area."

When conditions are tough, like they can be in midsummer, you'll quickly see how important it is to understand the true concept of structure fishing,

You must also pick waters where good catches are more likely to occur. Unfortunately, many top summer resorts are located on clear lakes and reservoirs throughout the country. If you really want to stack the odds against yourself, pick a clear, deep lake with a lot of boat traffic and little or no cover in the shallower-to-medium depths. The only thing worse is to start out fishing at midday when the light penetration is greatest.

Clear lakes, especially those with heavy boat traffic, experience a lot of fish movement at night during midsummer. If the type of fish you're after are feeding after dark, it doesn't matter too much what you do during the day.

Fish can certainly be caught in these waters during the daylight hours, but the average angler is fighting the odds unless he understands what makes a lake tick. For one thing, the fish will usually be deep or buried in the thickest cover. It's hard enough for most anglers to catch fish shallow, but when you have to go 10, 20, 30 feet deep or more to root fish out of heavy cover, your problems are compounded.

YOU'LL FIND THE FISHING EASIER if you look for moving waters (rivers or streams) and lakes or reservoirs with good water color. "Good water color" to a knowledgeable angler isn't beautiful, clear-blue water, but rather murky, sandy, clay, or tea-stained water.

The moving waters of rivers and streams are good for several reasons. Current nearly always means well-oxygenated waters. Current also helps diffuse light. This means fish are shallower, more available, and they are less affected by the bright blue skies of a summer cold front than fish in nearby lakes.

Waters in rivers and streams are also generally low and easy to read in summer. River fish tend to compete for more available forage which makes them more cacheable for longer periods of time. Rivers and streams also get less fishing pressure than most lakes and reservoirs.

Oxygen levels can get low in some lakes during a hot stretch with little or no wind. This can make fish slow and punchy. In spite of the heated water, they regress in activity, and fishing for them requires slower, methodical tactics.

To help avoid this it's wise to pick lakes that are a part of a chain of connecting waters, lakes that are spring fed or have lush beds of green, deep-growing weeds or larger open waters where slight winds will cause some water movement.

Avoid isolated smaller, shallower bodies of water that are void of active feeder creeks, are surrounded by heavy trees or hills, or are over-fertilized to the point of being oxygen-starved. These lakes will be where the fishing is first to go flat during periods of hot, calm weather.

Although I previously stated clearer lakes may be tough to fish in midsummer, it doesn't mean you should forget about them. While a period of hotter, calm weather may hurt oxygen levels in shallower lakes, it will also affect oxygen levels in the deeper water on deeper lakes.

AS THE SUMMER ROLLS ON, getting warmer and warmer, oxygen levels in deeper water often keep diminishing. This forces game fish more toward shallower water. In some lakes they might be forced up to "only" the 30- to 50-foot depths, which really wouldn't make much of a difference to most anglers. But on other lakes a good daytime feeder such as big pike may move up to the outside edge of a deep weedline in 12 to 20 feet of water where it is a lot easier for you to make contact.

A skilled angler should catch the most pike speed trolling deep-diving plugs at that depth range. If you don't have good trolling skills or don't want to try this tactic, your best bet is slowly back-trolling a heavy jig dressed with a decent-sized sucker or chub. Keep it on or near bottom and try a fast, high lift/drop sweep of the rod tip every 5-10 feet. Let the presentation drop back with a little "back pressure" or line tension as this is when most strikes will occur. Best results should occur along the widest, thickest weed beds that border the deeper waters of the lake.

As a rule, the daytime fishing in the clearer lakes of Canada doesn't suffer as much as it does in waters farther south. The further south you go the more likely clearer lakes become night oriented due to the sun's rays being more directly overhead and the increased heat.

Despite the sand- and rock-based Canadian lakes being cooler, some experience the oxygen push-up during the heat of the summer that brings the big ones shallow. I've experienced great smallmouth, pike, and walleye fishing in weed beds during the heat of summer, while anglers working rocky structures and deeper water were catching scattered small fish, if any at all. On numerous occasions I've seen anglers roar off to fish the other side of the lake while a big bed of cabbage weed in a nearby bay was loaded with good-sized fish.

In these lakes decent-size weed beds are often few and far between. You don't have to eliminate too many unproductive ones to find a good one. When conditions are right, the weed beds will be loaded with forage such as small perch...and with them come game fish!

Good weed growth will most often be found on flats in bay areas bordering deeper water, on "saddles" or flats between islands, or between an island and shore. Sand deposits on a shore can also be a clue to nearby deep-water weed beds. These "yellow patches" can be seen from quite a distance and are worth checking out.

UNDERSTANDING WHAT HAPPENS in midsummer under the water's surface is the key to catching fish. On a chain of connecting lakes, fish such as walleyes, pike, and white bass will usually migrate through the chain during the course of the year. The shallower, upper lakes in the chain that warm up quickest in the spring, while other areas turn on in midsummer. By fall the deepest rockier lakes often provide the best action.

This same phenomenon occurs in sections of single large lakes or reservoirs. You can't assume that because you caught fish in one area a few weeks ago they'll still be around.

Despite the millions of salmon in Lake Michigan or the millions of walleyes in Lake Erie, both these fantastic fisheries have migratory movements of fish that can make one area explode while another goes flat. To a smaller degree, game fish in your favorite lake may be migrating.


Copyright (c) 1996 Spence Petros. All rights reserved.

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