Summer Peak & Predicting the Hot Bite!

Fish activity relates to last summers strange weather.

Looking back, 2009 had two periods of excellent fishing. The rest of the year was awful! Really, overall, it was one of the worst years in recent memory due to cold weather. Mid-to-late May saw very cool temps and several cold fronts. This lasted into early June. About June 13th, the water temp was 57 degrees! Then it got warm fast! The next two plus weeks the water temp rose with the hot weather that came in. By June 29th, it peaked at 72 degrees surface temperature. This made for the best Walleye & Bass fishing of the year.

"Summer Peak" was a term used by the Lindners (In-Fisherman) to describe what they considered one of the four best times of the year to fish. This is when all fish have recovered from spawning. Warm water and sun light make weed growth really start to take off. Along with warmer water and more oxygen come insect hatches. Insects and their larva feed on everything from the years new hatch of minnows to large gamefish. In this area, Walleyes, Bass & Trout feed heavily on May flies; so do panfish. This creates a "perfect storm" or frenzie of feeding activity.

This is exactly what happened last year as the big warm up and weather conditions created a feeding frenzie that lasted almost two full weeks. The Walleye pictured was one of 8 fish over 23 inches caught and released in one night (about 6/27/09) Caught on a Erie Dearie?!?! 29 inches - Full Moon over my shoulder!

Each night, the fish feed heavily on May flies. Suspending crankbaits worked over deep weeds or Erie Dearies casted and retrievd with a crawler were very effective presentations for fish which were swimming up in the water column looking for rising bugs or bait fish. Conversly, the morning fishing was terible after the fish had binged all night.

This bite lasted over two weeks but came to a hault in one day when the first of many massive colds fronts rolled in.

As we all know July 2009 was cold as hell! Cold front after cold front led to slow fishing. This lasted into August. In mid August, it finally got hot and so did the fishing. It was really like a second spring. Muskies moved shallow and started feeding with the warm water. I know of four 50 inch Muskies caught in the 3rd week of August, during the day! This was 3-4 days after the hot weather started.

The photo of me on the home page, with the sunset background is of a 45 inch Muskie I caught with Matt & Mike, my now 20-year-old twin sons. It was my biggest Musky last year and caught during the 3rd week of August on the moon phase. We planned the nights fishing weeks in advance based on moon phase and the "window" between sunset and moonrise. Also, late August is always good with normally FALLING water temps, this year it was the opposite with the warmest water in months. This was another example of what I call a "fish caught on paper". By researching moon phases and rise and set patterns and picking those hot times to fish on paper. Then you hope the weather cooperates! In this case it did.

Matt photo, Mike net! Good job boys!