Dog Days Of Summer

[Guest Brian B.]

Morning for. 1/2 hour, dusk 1/2 hour, to me not worth shifting my day all around.

If I happen to be there at peak hours, GREAT... If not- it's not a day breaker. (But then again. I fish Flukes- I can -make- them bite even when they don't want to )

(Kidding of course, but not too far off)

[405z06]

I go all day on the stream. In a boat on the lake, not so much.

Ditto that. I'm not much on swimming, but I'll just jump in the river when I get hot. I actually enjoy that part of it.

[Old plug]

There are a Lot of knowledgeable fIshemen on LOZ that will tell you the best bass fishing is in the hottest part of the day at 25 ft. I believe that is very true. I myself fish when the sun starts to sink till almost dark. Anytime though if we're getting a good rainy dark day.

[ollie]

Now a good cloudy, rainy looking day and I will be out there all day! That's a different story.

[Kee sims]

I seem to better on the river from 3-dark. I usually do ok in the mornings. But numbers wise my best fishing is always afternoon. That's if I get off the couch from ac cold drinks and chips. Haha

[Al Agnew]

Recently got into a big discussion of low light vs. bright light on Riversmallies. Lots of people say that they love early and late and cloudy days, but my experience is that cloudy days on the river in the summer can be very inconsistent. I've had some of my worst fishing on dark days when I thought it would be great. In fact, I can't remember any really great days when it was cloudy all day. And as we've already said, early and late isn't necessarily better than mid-day. The discussion over there centered around whether or not the bass's eyes are light sensitive. I do not believe they are, at least no more light sensitive than yours or mine. Yeah, we don't like being in bright sunlight without something shading our eyes, but it's not like we can't function in bright sun. I've caught too many smallmouth, including big ones, out of very clear water in the sun. They may have come from the shade of some kind of cover, but they had no hesitation in coming out into the sun to strike my lure. And it isn't too unusual to see smallmouth cruising in shallow to medium depth water away from cover and out in the sun during the middle of the day.

So while I like cloudy days because they are more comfortable for ME, usually being cooler, if I had to pick the perfect weather for Ozark river smallmouth fishing in the summer, it would be those partly cloudy, slightly hazy days with a very slight chance of afternoon thundershowers...which are actually pretty common anyway.

I think too many anglers have just gone by conventional wisdom, which is usually based upon lake fishing...you want to fish early and late, you want dark days, you have to go deeper in the summer, cold fronts turn the fish off. NONE of that has been consistently true in my experience on the streams.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I think what you do would be the way to go in some of your waters that see a late morning aluminum hatch. I think you could make an all day, if you wanted to, on the small water.

I think when time and distance allows, fishing hard at the optimum time is probably better than trying to drag out a whole day. I think it's human nature to slack off when the heat is high and a pseson has gone hard in it for a long spell.

[et84]

I hate the heat as much as anyone, and I stick to R.S.'s method- I usually have a CamelBak though. I've caught some of my best smallies in the middle of a hot, sunny day on deer hair bugs.

[Terrierman]

I like to go early in the mornings as much for the sunrise and wildlife viewing as the fishing. I'm one of those easily entertained/distracted/A.D.D. types anyway.

Hey Look! There goes a squirrel!

[Greasy B]

My early morning efforts sometimes pay off for the first hour after dawn then I usually see a lull until early afternoon when things pick back up. This summer I have been seeing the best bite from mid afternoon until mid evening. I love being on the rivers this time of year, gravel bar camping is much safer, fishing is more predictable and a dip in the water is all that's needed to stay comfortable.