How To Handle Fish in Warm Weather

By Cody Hill of CHill Guide Service

August has arrived and if you know, you know! For those that don’t know August is the time of the year that big fish start feeding aggressively, and fish are trying to put on weight before water temperatures start dropping and I’m not just talking about game fish.

Over the past few weeks we have had some extremely warm days. The water is warm and anglers need to do take extra precautions to prevent hurting fish.

First

Please limit the amount of time a fish is out of the water especially if the fish is being released. On all my trips I have my live well running because if I catch a photo worthy fish, I instantly put the net into the live well to help keep the fish alive. This allows me time to get my tools and camera ready for the photo along with getting the angler prepared for a quick measurement and release.

Second

Please do not target fish over 30 feet of water because the trauma of that fish coming up so quickly will kill the fish. The fish may swim away right away but, in a few minutes, it will start flipping over and will ultimately die.

Third

Don’t be afraid to cut the line and retie on a hook. I see too many people digging in a fish to recover their bare hook that costs a dime and ultimately kill the fish in the process. Hooks are cheap don’t be afraid to cut the line and retie a new hook on to prevent killing a fish you do not intend of keeping.

Fishing has been very good lately with a lot of mixed bag trips and that keeps it fun and allows groups to have some very nice fish fries as a result. Most of my trips lately have been resulting in five or more species being caught and it’s made it fun with some groups because we are trying to guess what we caught before we see them.

Walleyes have been everywhere from 7 feet of water out to the mud. I’ve caught my shallower fish using a 5-inch soft plastic and a jig head casting. My mid-depth fish I have had good luck with a half of a night crawler under a bobber with the bait being 2-4 feet off bottom. On deeper structure drop shoting has been working the best and allows us to cover larger areas.

Bass have been extremely tight to structure but with our extremely clear and wind free days that doesn’t surprise me. Find structure and target them but keep moving. Small mouth I’ve found roaming between mud and edges of weed lines usually in large schools. Setting a bobber up 4 feet off bottom has worked great for younger anglers but some of our biggest smallies have came only a few feet down below the boat.

Blue gills have been on fire. They are in huge schools and can be found anywhere but my largest fish and best quality schools have been found on the deep weed lines. If calm use small hair jigs or jigs tipped with an ice fishing plastic but if windy do a drop shot rig tipped with either a small plastic or a chunk of worm has done amazing.

The fall bite is right around the corner. The fall bite is one of my favorite times of the year to chase big fish. If you are interested in booking a trip contact Cody today to book a trip that will 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲!

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