Tuesday’s heat wave reached 98 by mid-afternoon, and under those conditions, it's hard to do anything outside. To make matters worse, Tuesday's heat index was 105 to 107 degrees. I learned long ago that if you're going to fish in July, August, and even September, you need to be on the water at daylight. Very few people fish in the heat of the day, and if they do, they need to find shade to avoid overheating.
As I pulled into the Smith Lake Dam parking lot at 5:30 AM Tuesday, I noticed a couple of boats that had launched, and when I left the lake at 9 AM, I noticed four trucks, including mine. There is a big difference between spring fishing and now. The lake's pulldown and the heat will cause the fish to get lockjaw. So very few fishermen show up to fish this time of the year, and the ones that do fish at daylight. Very few fishermen fish the lake the way I do; in fact, I have never seen anyone other than me fly fishing or using micro-lights to fish live bait on Smith Lake. I've had a lot of success over the years landing fish with a fly rod and using micro-lights on Smith Lake—but during the heated months of August and July, even the fly rod can get skunked. Surface action is limited during this time of year because fish won't come to the surface to hit a popper when the surface water temperature is 90 degrees. The fish go deep and become somewhat inactive. So what do you do to catch fish in these conditions? Change tactics, bait, and tackle to go extremely light, and you will catch fish!
Enter the redworm, not the cricket, but an old-fashioned redworm, threaded through its middle a couple of times using a number 6 Eagle Claw hook and a 1/16 oz worm sinker with a bobber stopper. The sinker and bobber stopper are placed about 12” above the hook. When you cast, the sinker hits the water first, with the hook and worm pointing upward as the sinker sinks. Don’t thread the worm onto the hook because when you do that, you kill the wiggling action of the worm. A huge bluegill and even a bass or catfish can't resist the movement of that worm.
Cathey landed these three bluegill before I got a hit. She has adjusted well to light-action fishing with light tackle. I may have mentioned this before, but she doesn't touch the fish or bait, so I have become your bait/fish guy. We usually even out the catch rate before our trips end. All of these fish were hitting the worms 15 to 20 feet deep off rock walls.
Redworms attract catfish and bass too. This was the largest Largemouth bass that I have landed since 2024 and the largest catfish that Cathey has ever landed. The fight with both of these fish was astounding. In other words, it took skill and time to land both fish. I released both to fight another day.
All the fish Cathey and I landed this Tuesday morning were taken deep. All the bluegill were fat, with no sign of spawning. I am guessing these fish never spawn, but hang out in deep water near the rock walls, eating insect larvae. The cricket and redworm are excellent live baits to land these fish when they are deep and not willing to move much for a meal. I would choose the redworm over the cricket because the fish can see it is alive, whereas the cricket has no action at all but emits more scent than the redworm. Both have their advantages; my only fault with the worm is that it can be extremely messy at times.
These three micro-light combos are the ones I use all the time when I am fishing live bait. Light tackle gives me the ultimate fight; it mimics a fly rod so well that I feel like I have a fly rod in hand while landing some of the big bluegill, bass, and catfish. My grandchildren like to fish these combos because landing an average fish is a challenge.
If you want to keep the skunk away on hot summer fishing trips, then give light tackle and give live bait a try!
