Daylight Fishing a Way to Beat The Heat

 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!

The Redworm and the Fly Rod

 Most fly fishermen will tell you they don't use live bait when fishing with a fly rod. I've never seen anyone using live bait fishing with the flyrod on the Sipsey. I have seen many individuals on the Sipsey using a spin cast fishing with redworms, corn, or crappie nibbles.  

Live bait works when artificial flies and lures will not produce. Just ask my daughter about the success of live bait fishing when she would go with me years ago and fish the many nooks on Smith for bluegill, catfish, and bass. She was more into live bait fishing than my son.

So many memories here, Jenny was a junior in high school when she landed the largest bluegill she ever caught fishing with me on Smith. She was using a cricket fishing with her 7 1/2 ft. micro-light combo. I've never been able to convert her to fly fishing. She still loves to fish the cricket for the bluegill when she has the time to go. Three children and another little girl on the way keep her occupied these days. 

At some point in one's fishing career, they usually land a fish they never forget. This was the case a couple of weeks ago when l landed this supersize Shellcraker or Redear as some would call this fish. What got the big females' attention along with the two quality size bulls was live bait. The live bait thing is something I've never tried using the fly rod on Smith. You might say that anything I try new when it comes to fishing is always a plan in advance for me and this type of fishing was no exception. First, I wanted to get as deep as possible using a sink-tip line and a tiny bb shot crimped onto my 5X tippet about 6" above the hook. I found it is best to tie a knot in the tippet 6 inches above the hook to keep the bb shot from slipping to the eye of the hook when casting a small redworm. The bigger worm was difficult to stay on the long shank hook. The long shank hook is best as opposed to the short shank because you can thread more of the worm onto the long shank hook. I found even with false casting the worm would stay in place. So, in reality, if you want to think of the live worm as a nymph you can, which gives you the feeling of fishing a soft nymph with a scent. On this particular morning, nothing was happening even a nymph fish slow wouldn't produce. The poppers never got any attention from the bass or bluegill. This time of year on Smtih the fishing is extremely slow due to the fast pull-down on the lake. Receding water on any body of water is not the ideal situation to catch fish!

It's Not About The Fish Sometimes

 The Grandchildren were having their Spring break this week which gave their Mom and them an opportunity to come and visit their Meme and Pops. Their Dad couldn't make the trip because of work. Their next trip in the summer will bring the whole family. Our Grandchildren are the center of our lives just as our children were when they were growing up.

 The fish wasn't huge but it's not always about the size fish the children landed. At their age its more about just being able to land a fish and that they did. We lost count of the hand size bluegill they got to touch. All the fish were taken on live bait in the form of juicy worms. The water was a cool 63 degrees causing the fish to hover on the bottom of the park pond.

  The city was supposed to stock Town Creek with trout in November the plan never developed. Kids would have enjoyed seeing trout feeding in the stream. Some pocket holes would attract trout in the quarter-mile stretch flowing through the park. Parks are a substitute for iPhones that most kids nowadays are addicted to, including our grandchildren. 

Reminisicing

As I get older I find myself reminiscing more about my childhood growing up in Choctaw County in Mississippi. My fondest memories were fishing the two streams that flowed through our property near our house. One of the streams was near our pond that we fished and swim in. My younger brother and I would walk the banks of the streams in the summer and spring looking for pocket holes that held sun perch and yellow catfish. The catfish could put a bend in our hand-made 9 and 10 ft. cane poles. We didn't realize it at the time but we were tight-lining without a cork. We seldom used a cork because the spots we were trying to fish were well hidden with brush and limbs. We would shorten our line on the cane poles at times to gently stick the end of the pole right above the surface of the hole and wait for a tug on the redworm we use as bait. We would always land our best fish using this method. Redworms were our go-to bait when fishing the creeks. Little did know at the time that the tight line method we use as young boys would be used by me to fish for trout one day. True the cane pole method wasn't as refined as the fly rod, but still is was successful. 

We would watch my Dad land bluegill and bass with the fly rod and be amazed at how far he could cast a popper. Dad used an 8 1/2 ft. Southbend fly rod paired with a Daiwa fly reel. My brother and I got to use Dad's fly rod only when he had time to give us pointers on how to cast. We found out that our cane pole could be used as a fly rod and much easier to cast. We used a monoline as long as the cane pole. We use green grasshoppers as our fly casting it as far as we could fishing the small creek that flowed into our pond. We would land small rock bass hiding near the undercut banks of the little stream. As quickly as the grasshopper vanished we would jerk the pole upward and the little fish would fly over our heads. It was always a contest to see who landed the largest little fish. We didn't realize it then but we were using a scale-down Tenkara rod. I am so glad that my brothers and I were raised to enjoy the outdoors in the form of fishing, hiking, and hunting----memories I will never forget!

As the winter months close in it gives me time to look back on this past year and wonder how I will approach the coming season. Where will I be casting my flies and poppers this next season? I hope I get to fish the Sipsey more this coming season!!!!------------Here's wishing you all a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!