It's hot, damn hot. Everywhere is just about dry, barren or dead. Just about the worst time of year to be a fishermen... unless I suppose you're an opportunistic fishermen. Let's see... what have I been up to? Lot's of wetland delineation field work, plus I'm starting a new job next week so I've been a little busy..... but never busy enough to not go fishing.
First, the one fish that could careless about a heat wave, low dissolved oxygen or even food supply is the lonely "prince of mud" or common carp. They have invaded just about every body of water from the tundra to the Everglades. Find a shallow, silty lake or stream with good access to a larger body of water and you've got yourself a match made in heaven this time of year. Back during one hot July afternoon I passed by an urban public lake that has recently undergone a face life. The entire forebay of Lake Needwood, or that shallow confluence area of Rock Creek as it enters the lake to the north of Needwood road has been dredged, fish habitat has been installed and it's a gold mine to fish. It always had its carp back there, actually they were easier to cast to before the lake improvements but there was far less habitat and far fewer fish. Well, it's not difficult to see a sunning or "mudding" carp in the lake but it sure is difficult to convince one to take a fly. I can't tell you how many times I've been skunked while trying to sight cast to a carp with a fly rod. But that one in one hundred time when you don't spook the 30+ inch carp on the cast and it actually changes course by 30 degrees towards your fly, well.... I think you'll understand the excitement.
During this one afternoon during yet another record breaking heat wave I decided to start with a hopper/dropper pattern. I was told somewhere that carp often will rise to a large hopper pattern. Well, sure, why not. I tied on one from last summer that I got from fishing on the Pere Marquette in Michigan. Except this hopper still had a small #16 pheasant tail nymph attached to the shank of the hook with a long leader of 6x tippet. A popular method I deploy for picky trout. Trout that might spook from a traditional strike indicator and for an area where the trout might actually ignore the nymph and take the hopper. Much for fun that way. well, who would have thought but the carp took the dropper... and I landed it! At or very near 30 inches too. Can't complain there. I had a few more refusals on later trips in the same lake. But the other pleasant surprise is that the bass fishing there is also excellent now because of the lake improvements. There seems to have been a population explosion of life to the lake. Minnows and YOY bluegill litter the shore. Bass can been seen chasing schools of bait fish and damsel flies even in the dead middle of the highest sun. I've done quite well there in an hours effort while fishing claw dads and poppers in mid afternoon for a measly hour of fishing to and from a job site every week. So, you may want to do yourself a favor and give old Needwood a try sometime.
The next fish that likes warm, hot, useless water is the ever sporty, top water junky, invasive northern Snakehead. This fish is bad ass. It's got teeth like a musky with an attitude to match and best of all, this fish likes to look up. Almost all day long too. Frogs are always on the menu for these guys and shallow, warm, putrid water should not be overlooked. In fact, the silty, lifeless looking water furthest back in a bay where only a largemouth would dare travel after dark is where you want to start looking for these back yard brawlers, and even in the dead middle of the day. Check out one Diego and I scored the other day. Top water frog up against the spatter dock (Sp?) We missed a few more that day fishing inside the airport plus found the highest concentration of quality largemouth I've fished over in a long, long time. So, don't give up just yet. I know it's tough out there right now. I didn't have enough callus on my fingers to report all my skunks as of late. We can't all be professionals but we all should be able to capitalize on over looked fisheries with a little intuition, determination and opportunism.
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