How has this heat been affecting the fishing for everyone? Where I live it's been 103-107 for the last week. Any particular times or strategies, patterns sizes etc that anyone likes to use in this weather? I've actually been coming up great on catfish recently. I go to a very small, murky, slow, shallow creek that's about 15 minutes from my house. NOBODY in this area expects to pull anything but maybe a carp or two out of this creek. But in the last month or two. Myself and a co-worker of mine have pulled out 6 castfish over 2 feet. Largest on was just around 8 pounds. Wich is comepletely ridiculous for this creek. I have fished here for the last 8 years because it's so close, just a nice spot to relax. I had never caught anything over 15 inches until last summer, i caught one 5.5 lb 25 inch bull head. And now this summer, the cats are huge. Maybe I've just finally put in enough time there that I'm deserving some bigger fish, lol. Anyway, how's the heat been helping or hurting all of you?
Hunter.

for me, it helps in the ways of night fishing my local lakes for big dogs and pushing up the exotics on the saltwater side of things. to tell the truth catching lmb under 5 pounds in the heat has not been a problem for me, it's just that the big girls tend to come out in better numbers at night.

find the windward sides of your lakes and that's where the cooler water will be. Good chance of some fish being stacked up on a drop off or right on the edge of the weedline there. And night is always key...

My guess is that with the heavier flows, these bigger fish have either moved up or moved down from other spots. Or perhaps they've moved out of hiding spots that you could not get to before. Aren't you in Fresno? I'm in Bakersfield and am sick of this heat. Thinking of doing a night trip to Success or Isabella this weekend for some bass on the full moon.

If you go to Success on or before the 26th of July shoot me an email. I'd like to at least meet you. I've been wanting to do some night fishing as this heat is just so nasty. Plus, I wont be able to fish for quite a spell after the 27th on account of the fact that I'm up for shoulder surgery on that day :(

Alls I can say is the recent heat + night fishing = :7

Hey rockstar, I can relate to ya. Im squeezing in as much fishing as I can right now since my shoulder goes under the knife on July 26. Ouch, and Im on a great bite right now. I dont know how long Ill be out.;(

Urban,
What sort of surgery are you up for? I'm getting a torn labrum repaired. I never even knew I had such a thing until it started hurting. For the longest time I thought it was tendonitis from casting so much. It hurt in my arm not my shoulder for the first three months. Now it just hurts in my shoulder when I do certain motions.

Ive got an impingement, which essentially is when the ball of the shoulder is drawn closer to the socket causing contact. This is caused by muscle development and is typical of people who are/were athletic. The rubbing causes serious clicking, irritation, and swelling making life miserable lately, its tough to sleep. They go in and shave the bone down in the socket to provide the ball free movement. Dont know how long Ill be out but it may be a month before I should be throwing big baits again. Im gonna fish as much as possible in the next 4 days!

Heres the bad part, my other shoulder is screwed up too. So as soon as this one heals, Im gonna start dealing with other one. I hope the ohter one doesnt have a serious problem. Oh well, it is what it is.

Urban,
How did your surgery go? Are you getting much sleep? If you feel anything like me you are not the happiest camper on the block :-( I'm going on day 3 after the slice@dice. Night is the worst time as the pain comes on big time when I fall asleep.They set me up with a Game Ready machine and that gives me an hour or so of releif at a time. I gotta say there have been times when a shot of morphine would be welcome.
Fish24- sorry we didn't get to go night fishing, perhaps we can try again in Sep.,or Oct.

Well, the surgery went flawless. However, they found a major problem when they went in. The bicep terminates into a big rope of a tendon, and this tendon enters into the shoulder and is attached to cartilage, the cartilage is attached to the bone. Somehow my tendon pulled half the cartilage off the bone, and the cartilage tore down its middle. Had this piece of cartilage completely tore off the bone, my bicep would have retracted into a little ball in my arm. They fixed the tear, in part by anchoring the tendon and cartilage to the bone (the anchor looked like a little harpoon, I have a video of the whole thing). The impingement problem was fixed by shaving the bone down. I have no idea how the tear occurred but I have been living with it for a long time. I cant believe I didnt completely tear it from the bone. I finally returned to work today.

The problem now is that the cartliage needs to regenerate to the bone, and this takes time. Any use of my bicep pulls on the cartilage which will prevent re-attachment. Bottom line is I aint fishing anytime soon. Doc said 6 weeks (and he added, knowing nothing about my interests, "you wont be fishing for big fish for a while", I thought that was funny). Ouch.

Im not in much pain, only hurts when I wake up. Vikaden and Sierra pale in combination seems to eliminate the pain and ensures a good night sleep :P

Well, maybe in 3 weeks I can go dropshotting, or maybe learn to troll. Reeling the fish in would be a problem. Oh well.

Urban,
Ouch, that sounds like a major owee you got there! Can you sleep in a real bed now? I can only be somewhat comfortable in the night by sleeping in a recliner. I just had my follow up with the doc. My problem started with bone spurs. He shaved bone spurs, anchored the labrum back to the bone with screws and sutures, and sutured up the rotator cuff. It's going to be quite a while before I cast another line. I've got a lot of therapy to go before I can even put any work load on my arm. I'm not expecting to land any salmon this autumn. Sounds like we both did a number to ourselves. I've got two new Rogue rods coming in that I got at $50 off of retail each, now I'll only get to look at them until I get the green light.
BTW- Vicodin has acetaminophen in it which is very toxic to the liver when you mix it with even a little bit of alcohol.Be careful with that stuff :+

I'll let ya know rockstar.