Hot weather not enough to keep fish away

In spite of the recent heat wave, fishing can still be great as I found out last week.

Getting a late start, I didn't hit the water until close to noon, but the fishing and the catching was as good as any so far this year.

On my first cast, a keeper crappie hit my jig before it had dropped 10 feet toward a brush pile. The line hadn't straightened out, but the fish swam away with the jig and a surprised angler hauled it in.

What had planned on being a short trip turned out to be even shorter than expected. With 15 casts, 15 keeper crappie (over 10 inches long) were on the stringer.

Although 15 crappie is the limit, it was hard to quit so I made a few more casts hoping to entice a walleye. Once again I was rewarded as a keeper 16-inch walleye took my red and white jig as well as two keeper largemouth bass. It was a day when the fishing was as hot as the temperature.

Many times after catching a fish on the first cast, the fishing really slows down, but not that day. The old saying, "timing is everything," applied.

My daughter Debbie and I went back to the same hot spot the next day and the fish were still hitting. We caught 11 keepers, which was enough for dinner, so we saved the others for another day.

Crappie weren't the only fish hitting that day, I ran into another fisherman who was having a good day in spite of the heat. This was the only other angler I saw while I was fishing, except for two youngsters who were catching bluegill while fishing from the shore. I asked the kids how they were doing and they hoisted a stringer with at least a dozen nice fish. "We have been catching lots of fish, but we are running out of bait," one boy said. "My dad took off to get some more worms," the other boy yelled. "This is fun."

"If you can't stand the heat, stay off the water," said Fred Hunt, a summer catfisherman who was also on the lake last week. "After seeing a 78-pound catfish caught by a Carroll County angler and seeing a photo of the largest freshwater fish ever recorded -- a 646 pound catfish the size of a grizzly bear -- I had to go catfishing," he said.

Hunt had three nice channel catfish hanging on a stringer over his boat, proving the heat hadn't hurt the fishing.

"I usually fish for catfish at night during the summer heat," Hunt said. "I had talked to a neighbor who had been catching catfish during the day, so I thought I would give it a try and I'm glad I did. You just never know when the fishing will be good unless you try."

Fishing reports across the state this week were much better than almost anyone would think. Anglers are catching everything from white bass to catfish and like Hunt said, "You never know how good or bad the fishing is until you hit the water -- no matter what the weather."

We noticed Hunt had a golf umbrella, a large ice chest and sun screen in his boat along with his fishing gear. "If you fish in this heat, you better be prepared," he said.