Posts tagged 'Summer fishing'

One of the nicest things for anglers is the arrival of warm summer days and the opportunity to wade wet. Being unencumbered by the waders that make life on the stream bearable for the other 3 seasons.

One of the best pieces of advice for high elevation anglers is to “lighten up.”

The dead of summer can be a tough time of year to catch fish consistently. Although they are set up in their traditional haunts, there are times that they seem to disappear or quite biting altogether. Fish at this time of year tend to fill up quickly when they feed. The young of the year are big enough to provide a meal and there are plenty of them. The predator prey relationship is in full swing – there are hungry predators heavily feeding trying to put on weight to get them through the rigors of next winter and the consequent spawn. There are also literally tons of prey fish which makes for easy pickings and full bellies for predators. How does this affect us as we attempt to spend a full day on the water? It’s quite simple … these fish take very little time to feed and spend the rest of their time lounging and dodging larger predators. This is best done in the depths, the weeds, or on wide open flats. The reality of the situation is that you are trying to catch fish throughout an entire day while they are only actively feeding during short very intense periods. Open up your bag of tricks and get creative. Fish can still be caught. Here are some tips and tricks to get you through the summer.

It’s known that fish relate to, feed from and generally live near the bottom. There’s the security of the water overhead, there’s the close proximity to food below and often the bottom composition such as a large rock can provide relief from possible current and relief from the sun. There are a lot of things going for such a little talked about place.

Depending on the time of year, the streams may be riding high carrying a load of silt down from the mountains. If they're high, the options are pretty clear, go lake fishing, which is what I will concentrate on. Going fishing in the National Parks is mostly a trout affair. There are opportunities to catch northern pike in Talbot Lake and there are whitefish in some of the other lakes, but really, the park lakes mean trout. To catch them is matter of focus.

The May long weekend just passed and by all accounts the walleye season is off and running. A group of friends just came back from Calling Lake with fantastic success, landing around 20 walleye, plus a dozen pike. My friend Arnold Carlin was finding walleye off the shores of Lac St. Anne and they were hitting just about anything. My buddy Ross Stout was casting a line off shore at Pigeon Lake and couldn't keep them off. His trick was to slow drag a jig with a white curly tail right on bottom. He said they were smacking it nearly every cast, especially when he let the jig settle and pause.

June is here and so is the best fishing. We all know about walleye so lets set them on the backburner for a spell and talk about a different, but truly fantastic fishing opportunity. Lake whitefish in June. They are biting as hard and as strong as they do all year long. They're aggressive, they hit hard and the sometimes they even jump. Could this be that same fish we angle for through the ice?