Avoid high temperatures, and fish at night

Hexagenia limbata (giant Michigan mayfly) produce heavy trout feeding patterns
llustration (HexMoon Glow) courtesy Les Booth ©2012

It must be something in my genes. I’m apparently wired different than most people.

Michigan has four seasons -- spring, summer, fall and winter. It’s not that I dislike summer; it’s that I hate summer!

Now, hate is a pretty nasty word when used in any form.

Sadly, I can think of no better way to sum up my feelings. Granted, I could probably find something to do after sundown, like fish for big brown trout in the
AuSable or Manistee rivers. It can help take my mind off the constant heat.

I’ve done that for many years during other brutally hot summers. It was OK, but I actively dislike that sticky feeling when I perspire too much. And, there-in lies part of my problem. I don’t perspire like most people.

Sometimes hot days produce hot fishing at night

Very little perspiration comes off my head. Nor does my underarms dampen my shirt.  It comes out in other places too delicate for a family oriented blog to discuss.

The higher the temperature, the higher my frustration level, and the more noxious insects try to bore holes in my body to suck my blood.

I’ve learned not to swat at flying insects, day or night. It moves the air, makes me even hotter than before and all the bugs whistle up their buddies to come and join the feast.

It’s at this time of year when many major fly hatches come off. The sun goes down, and insects that have spent the day maturing in stream-side foliage, decide to reproduce their kind in a mating dance over the river. It begins with a soft audible hum before becoming a full-blown hatch.

Mayflies land on nose, ears and hands, and balance delicately on the brim of my cap. I look out over the river. Clouds of insects hover over the river, and above the audible hum of thousands of insect wings, comes the sound of trout rising from narrow seams of flowing water.

There are the splashy slurps of small trout. Experienced anglers have learned to determine locations by their sound, and from that comes the knowledge of about how far away the fish is feeding, and then we extrapolate that into making a cast that positions our fly upstream from the fish. Big browns sip flies off the surface without much noise.

There is a science to locating big fish at night; You listen for them feeding

We then determine the length of time between when the trout rises to take a fly and the next time he rises to feed. We count the seconds “one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three” until he rises again.

We make our cast at the “one-thousand-two” count. This gives us a narrow window to make the cast; at the “one-thousand-two” count; and allowing that final second for the cast, and drift, of the fly over the feeding trout.

That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Often a rising trout will sip a natural insect off the surface, and by chance take one of the many that surround your fly. It doesn’t always work.

Often they ignore our offering, and anglers can switch fly patterns or sizes, and that may make a difference. Sometimes when a blanket hatch occurs, there are simply two many insects on the water. The trout can swim with their mouth open and fill their belly fast.

The odd thing about a hot night and a good hatch is we often forget about the oppressive heat. We false-cast once or twice to dry the fly, and keep trying for that one fish that continues to rise, but a blanket hatch soon puts the fish down. They’ve ate their fill, and retire to a quiet spot in the water to rest.

In the distance, a tree of heat lightning flickers across the sky, and one can easily determine its line of travel as it flickers again. Slowly, a calm settles over the water, and it’s possible to hear other night sounds.

Learn to listen for feeding fish, and to tell big fish from small ones

Owls hoot, night hawks boom, and frogs croak near shore. Suddenly, one becomes aware that the awesome heat of the day has lessened and we drift the river slowly casting dry flies or casting and stripping line fast to work a big streamer through deep holes and runs near shore. This latter method, if done on a nonstop basis, may produce a big fish but all of the effort will set you to sweating again.

One must chose their poison. I had a heat stroke once while changing a car tire, and since that time, I conveniently find something to do inside my air conditioned office.

So, if you are like me, I choose to stay in when we have three-digit temperatures occur during mid-day, and if I choose to fish at night, I wait until two hours after sun down before I head out. It may limit my catch at times, but it does allow me to fish in some semblance of comfort.