Hot weather means hungry bass

Well, it’s finally here, the first day of the summer and it came with vengeance, hazy, hot and humid, and almost 100 degrees.Knowing that the male bass have completed there nesting guard duties I knew they’d be hungry and would be out foraging for a health meal. After all, they haven’t been eating very much for the last few weeks.I grabbed my favorite fresh water bass set up and headed to one of our local ponds to give it try.The water was just like glass, the bugs were intense but, just as I expected, rises and insect hatches were happening everywhere I looked. Fishing from shore, my first cast was with a Berkley power worm Texas rigged.I didn’t even get a chance to crank the reel when the first fish of the evening hit, and suddenly, the activity started. Two boys watched in amazement. I was casting and bumping the worm off the bottom by lifting the rod, then reeling down on the slack line made by the lifting motion.After this occurred four or five times,I could see the frustration in their eyes – the longing to catch a fish.So I called them over and handed off my rod, the look on each of their faces and the excitement was indescribable. Each took a turn.After quick demonstrations on how to rig up the worms on their rods so they would not catch weed fish and how to add action to the worm, they were off on their own with a package of Berkley worms to try out.I looked over a few times and got the thank-you nod. They did quite well that evening. It brought a new meaning to “take a kid fishing”!uAlthough I was not fishing at one of our local ponds like Flax, Sluice, Browns and Spring Ponds, I know this method is very productive. Also use surface lures like jitterbugs and buzz baits at the end of the day just before dusk when the wind calms down and the water flattens out.Right now, for the fly fisherperson, a variety of insect hatches are happening throughout the day.Start with a caddis imitation, you can’t go wrong.If that doesn’t work, look for a mayfly hatch.Large hex mayfly hatches usually emerge this month, primarily in the evening as the sun goes down.Use a large white pattern that will silhouette the evening sky. Hungry trout cannot resist them. So, forget the computer and TV get out there and give it a try – and take a kid with you!uWith the warm weather, lakes and ponds will be warming up also and summer fish kills may be discovered.The sight of dead and dying fish along the shores of a favorite body of water can be distressing and can trigger concerns about pollution.Fish do act as the “canary in the coal mine,” so it’s natural to think a fish kill is an indicator of a problem with human caused pollution. However, the vast majority of summer fish kills reported are natural events.Natural fish kills are generally the result of low oxygen levels, fish diseases, or spawning stress.Depletion of dissolved oxygen is one of the most common causes of natural fish kills. As pond temperature increases, water holds less oxygen.During hot summer weather, oxygen levels in shallow, weedy ponds can further decline as plants consume oxygen at night.This results in low, early morning oxygen levels that can become critical if levels fall below the requirement of fish survival.In addition to reduced oxygen levels, late spring and early summer is when many warm water fish crowd into the shallow waters along the shore vying for the best spawning sites.These densely crowded areas become susceptible to disease outbreaks, especially as water temperatures increase.The result is an unavoidable natural fish kill, usually consisting of one or two species of fish.When a caller reports a fish kill, a DFW fisheries biologist determines if the kill is due to pollution or is a natural event. Generally, pollution impacts all kinds of aquatic life, therefore the most important piece of evidence for the biologists is knowing the number of fish species associated with the fish kill.Fish kills in which only one or two species are involved are almost always