Heat and High Pressure

In my experience I have had terrible luck fishing in high heat and high pressure. Was wondering if you guys feel the same or if you change your tactics with success in these situations.

I only go at night when its hot. If I go out in daytime hours I’d try a little deeper than usual.

In heat and high pressure I turn to the basins and lead line deep.

It’s actually some of the better fishing you can find when it comes to big cats up until the pressure bursts. This high heat can actually be a blessing fishing during the day if you know some good flathead hiding spots under trees and rootballs or holes in the banks, then that’s where they’ll be hiding in the shade. and if you can get them lively baits right up close to there exit or entrance route they most likely will come out and hit it.

Yep, we plan to hit the MN this weekend searching for big channels in deeper water by day, and big baits for flats by night.

A friend on mine called me this morning and said he was fishing the 5 in 1 dam last night. He caught one that was 12 too 15 pounds and took it home. Hooked into a couple more and the first threw the hook and the second broke his line. A guess by him was mid 20’s for the first and 40 plus for the second. He said the last one held the bottom for 10 minutes and hardly moved before the line broke and said he knew it was a nice one, so ya they bite during high pressure, they have to eat and both were right next to fast water in a little calmer water.

Hot and humid is just what I hope and pray for. The lake cats always go on a tear. They bite hard and aggressively and more quickly. Two summers back we had 25 fish over 10lbs and none smaller than 10 on one humid August night.

Heading up to horseshoe. The good news is those deeper holes and points/flats will probably be kicking out the channel cats. But I was also hoping to get some bassing/walleye/panfish fishing in too. They will have to be quicker than the cats.

I do have a secret weapon this year though. People keep saying, “Gee your jig smells terrific…”

Pug just fish the weedline around goat island and down by suzies rock with a big glob of crawler, you will catch more catfish than you could ever want. Big ones too. Doesn’t take much skill or planning to catch a boat load of catfish there, a blind man could catch them. SW side of goat island (big island down by the entrance to long lake) right up by the weedline with a bobber set 6′ deep. I bet it doesnt last 10 seconds.

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Doesn’t take much skill or planning to catch a boat load of catfish there, a blind man could catch them.

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I think I’ll pass on this one. Just way too easy.

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I do have a secret weapon this year though. People keep saying, “Gee your jig smells terrific…”

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Dont foget the Brylcreem

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Pug just fish the weedline around goat island and down by suzies rock with a big glob of crawler, you will catch more catfish than you could ever want. Big ones too. Doesn’t take much skill or planning to catch a boat load of catfish there, a blind man could catch them. SW side of goat island (big island down by the entrance to long lake) right up by the weedline with a bobber set 6′ deep. I bet it doesnt last 10 seconds.

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Suzies rock?

Horseshoe will make you an over confident channel cat fisherman for sure.

I tried getting everyone on other fish and when that didn’t pan out, we hit a deeper point on the west side by Goat Island in Kron’s bay. The cats would literally attack the bait as soon as it hit the water and I would feel them hitting it as it descended to the bottom.

The kid in the cabin next to us used chicken liver after dark off the dock at Riverside. He was catching them one after the other and East Lake is shallow and void of much structure.

Its nice when you are fishing with another couple and they probably don’t have the patience I have when it comes to fishing. Still, I hope to get them on walleye and/or panfish at some point. I’ll be fishing for those 20’+ this year. Last year I fished structure under 10′, which I think was my first mistake.

Maybe the wind will cooperate and I can have them fish Peterson’s dock a little harder this year. We didn’t stay long last year with the pontoon blowing around. We were the only ones there too, so I thought maybe they vacated that area this time of year and locals wouldn’t hit it, but later in the day we drove by and saw 4 boats.

Suzies rock is the giant rock on shore down by the entrance to long lake. 8-10 years back it used to say suzy on it in spray paint.

Not sure what you mean by goat island in krons. Krons is on the other end of the lake, far west side of horseshoe. Goat island is the farthest east you can get in horseshoe. There are no islands in krons, just the island house as you are entering. If you are going by navionics, just ignore it. On navionics app half of the horseshoe chain is kron’s bay.

Not sure if they are still feeding, but every cat caught when we were up there looked like they swallowed a softball. I didnt dare cut one open to find out what they were eating, but all 300+ (accidental catches) were packed. I would imagine they were eating mayfly hatch as they were caught in 6″-6′ of water mostly. Did get a few SMALL cats out trolling the 18-28 for walleye with leeches. They were only 10-12″ though. I got a couple 5-6lb fish on spinnerbaits around laydowns and I broke off quite a few bigger than that while fishing for bluegill up in the weeds. The bigger fish were hugging structure as close to the shore as possible. If my bass lures were not banging the structure they wouldnt touch it. A foot over to one side and all I got were…. bass. I have to admit, they do thump a spinnerbait like no other. I about lost my rod when I was watching the cormorants on east lake, he about took it right out of my hands.

And yes, the fish were packed on “the dock” again this year. We pulled at least 200 crappie off it in 2 days. Kept our 30 (10 ea) and threw the rest back. Not much for size though, only 6 or 7 over 14″. That guy has brush all the way from the point down to the next dock. I spent a half hour just driving back and forth over them watching the fish on the electronics. But we did find that if the wind is blowing from the north, forget it. Any other direction and we had hits every cast. 3-5′ deep over 18′ seemed to be the key. I caught a couple with a bobber + minnow set 6″ deep under the dock. So they were up. Any deeper than 6′ and not a bite. I caught tons on 2″ white grubs and 1/16oz jigs fishing just under the surface, but a bobber + minnow was an instant bite as well.

Thanks for the info again. I may have to try the dock once more.

You are right, I was going by the Navionics app. So the point I spoke of was the one in the same bay as the island. Specifically the point on the NW side of the bay.

Yeah, that is full of catfish there. Goes from deep water up to a flat with submerged vegetation. Lots of little perch too.

Also, I should mention that “the dock” is different than last year, it only goes out half as far and has a different end on it. The brush is another 20’+ out past the dock so don’t be afraid to fish in front of it. If you anchor in 18′ you should be golden. But the fish were all the way from 20′ out from the dock right up to the pontoon parked by the shore. Under the dock, around the dock, in the brush.. they were everywhere. Just took 3 days for the fish to start! The first three days I fished there each day without a bite. (was a mayfly hatch on sat, we fished sun, mon, and tues without a bite). Then the fishing started to pick up and we caught a couple on weds, then thurs and fri it was non stop.

I bet we didnt have 15 panfish caught total between 3 of us on sat, sun, mon, and tues. Damn mayfly hatch!

Nothing worse than hatches.

I forgot to mention (or maybe I did) I bought a 10 year old Side Finder 1200 from the neighbors garage sale. LOL. Should be nice getting a little more info than just what I see on navionics.

If you don’t know what it is, its a unit that supposedly (Im skeptical) shows how far the closes fish is in the direction you point it. But it does have a temp gauge and normal depth finder, albeit very low res grayscale led. The best part is a portable mount to put on the pontoon and it runs on 3 C batteries!

Think that’s going to help?

Better than fishing blind. Best $15 I ever spent.

Hope it included the 3 c cells.

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Hope it included the 3 c cells.

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LOL!

Another bust for the most part. Of course the cats saved the day.

I should have stayed in Becker a little longer on Saturday dragging jigs. We trolled around it 1.5 times and that 1200 actually marked a fish. Got the classic arc. Either that or it was a big methane bubble.

Tried trolling cranks down 15-20′ in Cedar island. I should have dragged jigs there instead.