how does the heat affect bream?

boarders,

i had a few hours to kill, but its 3 pm in arkansas..and hot as a doozy. does heat really kill the bream fishin?

j

As I've heard a lot of old timers say, "the hotter it gets, the better it gets." The bream will spawn and/or stay relatively shallow the entire summer. Don't forget about the full moon rule, as many fishermen swear by it (especially in the hottest months). With the daylight that we are having right now, the best bite will be from the break of dawn until about 9am and from about 5pm to dark. On cloudy days, they may bite all day. I believe that the full sunshine days allow them to be spooked easier, especially when fishing from the shore.

I agree with ceb. Sometimes the heat will drive them to deeper water or they might hang out in shade or shadows under brush, trees, lily pads, docks, bridges, and so on. Usually early or late is the best time for me when its hot but there are exceptions (see thread below). On cloudy days they may indeed bite all day.

We did real well in the heat on this particular day along canal bends and along shoals when a little wind and some clouds came up.
http://www.crappie.com/gr8vb3/showthread.php?t=22010

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i had a few hours to kill, but its 3 pm in arkansas..and hot as a doozy. does heat really kill the bream fishin?

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Are you fishing Ouachita? We went Sunday and tore them up. I know that everyone wants to talk about the spawn, but I have always fished for filet brim in 20-30 or even 40 feet in the middle of the afternoon. That is on Ouachita. Once you find a hole full of them you can spend an afternoon catching 30 or 40 huge brim. Then move to the next hole. I'm sure that one can catch hundreds of big brim and fight little brim to get to them, but I would rather catch half that many and have quality fish, the huge brim. I am 6-4 250 and have big hands, Stop the jokes. So a hand size brim is huge. I catch the huge knotheaded brim with all the deep water color that makes them look like a peacock. I have caught them durring the middle of the spawn at this depth with fish full of eggs or just dropped. I say all this and know that I have only had this success on Ouachita. I really don't brim fish any where else. Oh, I only use big crickets with just enough split shot to get it to sink, maybe a little more if little fish show up. Usually get one half way down or throw it out again. I wish I had a camera that I felt safe with on the lake. Caught one that went a pound and a half. Thats great, but rare anywhere.

when it gets really hot find shade thats what the bream are doing too

You will catch bream anytime of the day and being hot don't matter..trust me i been catching them for 70 years.

Here’s my two cents. I have noticed catching gills in the morning and evening normal. When the sun get up high and gets hot the fishin slow down. What I have been told is that fish don’t have eyelids, with the direct sun light in to the water will drive the fish deeper in to darker water, under docks and into shaded areas. I have notice this also in fishin for trout, shallow in the morning and evening deep during the day.

have caught Brim in Hosston Black Bayou near Vivian La some years ago when we had one month of days with Temps near 100

Of course they were sort of thin

But they were hungry and bit like Brim

keep on fishing

Smackover