Session Blog - Mystery Summer Waller

Summer fishing is sometimes difficult and many things that usually work do not bring fish in the summer. Since I have been fishing for many years throughout the year for catfish, I have a good comparison of the different seasons and of the things that work.

In summer we often have low water levels, high water temperatures and thus little oxygen in the water, which leads to the fact that the fish are sluggish, i.e. reduce the food intake, or optimize their activities. This means that especially in summer the catfish do not swim a meter too much, and I am sure they are true masters when it comes to optimally coordinating energy consumption and feeding. I would like to tell you here briefly about one thing that has shown itself again and again in recent years in the summer and the water independently.

I, too, have long assumed that the catfish, as a nocturnal fish, is primarily hooked at night. Many summer nights I sat on the rivers and I had to experience very often the harsh reality of summer fishing and blank nights were not uncommon. Sometimes I didn't get any action for nights, even though I had placed my mounts exactly where I definitely saw waller on the depth finder. There, where I was allowed to fish with live baitfish, it was also very noticeable that during the nights the rods remained absolutely still, i.e. the baitfish were not even nervous, which of course allowed the assumption that no predators were on the way.

If there was a bite, it was always the next morning, when it was already light again. We only develop as anglers if we reflect on what we experience and draw our conclusions from it, and so at some point I began to leave my rods in the water longer and longer in the morning, even if that means a special physical effort in the summer, of course, because of the heat. Especially when boat fishing, when you have no shade, this is a tight number.

After all, we want to catch fish, so we should do what makes sense. After it had become apparent time and again that bites come regularly in the morning, or in the forenoon, I began to think about it, because in fishing there are actually no coincidences. Everything that happens, happens for a reason and if things repeat themselves, there must be a rule behind it, which we as anglers often cannot understand or justify.

Meanwhile, I have developed my own strategy for summer fishing and that looks like that I set my mounts in the evening but already know that the night will remain rather quiet. Of course, bites also come at night from time to time, but compared to the daytime hours, this is rather low. So I don't worry at all if I don't have any fish until the morning, because I know that the good time is coming. In fact, I set my rods all over again in the morning and it often doesn't take long at all for action to come. It has been shown that there are also good biting windows during the day and then again phases when less happens. A good phase is the complete morning, until the sun is at its highest. Then it gets quieter until a second good phase starts in the early afternoon, often lasting until dusk.

What I have described to you here, has shown itself as waters overlapping and it is actually also independent of the fishing method. Also in active fishing, whether vertical or with the spinning rod, the daytime hours are particularly interesting in the summer and it is certainly no coincidence that in the summer, during the day also the really thick bite.

Of course, I would like to give you a reason for this and I also have different explanations, but I don't know the real reason for this and therefore I don't want to give you any speculations or half-knowledge.

Take it for granted that it works really well during the day in the summer and let the sweat flow to get you a fat summer walleye.

One last but not unimportant note from me. If you caught a fish on the day, make sure it stays wet all the time. A wet mat in the boat, pour water again and again and also keep the photo session always in the water and as short as possible. This should be in principle always so but in the summer, in sweltering heat, you must not allow yourself any mistake, rather once do without photos!

In this sense, good luck on the water and many greetings.

Sven Dombach, Team Black Cat