Beat The Heat

Welcome back to another blog post brought to you by Marker23 Guide Service, My name is captain Ozzy and I want to share with you 3 tips on how to fish the dog days of summer. We are all familiar with the Carolina heat and the effect that it can have on the fishing. Fish are lethargic, slow, and sometimes unwilling to bite. But with these 3 tips you can increase your odds in the summer heat.

As a full time guide I fish in all kind of weather including the hottest parts of summer. Outside of hydration and safety I would like to share with you the first thing I like to do when things get hot. My go to move when the dog days of summer have begun, is to fish early and late, this means getting a very early start ( as early as 5am) and fishing till lunch then taking break until you are ready to get back after it around 4pm or 5pm until dark. The morning and evening are not only natural feeding windows for fish like Redfish, Speckled Trout, and flounder, but these times are also the coolest times of the day.

If you have to fish the hot parts of the day then I encourage you to force a reaction bite. Meaning you throw baits like, a top water plug, a spoon, or a spinner bait. these baits cause the fish to make a quick decision on whether or not they will eat, in doing so your odds of catching said fish go up.

Lastly the best thing you can do in th heat is sight fish. When sight fishing you are force feeding the fish. very rarley does a shallow water fish deny a well placed fly or lure. Most sight fishing is done on very high tides and very low tides, in both scenarios these fish are only in the spots to feed. Some times that means a floodtide fish cruisinf the grass flat in search of crabs and shrimp. Other times this means low tide fish crushing bait fish that have no where else to go.

I hope this helps you put a few more fish over the rail of your boat this summer. thanks for tuning in and we will see you next time.