Fishing can be miserable on 100-degree days, but the summer months can be good for fishing as they bunch up and feed aggressively.

The temperature is consistently in the triple digits, lake temps start the morning near or above 90 degrees and there are very few lakes in the state that are not down at least a foot.

It is not 2011 where Northeast Texas experienced 46 consecutive days of 100-plus degree temperatures, yet, but it is pretty miserable. It is not hard for fishermen to talk themselves into staying inside under the air conditioning, but if you can beat the heat this is actually a good time to catch a lot of bass.

“The way to do that for anglers is to go early and come in at noon or go at night. This is when everyone likes night fish because it is a way to get a break from the heat, and the fish bite like crazy,” said Major League Fishing pro Kelly Jordon of Tyler.

Jordon, who started his fishing career guiding at Lake Fork, explained the fishing is not necessarily easy this time of year because on some lakes the fish are not as scattered as normal.

“The saying is that you find 90% of the fish in 10% of the water, but as the water gets warmer it is more like 95% in 5% of the water, and as the summer goes on it is like 99% in 1%,” Jordon said.

Just like any other time of the year, not all lakes are the same. Some, like Palestine, are not traditionally known for a deep-water bite. Lake Fork and Sam Rayburn do have summertime deep-water bites, and if the fishermen can locate the schools it can be outstanding.

“For lakes with an offshore bite this can be some of the best fishing of the year. You have to endure the heat, because they are biting,” Jordon said.

In the past finding deep-water fish required either luck or hoping traditional holes had not been hit too hard. Today fishermen are seeing the usefulness of forward-facing sonar to find the fish. Jordon said that with a thermocline the schools suspend and jump out on the sonar screen.

While the early and consistent summer heat may have stepped up the schedule some, Jordon said July is often good for a summer pattern, but he often has his best fishing in August and September. Besides cooler water temps, one reason fishing can be good is that the baitfish have transitioned from the shoreline to deeper locations and the bass are aggressively feeding on them.

“The key depth there has always been 18 to 35 feet. Twenty-two to 25 used to be the magic three feet, but when the white bass showed up that screwed that up. I don’t know why,” Jordon said.

He added he is not sure what will happen this summer with the lake already down 6 ½ feet.

Although he lives on Lake Palestine, Jordon said summer fishing on that lake is more keyed to shallow water.

“It has never been a deep-water lake. I have heard a lot of theories, but some say there are so many catfish there that the deep water belongs to them. Deep on Lake Palestine is 8- to 15-feet of water,” Jordon said.

This is the time of year to pull big crankbaits out, but there are a lot of others baits that will work as well.

“You can use the spectrum of baits offshore, jigs, shaky heads, magnum shaky heads with big 10- or 11-inch straight worms, Carolina rigs, spoons, Texas-rigged worms and drop shots for sure. Crankbaits are lights out, but if you are not getting reaction strikes some of the slower stuff pays off,” Jordon said.

However, he believes hot water is the time for speed, and notes fishermen cannot reel fast enough outrun a bass.

“You can’t ever go too fast. If a fish wants your bait it can swim faster than you reel. I never fish slow this time of year, or painfully slow until I found them or caught a few and went back through them. I start in fifth gear and slow down to third or second,” Jordon said.

This time of year fishermen need to keep an eye on their water temperature gauge. If the water is too hot the fish may move into extremely shallow water off and on, but they are going to stage back in deep cooler water. That includes bass that move up to feed in the evening. Jordon said he believes this to be the case because he has caught bass in shallow water during the summer with an extended air bladder that were not able to swim back down on their own.

“I used to fish night tournaments on Fork and we would fish 12 feet or less, but close to deep water. They would run up and eat, and then go back. I don’t know how deep they came out of, but it must have been 30 feet or deep because we had to fizz them. They were not living in 12 feet of water,” Jordon said.

Of course fishermen need to be diligent on handling fish this time of year. Hopefully they are not fishing tournaments other than catch-weigh-release because extended mortality of fish kept in livewells is going to be high even with ice. Jordon also said it is important to get a fish back in the water as quickly as possible, and if you need to measure one dip the belly board in water to cool it off before putting the fish on it.