# Heat and Panfish



## MrSafety (Feb 22, 2005)

Hopefully this hasn't been covered already, but does anyone else get concerned about warmer water and fish? The surface temp the other day was 84...........I've fished my whole life and never keep many fish in July and August.......am I wrong or do the fish not eat as well in the summer?


----------



## Acer (Aug 17, 2007)

For the most part, fish move out to deeper water that has cooler temps. Just because the surface is 84, 5ft down or more can have enough temp change to hold the fish at. Usually at these times of the year pan fish move off the shallower areas and look for food in the deeper areas. Bluegill and Craps look for differant areas. Since Crappies tend to feed on minnows they will move off looking for them. I tend to find them about 15ft down over 20-30ft, give or take. For gills I'd move just off the areas I was finding them before or look at deeper weed areas. Since gills like things like reeds, going to the deeper areas around them is a place to start. Also at these times I have taken both in areas I was looking and catching walleyes in. The biggest thing to remember is that just because the surface is warm does not mean 10ft down its still that warm. Its when O2 levels start to drop in deeper water summer kills can start. Not all fish can move into 84 degree water and survive. This blast of heat the south west is getting can be very hard on fish like pike and trout. Since they live for cool to cold water (under 60 degrees) that warm water messes them up to a point they cannot feed enough to keep weight on. Other fish like bass do better in warmer water then in cooler water.


----------

