Some Like It Hot: 4 Species to Target in the Dog Days of Summer

Finding a tailing carp willing to take a fly is a mid summer day’s dream for many fly rodders. All photos: Drew Price

It’s midsummer and a lot of fly anglers are legitimately concerned about fishing for trout in their local waters. The streams are low and warm so trout aren’t an option. So what to do? There are bass around, of course, but what about getting your big-fish fix? Actually the heat of midsummer might be one of your best times to scratch that itch.

This large bowfin was landed on a day where the water hit 88 degrees.

Bowfin

There aren’t too many game fish in North America that have the heritage that the bowfins do. These ancient fish are serious predators, and while not many regulatory bodies have recognized their value as game fish, plenty of anglers enjoy the challenge. Smart, pugnacious, aggressive, and tough, bowfin are a great target during the summer.

Bowfin are well adapted to warm, weedy environments and have been since their appearance about 300 million years ago. They can breath air, their coloration and movement allows them to slip through vegetation easily, and their curiosity helps them find food. A properly placed fly often results in a viscous tug of war. Fights with bowfin are more barroom brawl than battle of will. A stout, short leader lets you jig a fly right in front of the fish’s face. Be sure to really set the hook on their toothy maw for maximum fish landing opportunity!

Mr. Bow-Regard
Hook: Gamakatsu live-bait light-wire hook, size 2.
Eyes: Lead or tungsten dumbbell eyes, large.
Weight: 6 to 12 wraps of lead wire, o.030.
Thread: White, 3/0 or 210-denier, colored with a marker to match the fly.
Tail: Olive marabou.
Rear legs: Grizzly barred rootbeer Magnum Predator Legs.
Hackle: Olive webby saddle hackle.
Rib: Copper wire, large.
Body: Woolly Bugger Chenille or Estaz to match or contrast with tail.
Front legs: Grizzly barred rootbeer Magnum Predator Legs.

Best Outfit: Use a stiff 7- or 8-weight rod—shorter rods tend to be better for hook sets—and a floating line. Your leader should be fluorocarbon and short: 18 inches of 20-pound then 30 inches of 16-pound. The bowfin’s teeth are not cutting teeth, so no bite tippet is required.

Flies: Mr. Bow-Regard, Woolly Bugger, Changer Craw, crawfish patterns, and buggy carp flies.

Longnose Gar

The gar are a holosteans (primitive bony fish), like the bowin, making them another truly American species. Gar are certainly gaining more popularity in the fly-fishing community, and warm summer days are the best times to sight-fish for them. These long, slender fishes will give up their position by gulpling air, giving anglers ample opportunity to cast a fly to them.

Longnose gar offer great summer sight-fishing. Look for fish gulping air.

Drop your fly in front of and past the gar. If you can see the fish and can’t quite tell which way it is facing, look at the fins. They are triangular, and the long point is in the direction the fish is facing. Strip the fly relatively close to the gar, and it will either immediately smash it or give chase. Don’t slow the fly down! They will slash to the side with their toothy, slender mouth to grab the offering.

My preference is to fish with rope flies, although many anglers now believe these patterns to be unsporting because if you break off a gar with a rope fly in its mouth, the fish will not be able to get that fly out and will die. I believe that this argument has merit only if you are using a light leader, which is why I recommend using 4 feet of 30- to 50-pound fluorocarbon, a setup that has never broken on me. When you’re fishing with a rope fly, don’t set the hook. Let the fish grab on and keep a tight line.

If you are concerned about using rope flies, choose a streamer with a small trailing hook (e.g. a size 4-8 egg hook), and be prepared to really set the hook. You will definitely catch fewer fish than you would with a rope fly, but you don’t have to worry about break offs.

The Gar Champ rope fly is a great option for catching gar, but be sure to use a heavy leader to avoid break-offs.

Best Outfit: Use an 8- or 9-weight rod and an aggressively tapered line to allow you to toss a large fly quickly and accurately. Your leader should be 30- to 50-pound flourocarbon. A gar’s needle teeth won’t cut leaders, so wire isn’t necessary.

Flies: Rope flies work best, but streamers with a small hook gap will allow a fly to get caught on the fish’s beak or set into the bone. I use rope flies in my guiding because I want people to experience these magnificent animals, though it does mean carefully removing the fly. Hold the fish upside down to calm it, and use gear ties (the rubber coated wire type) to help hold the mouth open for removal of the rope fibers. In my experience pink has been the best fly color for gar, but white and chartreuse have done well, too.

Hard-fighting drum are a blast during the heat of summer, and they’ll smash a well-presented fly.

Freshwater Drum

The freshwater drum (a.k.a. “sheephead” or “sheepshead”) is another great native fish that will eat a fly in summer conditions. They are bottom oriented and can often be seen rooting around for crawfish or mussels. Drum are not above eating baitfish though!  Look for drum over rocks, on sand flats, and in open water.

Drum have terrible eyesight, so it’s important to use flies with contrasting colors that will catch the fish’s attention. Think orange-and-black, chartreuse, hot pink, and the like. Rattles are a great option to help draw their attention. Drop the fly in front of them and let it settle on the bottom.  When the fish takes the fly the fun really begins. They are real bulldogs and put up a serious tussle.

The contrast of a black Clouser Minnow against the bottom makes it easier for drum, with their poor eyesight, to pick out.

Best Outfit: Start with a 7- or 8-weight rod with a good backbone. These are a very strong fish and can grow to 20 pounds. A floating line is all you’ll need most of the time for summer drum, and it helps to use a slightly aggressive tapered line like the Scientific Anglers Titan to cast a heavy fly. Your 9 foot leader should be tapered to a 10- or 12-pound fluorocarbon tippet. A skinny leader lets the fly sink faster.

Flies: Clouser Minnows, crawfish imitations, and Dave Hurley’s Flats Jordan.

Carp are a fantastic summer option for fly anglers that like the challenges of fly selection and presentation.

Carp

Carp are challenging fish that can take you into your backing in no time. They get large, display a wide variety of behaviors, and are found in a lot of different environments all over North America. Finding them is easy, but getting them to eat can be tough.

Carp process oxygen efficiently, so fishing for them when the water is in the 70s or 80s is not an issue. When you find the fish, you have to figure out what they are up to and look for the ones that want to eat. Look for fish that are sitting still, slowly cruising, or tailing. Don’t bother casting to fish that are fast moving or splashing around, as they are unlikely to eat. Because they are carp, your odds start low anyway!

You don’t need to make a hard hookset with carp, and you may break the fish off. Keep your rod tip on the water, and when the fish takes, simply lift the rod quickly. Because you are often sight fishing, you will typically see the grab. The fish that go on fast runs are your friends because they are expending energy fast and will come to the net much quicker. The ones that circle or run into the weeds are in for an extended battle.

Having a fly of the right weight is more important than a specific pattern. This carp was deep on a Lake Champlain flat, so I needed a very heavy fly to get down to it.

Best Outfit: Your choices should depend on your fishery and the size of the fish, but anything from 5- to 9-weight can work well. A good reel is recommended and a large arbor can help you quickly retrieve line on a fish that has made a long run. Floating lines are key, and you want one that won’t spook the fish. Use a line with a muted color and a flats style taper. A long leader helps keep your line away from the fish, so start with a 9-foot tapered nylon leader, and add on anywhere from 2 to 4 feet of fluorocarbon. You’ll get more takes with 8- to 10-pound fluorocarbon, but many people prefer to go a bit heavier to avoid break-offs.

Flies: So many options!  My best advice is to carry a variety of flies in a range of sizes, colors and weights. You want to be able to target fish that are close to the surface or down as deep as six feet. It is really hard to generalize what carp want from place to place, and they will eat almost anything. (Seeing a 25-pound carp slash through a school of minnows is a sight to behold!) Just be aware that they are carp, so what works today may not work tomorrow.

Drew Price runs Master Class Angling, a guide service in northwestern Vermont, where he takes clients fishing for everything from smallmouth bass and pike to bowfin and carp. But he also loves chasing big trout and landlocked salmon in the rivers that flow into his beloved Lake Champlain.