Fish Care Tips in the Heat

This is one of the worst times of the year to fish tournament for both anglers and fish. I have seen alot of anglers not drink enough water and get weak or worse, dehydrate to near heat stroke levels. I always have my clients start drinking water right out of the gate at the ramp. Alot don't understand if you get thirsty it's already too late. I try to drink atleast one or two bottles of water an hour during an event. Now I do have to admit I am not big on drinking cold water. I like to drink it fast between runs to save time. To do this I keep my water in the dry box and when I get one out I just add a couple of cubes of ice from the cooler to it and shake it up. This cools it enough but not so much you get a headache when drinking it fast.

I also like to ask my clients to make sure to have a good breakfast before the trip. As many of you know I have had some skin issues and cancer running in my family on both sides. I learned from a doctor that eating alot of tomatoes and other things with Lycopene in them helps your bodies natural ability to prevent sunburns. That being said I eat them all the time. I also like to get the small Cherry Tomatoes and put them in a bag in the cooler. They make a great fast snack. I try to also to eat one Banana a day(but never on a boat because you NEVER have one on a boat). It helps keep your muscles from cramping up when fishing hard in the heat.

As far as fish care during this heat it's not hard at all. If you are just fun fishing when you get the fish in the boat try to avoid getting it on the carpet first thing. This causes the slime coat to rub off which protects fish from disease. Many people know the carpet does this due to it being rough but it also does this from heat. Think about fishing without shoes on and how hot your feet get after awhile. Also if you catch a fish that you need to measure, dip your board in the water before placing the fish on it. This metal also holds heat as well as cold and can cause injury to the fish as well.

One thing is to always make sure in the summer months to have additive for your livewell water and change it often. I like to time it by about two hours after the first fish in placed in the well I dain about half the water and refill it with fresh and add some additive to it. Also in the summer months I drop in a hand full of ice to cool the water. I am not big on using bottles of frozen water for one reason. If you have several large fish in one well and run any distance that hard bottle of water will simply beat them to death in that small area. I worry enough about beating them up on the walls of the well as it is so I don't like to add something else to the mix with it. Studies show if you keep the water within 5 degrees of the natural water temps(keeping in mind you caught them deeper than most temp sensors) they will be fine. A good rule of thumb I use is if I am fishing an area that is producing fish in 12-15 feet of water and the surface temp reads 85 then I would think the water they were holding at would be around 70 +or- 5 degrees. Now I am not saying this is exact in all cases due to every lake being different but it's just a general rule I go by.

On the last part and one thing I see huge numbers of anglers that are guilty of is at the scales. They take care of those fish all day treating them with "kit gloves" only to either toss them into a bag with very little regaurd to slime coats or while in the line a the scales set the bag on the ground(mainly hot pavement in most cases at alot of boat ramps). I look at it like this, if the ground is too hot for you to walk barefoot on it without burning you feet then set the bag down. If not set it on your feet. I was standing in a line once and a guy told me that. I was curious if it really amde that big of a difference so later I filled a bag with water and put a temp gauge in it. The water temps in the bag raised 9 degrees in less than 4 mins. on the hot pavement. Leason learned on my part.

I hope this kinda helps some anglers on keeping themself and thier fish healthy during the hot summer months. Like I stated before this is not a perfect way but just the way I have used that works. If anyone has any other ideas they would like to add let me know. One thing I learned years ago is you can never learn too much. Thanks for checking out the articles and be sure to check back often for updates. I also use Twitter for on water updates so sign up there as a follower or Check out www.waaytobetterfishing.com for on water updates in the lower right hand side of the main screen. Have a great summer and see you on the water.