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[Floon]

So, ok. You are heading out and it's August 5th and it's 75 degrees already at 7 am. We're talking that you drink water for 4 hours straight in the float tube and you don't even have to get out to pee because you've passed it literally through your pores.
The fishing  was poor so you chalk it up to "summer doldrums". Good call.
But,
Fish have to eat all year and cannot physically stop feeding for weeks on end. Yes the heat does affect them but it does NOT mean the fish stop feeding altogether. They would all perish if this was the case.
Ever notice that when you DO hook a fish in summer it is almost always large, deep bellied, and mean? Like peel your index finger kind of mean!? The biggest calorie items are available in summer months as the insect populations' size reach their peek at this time so the most meat for the fishes buck is available.
To catch these fish one must take advantage of the situation and work when the fish are active. Also it is a must for consistancey to scale up your patterns to the sizes available in these productive weeks. 3 and 4" leeches are not out of line here at all.
Next the time we fish must be adjusted. Rather than fishing late into the day when the water is going to be hottest,(after 1pm) take a walk and investigate the night fishing after 11PM instead. The water requires some time to begin the cooling of evening so 1 1/2 to 2 hours after sunset is a pretty good gauge to work by.

Now the fish are comfortable on the shoals again because they being the shallowest, cool off first. The fish is a slave to it's enviroment so the cooling of this water must take place before it can venture in to take the bounty unavailable during the sunlight hours. The ticket for this fishing with the exception again of sedges is the sub aquatics zeroing in on things like leeches and scuds. Again I am a huge advocate of impressionistic patterns that can imitate a few food sources rather than a specific imitation. Trout are opportunistic feeders most of the time so stacking the deck a bit in your favour with fly selection always helps. My FAVORITE pattern for fishing nights is a black chenelle woolly bugger palmered with grizzly hackle. I believe it works 3 fold. 1, The black is a good sillouette for fish to veiw from below, 2, the grizzley hackle barbules have white on them for side veiwing and a sort of 'flash' and 3, the palmered hackle works on the fishes lateral line as it moves through the water. Good Ju-Ju for night fishing.
To fish the morning hours, fish close to shore. And I mean close. Remember this is the last time for about 16 to 18 hours the fish will have access to this part of the lake. It will also be the coolest water through heat dissapation.

Some summer tips for consideration:

-Bloom does not go from top to bottom. It is rarely more than 4' deep. Instead of thinking of it as detrimental to fishing take it as "cover". An insulator if you will from the fish. THEY CAN'T SEE YOU!
-Often times fish will cruise the bottom of the bloom and feed there. 2 reasons for this. The cooler water from evening often gets trapped there and they like to take advantage of insects and invertibrates that are enjoying the same comforts. Often times fish will eat things just as they dissappear into the bloom so a sink tip can be invaluable for morning summer fishing.
-Wear white instead of sunscreen. I wear a dress shirt with the collar turned up and a straw hat. It takes a long time to get the chemical smell out of a dubbed fly......
-If you use sunscreen on your hands use water proof stuff and then wash the palms and finger tips of your hands with soap.
-Darkness is your friend. Learn the body of water you are fishing by day so you can move about it safely at night. BE CAREFUL out there.
-Carry a whistle and a PFD in case of trouble. You should do this always but at night especially.
-Summer fish for some reason have sharp gill plates. use as thick of tippet as you can get away with. Flourocarbon helps immensly here. Please throw used flouro in the trash not the lake.

Have a blast!

Floon*

[leadbelly]

interesting and enlightening

[Fish Assassin]

Excellent tips Floonster

[Trout Slayer]

Good post, sunscreen still can be used. What I do is put it on then wet my hands quickly and just rub on some scented shrimp oil if it is legal to do so in the body of water....works wonders. Even do it without sunscreen just to get rid of the regular skin oils.

[Floon]

Thanks guyz, always wanting to help out!

[newsman]

Good call Floon. I have had some of my best Trout fishing in the Interior when the day time temperatures are from 35 to 45C.

[Terry Bodman]

Just returned from Merritt area where it was plenty warm. Late evening fishing with half backs and 52 Buicks (dragonfly nymphs) working on a full sink line. Fish were few and far between and were deep. But as my mother used to say, "a  poor day fishing beats a good day working."

[Dynamite kid]

Love the summer doldrums ,no one around ,their all sock snagging.For me it's full sink time with a huge dragonfly pattern(although I use this all year ).Trolling monster leeches at night is very fun and productive as well.Scary when you bump into underwater obstructions with your bellyboat at night though.

[TtotheE]

Ever since I had a couple bats on the end of my line I've stayed well clear of fishing at night.  Perhaps because I was messing with the dry fly a tad too long into the fading light...  

[newsman]

Hey TtotheE you passed the test. It ain't a real replica
if the bats don't grab it. Take along a pair of leather work gloves and you should be able to release the bats unharmed.