Where do you fish when it gets hot?

[HeaveToo]

This time of year, as the water temperature creeps up, a lot of us start fishing evenings and mornings.  This year seems like it has been a little warmer than normal and it became warm early on.  My last few fishing trips were in some hot weather and I found the water temperatures are getting really high as well. 

Last summer I tended to fish to Occoquan and hit the edges of the weed cover in the evenings.  It was especially good fishing if the evening coincided with a low tide.

If the water temperature creeps up too high the fish will be forced deep or we may see some fish kills.  The metabolism of the fish should be accelerating and they should feed more, but where will they be feeding?

What are your fishing plans as it gets hot?

[Matt S.]

The water usually remains cooler longer in the brook trout streams way up in the SNP... so that's one good option. The website for Murray's flyshop updates conditions there frequently and it'll say so if he thinks it's too hot.

Another option is to fish some of the local lakes and ponds at night -- challenging with a fly rod but not impossible by any means, particularly if you have a boat; a surface strike on a big popper in the dark is enough to make you jump out of your skin, though timing the hookset without the visual can be difficult... if that bothers you, fish subsurface with a streamer and there will be no doubt.  I can't say I've had a lot of success at heavily pressured Lake Anna but some of the guys out there every day catch impressive fish.  VDGIF keeps it open to fishermen 24/7 and I have had some fun and caught some fish (bass and bluegills) there, including in the middle of the night.  Lake Brittle also is open to night fishing but seems by appearances to have suffered from the drought and maybe some silting from the major repairs they've done to the earthworks. 

I'd not advise wade fishing big rivers or new areas at night, that's a recipe for becoming a statistic.