Seem like big cats hunters need a summer thread, so here you go, talk about how you hunt for them big blue in the heat of good old Texas summer.

I'll start, in theory, fish gotta to eat right? So the goal is to catch them when they're actively feeding, sounds simple enough, but why is it much harder to catch big blue in the summer?

I read an old Texoma study where they actually electronically tagged several big blues and monitoring them over a period of time. The researchers were suprised how sedentary those big fish were , some of researchers thought those catfish were dead.... what they found out was that those big cats would stayed immobile all day in the same spot. They'd go feeding briefly then come back to the same spot stay still like a log...

Understanding what they eat in the summer is key... my guess is big gizzard shad in most lakes in the summer. Where and when those shad ball up is where the big blues will be... just my 2 cents.

Haven't caught many big fish this summer. The eight over twenty I have caught in the last four weeks have been out of 26 to ten ft. All during the day with the lake going down around 2.5 inches a day.

Ive caught 3 fish over 10 lbs this summer. All were in 5 fow or less.

Been a tough summer for me as well, I've been marking some real nice fish but can't seem to get them to take my baits

Only caught a few double digit fish this summer. One was in the middle of the day drifting with a large chunk of shad in about 30 ft of water. The other one that comes to mind is my girlfriends that came almost in the exact same spot at about 930 PM. My buddy and I are gonna try to pull a few out of Lake Worth Wednesday evening drifting in the deeper parts of the lake around dark.

Any water, lake or river, when the water is falling fast the bite slows way down. In a river it may completely stop. Don't know why, it just does.

awesome, my kind of fish! At 5 fow, was it cool or warm water?

This summer has been tough for me too, only managed to get one 7 lb'ish channel cat. And a few small blues... been catching palm sized bluegills, just got an air pump arator from Academy, will see how those gills deliver?

With all the rain this year everybody I know has been hammering big blues and yellowcats. We still need a few more rises though.

Its been tough on the Ar river as well. We been flooded for several months..Just now getting to fish some ..then the 100* heat hit.... i have always been told in large lakes oxygen level goes down as the water temp gets in the 90* range so the big ones probably dont move around a lot...

Good to know, are y'all catching them in August? We got too much water in North Texas, fish change their pattern (I have to blame something lol), the new water cover a lot of flats near shore, too deep for me to wade, but too shallow for the bigger fish, water too hot in afternoon when I can fish I'm actually waiting for water to drop a couple feet so I can drive my suv to the nearby dropoff

I was fishing with him a couple of times this summer. We were hammering them in that shallow water. Water wasn't exactly cool, but we were fishing at the north end of Hubbard, and I think we had the advantage of the Lake Lavon release flowing in. We were in the lake a good ways, but fishing in and around the creek channel. I have to wonder if they are still there now that the gates are closed.

You 100% right on oxygen level in hot water, my thought exactly.

I've always thought if it's hard for you to breath it's hard for the fish to breath.

Best way I know to catch big blues in summer is cover lots and lots of water. The summer bite will never rival the winter bite, but the fish are definitely meaner in the warmer water. Ive caught them during the day and at night, I prefer night because it is easier on me. Fish the highways and catch the fish as they are coming or going.

Last Wednesday we had 4 blues over 20#, plus some box fish. Blues were cpr'd