Reading the Water
Far and away the best times of year to fish for carp, catfish, bullheads, and suckers are early spring to summer while waters remain relatively cool, and late fall to winter when waters are cooling down from their summer highs. This isn't to say that midsummer periods are poor for fishing -- on the contrary. Fish biologists consider temperature to be the single most important factor governing the occurrence and behavior of fish. To survive in their turbid environments, for example, coarse fish may require up to four times as much food in 76° F. (24° C) water as they do in water temperatures of 50° F. (10° C). This suggests that their feeding forays are actually accelerated during the summer months, and that they should therefore be easier to catch because they are eating more frequently at these times. And it's true.
But warmer temperatures introduce a host of parasites into the watery environment, too. While all warmwater fish are susceptible to infestation, these parasites find slow-moving coarse fish particularly desirable hosts. As a result, carp, catfish, bullheads, and suckers taken from midsummer warm waters may tend to have soft, unsavory flesh ... far from the firm, flaky meat so common with colder-water catches.
Whether or not you find it necessary to restrict your fishing to the peak periods of cooler water, keep in mind a couple of simple observations that will help you plan your fishing strategies. First, the best times of day to fish are undoubtedly during the low-light conditions from early dusk to dawn, although they sometimes take a bait throughout the day. Although channel cats can and do use sight in their search for food, for the most part they and their bullhead cousins rely most heavily on their senses of taste and smell. As such, they're quite content to while away the daylight hours in the comfort of shady logs and weedbeds, undercut banks, and even deeper pools below rocky rapids or waterfalls. As dusk arrives they begin to stir, moving slowly from cover to feed in the shallows and quiet waters. Trailing their sensitive barbels along the bottom, they are quite adept at finding and following a scent trail over remarkably great distances.
But don't ignore the special bonuses that occur from rising turbid waters or stormy weather. Such conditions can stir up mud and sediments, reducing the effective penetration of even the midday sun's rays.
This leads us to the second point -- the fishes' sensory abilities. The scavengers' ability to hunt by taste and smell can rouse them from their usual daytime lethargy and send them on the prowl for tasty tidbits that are inevitably washed into their waters. Obviously, pieces of natural baits -- worms, minnows, insects, and insect larvae -- will out-produce your homemade baits during stormy or cloudy periods, simply because there is so much of it floating around naturally. Be sure you're ready to take full advantage of these situations, and you'll be well on your way to a profitable day of fishing.
And last but not least, read the water for telltale signs of fish. The presence of catfish is usually evident by the small bubbles that rise to the surface. Sometimes by watching these bubbles, an angler can cast into the path of feeding fish. With bullheads, if you look closely you can't miss the gregarious, large groups disturbing vegetation.
Carp on the other hand exhibit much splashing when feeding and swim around with no apparent place to go. When they do form a group, they change from swimming lazily to quickly, with violent rushes, waving and rattling like a sudden wind. Another characteristic sign of the presence of carp is the dimpled appearance of the bottom of the lake or river, caused by their bottom feeding characteristics.
