The Editor’s Note: Summer fishing memories

or most of my 20 years or so as a sports reporter and mostly

Fcovering my main beats of Division I college athletics and high school sports, the summers were traditionally my opportunity to exhale and take significant time off. So I got used to planning my vacation time between June and August.

Truth be told, these days I prefer to take vacation days – particularly for international travel – in the fall or spring; less tourists, more affordable, milder weather. Yet as I read Jeff Walters’ report on how to beat the summer heat to catch fish (page 39), I now look back and think that some of my best fishing experiences have come in the summertime. Go figure.

Granted, I’ve caught a lot of nice fish in the spring and fall, but I think some of my happiest days as an angler were during our family trips to Lake Tahoe and Clear Lake in the dog days of July and August. My first Clear Lake catfish bit my nightcrawlers on a blazing hot afternoon in late June. And there was the 3-pound kokanee my dad and I landed while toplining in a rented boat off Tahoe Vista during our annual summer trek. When we brought it back to our motel – we’d become regular visitors and friends with the proprietors – the owner cleaned it, fried it up and we all got a taste.

And on back-to-back mid-June days in 2012, I had two great trips for Lake Berryessa kokanee and Lake Oroville landlocked coho with guide Rick Kennedy. Great memories.

What’s funny is that despite growing up in San Bruno, just 12 miles south of San Francisco and where the temperature rarely exceeds 75 degrees year-round, I’ve since lived in rotisserie ovenhot summer climates like Fresno and Lancaster in California, and Fayetteville, Arkansas. So I’ve gotten used to triple-digit conditions that make you want to flee inside for the air conditioning.

So while I’m indeed planning a trip out of the country for late September and early October, maybe I should be thinking about those catfish, kokanee, bass and other creatures that swim this month and next – hot weather be damned. Fish gotta eat too.

-Chris Cocoles

During this Lake Berryessa trip in June 2012, a hot day provided some great fishing for the editor. Some of his best days as an angler have some in the scorching summer. (CHRIS COCOLES)

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