Cold weather trout behavior

[pmelle]

So as we approach early winter with cooling air and water temps, I know trout have begun to start exhibiting their winter feeding and holding patterns, but I'm curious as to when this changeover occurs. I plan on fishing through the winter (where/when available) and would like to know what techniques you've found useful for targeting trout, which areas of creeks/rivers trout will move into, and even patterns you've all found most effective. I fish the brodhead creek and Lehigh often for better idea of where I'll be fishing. Any creeks within an 1-2 hour drive of Lansdale area worth trying would
Be great to know, look forward to your input, thanks!

 

[fisherboy3]

As the water temps approach about the 45 degree mark the trouts metabolism will slow up. This really means they wont exert nearly as much energy to get food as they do in the spring-fall. Oxygen isnt a problem for fish in the winter time either hence them being in slow deep pools and runs and not fast riffles. I have definitely noticed that fish love log jams in the winter time. Stoneflies, worms, midges, eggs, small pheasant tails will usually do the trick. Any of those stroud township parks along the brodhead have deep pools and runs. You can fish there as long as the temps aren't rediculously cold or the stream is iced over. Limestone creeks are a good bet im the winter also. The bushkill in easton can be good sometimes due to its limestone influence.-Kev

 

[Cornholio]

Streamers work well when the water gets cold. I have caught Trout Consistently with Clouser Minnows during the cold dead days of winter. I doubt the pattern has anything to do with it, any streamer would do the trick. The goal is to trigger that predatory instinct because the fish are rarely actively feeding in the winter.I have caught trout on streamers when the water was 31 degrees.

The trout's holding positions are the same as any other time of year. The only thing that changes is your window of opportunity to catch them. The best time to fish is during the warmest part of the day, usually from late morning to mid afternoon. Trout also will lay in shallow water where there is direct sunlight.

Avoid fishing during snow melt it will shut a stream down.

The best attitude to have is to expect to catch nothing and appreciate what few fish you do catch. It is possible to have great fishing during winter, but if you do it will be the exception not the rule.

This info applies to freestone wild trout streams. I don't spend much time on limestoners.

 

[fisherboy3]

^That name is awesome!

 

[krayfish2]

The OP mentions the Lehigh. On bigger water, I'd expect the fish to move from their normal lies to deeper and slower water. If you typically find fish in the head of a pool during warmer temps, I'd fully expect that fish to drop into the center of the pool or vacate completely in search of deep water for the winter. In a smaller creek like the LL, the fish don't move that much. Prime feeding spots remain consistent.

 

[Mike]

As of this past week in SE Pa wild brown trout were holding in the same habitat types in which you would expect to find them in summer. So, we have not witnessed any winter-like behavioral change yet.

 

[Maurice]

Today on Muddy Creek a rainbow in the tail of a fast riffle that took a green drake wiggle numpf of all things. And when we found fish holding in slower water they were not hitting well at all. Picked up one other summer holdover brown on an 18 head head caddie pupae. Threw the hit hen sink at these fish with no interest. Water temp 40.

 

[JeffK]

I don't think winter trout go all that deep - maybe 3 ft. My theory is they like to get the most sun to warm up while still feeling safe. Therefore, they will be just as deep as you can't see them.

I like the tails of pools over the dark bottom. This may be the place that is too warm in summer. However, spring seeps can be thermal refuges in the summer or winter.

 

[CLSports]

There are limestone creeks in the area that you will find trout feeding on midges all winter on the surface. On the coldest days, wait til the sun comes up higher in the sky and warms the water a bit and it is usually game on. Not the big ones, but still good dry fly fishing in January.

 

[RLeep2]

This is never easy for me to explain, so bear with me...

I think, more than we sometimes might notice or be aware of, the relationship between winter trout feeding activity and water temperature is as much if not more about the velocity or even the amount of the temperature change over the course of a day as it is about the actual water temperature.

Huh...?

To put it in the form of an example.... I've had better winter fishing (found fish to be more active) on days when the water temp went from 33F up to 38F over the course of a 3-4 hour period than I've had on days when it took nearly all day for the water temp to go from say, 37F to 39F or perhaps more importantly, than on days when the water temp has remained static all day in the upper 30's.

There seems to be something about the velocity of the temperature change that makes a difference, even when we are talking a relatively narrow range of numbers.

This at least has been my experience. Although I'm certainly open to suggestions that I might be overthinking the entire thing...

 

[salmonoid]

RLeep2 wrote:
This is never easy for me to explain, so bear with me...

I think, more than we sometimes might notice or be aware of, the relationship between winter trout feeding activity and water temperature is as much if not more about the velocity or even the amount of the temperature change over the course of a day as it is about the actual water temperature.

Huh...?

To put it in the form of an example.... I've had better winter fishing (found fish to be more active) on days when the water temp went from 33F up to 38F over the course of a 3-4 hour period than I've had on days when it took nearly all day for the water temp to go from say, 37F to 39F.

There seems to be something about the velocity of the temperature change that makes a difference, even when we are talking a relatively narrow range of numbers.

This at least has been my experience. Although I'm certainly open to suggestions that I might be overthinking the entire thing...

Agreed - it is the delta on the temperature trend that helps make the difference on how far fish will move to take an offering on a given day.

Perhaps there's even a good physical explanation for it. To raise a volume of water a degree of temperature means the water must absorb some amount of heat (Q=c m deltaT). If the temperature is raised multiple degrees (say 3-4 degrees), then the amount of heat added is 3 or 4 times the amount of say the amount added for a one degree temperature increase. Most of that heat is going into raising the temperature of the water, but I'd postulate that a little trout is going to feel a bit of that as well. If there is enough Q added over a shorter window of time, it might be enough to trigger feeding.

 

[Chaz]

The first places I hit during the winter are runs and riffles where the sun is on the water. Trout lay in deep pools for resting and move out of those areas to feed, I think perhaps because that's where the active food is. What I do know is you can hit a trout on the head with a woolly bugger in a deep pool and it won't hit, so stay away from deep pools.
I'm not comfortable fishing big rivers during the winter, mostly because there is usually ice along the edges, so I don't fish them. I would say though, that I suspect it will be hard to get action in deep pools during the cold weather. I'd still look in the runs and riffles for feeding fish. The biggest difference is that in large water temperature changes are less likely to have a large effect.
Look out for dropping temperatures during snow melt, a quick change downward will turn off trout.

 

[McSneek]

Maurice wrote:
Today on Muddy Creek a rainbow in the tail of a fast riffle that took a green drake wiggle numpf of all things. And when we found fish holding in slower water they were not hitting well at all. Picked up one other summer holdover brown on an 18 head head caddie pupae. Threw the hit hen sink at these fish with no interest. Water temp 40.

I too threw the kitchen sink at them on Muddy Creek yesterday. I believe it was the first time I've ever taken the skunk there. We tried the open water below Woodbine and the FFO stretch. Saw very few fish in the FFO. Had a couple bumps on buggers. Foul hooked one on a tiny bead head olive nymph. Water was really low and clear. Just seemed lifeless.

 

[afishinado]

I fish quite a bit in the winter. On occasion I am invited to fish with Dave Weaver aka Fishidiot in the SC PA springs creeks in the cold months. Fishing spring creeks in the winter is a real treat, but most of my winter fishing consists of hitting a few freestone streams close to home for a few hours in the afternoon.

Fishing these same streams in the winter, over time (a few decades...I'm a slow learner) I have found places where I can usually hook up with a few trout. And they seem to pod up in predictable places year after year. Here is an article written by Tom Rosenbauer with some great info about winter trout locations.

Where Do Trout Go in Winter? - by Tom Rosenbauer

Walk along a trout stream in the winter and the riffles and pools that danced with insects and rising fish look as lifeless as the bare branches on the hillsides above. Overhanging brush that offered secure feeding spots in August is transparent and useless without its veil of leaves. You peer into a riffle and can't imagine a trout living there.But there is plenty of life in a January river.

Last year I bought a house on a small trout stream, and in the process of figuring out how to improve my habitat for the wild brook, brown, and rainbow trout that live there, I became as aware of a trout's needs in winter as in summer. Because natural mortality of trout populations is highest in winter, if you're a landowner you pay attention to habitat concerns that most fly fishers never consider. For instance, young-of-the-year trout need safe havens from floods, mergansers, and anchor ice that are totally different than the needs of adult trout. They can't handle fast current and need to stay away from older trout that might eat them, so these little guys need lots of protection in the gentle currents of backwaters and shallows. I've sunk a number of brush piles in eddies and backwaters where young trout can find refuge, and hopefully next year I'll be rewarded an abundance of healthy yearlings.

Adult trout spend the winter in different places. There are about eight pools and a half-dozen riffles on my property, and all of them hold trout in varying densities during the trout season. I'm able to walk the banks of this river at least twice a day, and gradually I've discovered places where I can crawl up to the bank on my belly to watch the trout, undisturbed. I've been known to leave a house full of guests to do this when the light is just right, but I don't advise it unless you crave a reputation for eccentric behavior.

By the end of the summer I was confident that I knew where 80% of the fish on my property lived (my confidence level of catching them was much lower). When there was food on the water, the fish would suspend in riffles and tails of pools; when there were no insects on the water, or when the wind blew hard and spooked them, the fish sunk closer to the bottom, along the banks, submerged rocks, and in deep pools. As soon as the leaves fell, though, their habits changed. Places that held fish every day in summer were barren. I could see clear to the bottom but did not even spook trout-in all pools except one.

All of the trout on my property had congregated in one slow (but not the deepest) pool, the one with two massive logjams in the center. Comparing this pool to all others in the area, I noticed the one thing it offered was lots of protection from predators and the current. During the spring and summer, the need to capture food is equal to or more important than protection from enemies-as long as there is some cover close at hand when danger threatens. As the food supply dwindles and water temperatures drop and streamside vegetation recedes, the need for protection from winter floods, anchor ice, and predators becomes the primary factor in a trout's existence. Most of the fish on my property are spring-spawning rainbows so spawning migration is not an issue.

Trout do feed in winter, especially if water temperatures climb above 40 degrees. If the law allows, try winter trout fishing in your area. Trout won't be found everywhere, though, in fact they will probably be concentrated in just a few pools.

So look for them where you find:

· In-water cover, especially logjams. - Trout will use rocks for winter cover but because there is usually more turbulence around rocks, logjams offer better habitat.
· Water depth over three feet
· Slow but not stagnant currents. Water that is nearly still does not bring food to the fish.
· Springs along the streambank.
· Groundwater is warmer than surface water during the winter.
· Usually, springs betray their presence by patches of green plants growing in the warmer water. You can also find springs by looking for tiny patches of fog along the bank on very cold mornings.

Link to source: http://www.bluequillangler.com/Knowledge/How-to-Catch-Trout-in-the-Winter


Tom Rosenbauer is one of my favorite FFing authors for a long time. His book "Prospecting for Trout" is one of my favorites. Here is really informative excerpt from the book discussing reading a stream and how to fish it. A good read if you have some time:
Prospecting for Trout

 

[pcray1231]

There seems to be something about the velocity of the temperature change that makes a difference, even when we are talking a relatively narrow range of numbers.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

In regards to the "what temperature is too cold" question, I always answer that it's not the temperature, it's the direction of change (within reason, anyway). i.e. a stream warming from 33 to 36 will often fish better than one cooling from 43 to 40. Same thing happens when it's too warm, too, a stream cooling from 72 to 70 fishes better than one warming from 65 to 67 (not saying you should fish above 70, but it will fish better).

Saying the speed of change matters as well is a natural followup.

Basically, it's conditioning. Fish get used to something. If it changes for the worse, they get sluggish, and if it changes for the better, they get active. And the higher the severity of that change, the bigger the effect.

And P.S., I've always viewed 61 as the "optimal" temperature. i.e. that's what you want to move towards, and the farther you are away from it, the more important these factors become.

 

[pcray1231]

Another note, not that it matters so far this winter. But once snow is on the ground, water temperatures will actually crash, VERY rapidly, on a warm sunny day! That's when you get severe cases of lockjaw.

Seems so counterintuitive to think that streams often warm up on cold days and cool down on warm days. But considering on cold days runoff diminishes, leaving the main influence as 55 F groundwater, whereas on warm days you have 32 F snow melt pouring in.

 

[dryflyguy]

pcray1231 wrote:
Another note, not that it matters so far this winter. But once snow is on the ground, water temperatures will actually crash, VERY rapidly, on a warm sunny day! That's when you get severe cases of lockjaw.

Seems so counterintuitive to think that streams often warm up on cold days and cool down on warm days. But considering on cold days runoff diminishes, leaving the main influence as 55 F groundwater, whereas on warm days you have 32 F snow melt pouring in.

Yeah - I've seen this happen several times. A large amount snow melt definitely shuts down feeding activity.

When I first started this sport, there was an old adage that the water temp had to be at least 50 degrees for the trout to rise. And I kinda wondered about that. Did that mean that fish wouldn't rise at 49, and then turn right on at 50?
Of course, I soon discovered that I could often find trout rising with water temps in the '40's - most likely when it was on the upswing.
And I also remember an odd march outing on slippery rock creek quite a few years ago now.
I was there on St Patricks day, and found many fish rising to a heavy stonefly hatch - with a water temp of only 38 degrees.. Of course, the weather had been quite cold for several days before that. And the warmer air temps that day I'm sure raised the water temp up from near freezing.

 

[Chaz]

Never walk up to the bank and set fishing, always fish the undercut banks from a distance first.