Do you fish for trout when the water temp reaches close to 70*F?

If the likelihood of temps reaching 68F, then I can do without fussing with the trouts for the day.
 
I haven't fished for trout in months.....it has been a very hot,dry summer.
 
Nope. I'm having too much fun chasing carp with the flyrod to even think about trout by the time the water temps start to approach 70 degrees.
 
At these temps I ramp up my trout fishing efforts to get a few leftover hatchery trout since I enjoy eating fish.
Terrestrials usually work well. :)

(Only half kidding here: I do enjoy fish and my local ATWs will not typically hold fish over and wild fish are not typically present to be by-catch. Might as well "utilize" those stockies.)

With respect to C&R, it depends a bit on the situation, stream, and species. I'm not zealous on this issue. I think temps in the upper 60s can be okay for some C&R trout fishing but I'm likely to go elsewhere if I see upper 60s. This is particularly true if it is morning. Anything over 70 will have me doing something else.
 
It's bee a while since I've been out for trout, I haven't even fished during the trico hatches on the local streams. I went out on the Delaware a couple of times and that was a dud.
I went to the camp for the annual workday we have but did even look at any streams except the one next to the cabin, it was low slow and gin clear. The water was cold, but I just saw it as a losing proposition.
 
I have fished a lot of limestone streams this year that were low 60's in the am. After temps got around 65* and better the fishing wasn't very good so I went bass fishing instead.
 
I have not fished very many places this summer due to the high water temps. My favorite stream for this fishing has not been over 64 degrees any morning I have been out. Another favorite stream has been too warm to fish, since it goes over 72 degrees regularly late in the day. A third one tops out near 70 degrees on the real hot days, so I have fished it only once or twice when we have had one of our few cold nights.

I think if a stream is cool in the morning and tops out at less than 70 degrees late in the day, you are ethical to fish it during the morning.

This is much different from the way guys thought when I started. They sought spring holes on marginal streams; and when trout congregated there during the hot weather, they tried to catch them. They made fine catches and sent many trout to their doom in the pre-catch-and-release days. If you read James Bashline's book about night fishing, these were the kinds of holes that figured prominently in the night fishing adventures of that time.

If you read the Shields/Harvey collaboration about trout fishing, George Harvey caught his largest open water PA trout during a night fishing adventure in one of these places where a number of big fish had lined up. As I recall, it weighed 8 1/2 pounds.

Pretty interesting topic -- one that involves a number of thoughts about the ethics of trout fishing.


 
Not with the Susquehanna right out my front door and plenty of great chances to chase some bronze backs. It'll be a few weeks until I get back out to a trout stream.
 
I just carry a thermometer and check temps. This time of year I mostly fish small native/wild trout streams that don't warm up too high.
 
When the water temps are on the verge of turning sour and I happen to get caught with either the fish or go home choice, if its a whisker under 70 I fish. Its akin to driving under the legal limit. Impaired but still legal. Once its a constant or more frequent I leave them alone.

They are just fish. Mother nature will make more. You sanctimonious trout huggers.
 
68 is my stopping point for wild fish and 80 for stockers
 
I guess I stop right around 68... Andy when you fish for stockers in 80 degree temps are you on the Tully using tricos and do you bring a throw net?
 
Once summer hits I stick to the tailwatwrs. I carry a thermometer but very rarely am I in a situation where the water is approaching lethal temps.
 
Don't use a stream thermometer just the one on the porch. When the temperature reaches 85 it is too warm. The shade, a cold drink and hammock are in order. When the temperature reaches 90 it is staying in the air conditioning.

Fall and cooler temps are coming. When I do get out it is almost like spring again not knowing what the streams hold or how the fish have managed.

The joys of retirement somehow take the urgency out of "having to do something" within specified available time frames.
 
If its a cool night and temps are 65 or below Ill fish the morning. Any higher than that not worth it.
 
I think if a stream is cool in the morning and tops out at less than 70 degrees late in the day, you are ethical to fish it during the morning.
Click to expand...

Pretty much my thinking also, only not restricted to just the mornings.

So I voted yes since the question is phrased as 'reaches close to 70', not over 70. Water temps mid-hi 60's during the heat of the day, if the fish are biting, then why not?
 
IF someone wants to keep a few stockies that made it I have no problem with someone fishing in 70 degree water. This actually probably increases the chances of the other fish surviving. This is the only time I would harvest a trout. I would much rather see someone harvest the stockies IF they are just going to die from warm water temps.
 
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