Do you WWI's use stream thermometers?

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Going through, cleaning up, organizing my gear etc etc etc.... I came across my stream thermometer. I have not used it on the Susquehanna River ever. The thought then occurred to me, should I be? Not for reasons of monitoring lethal temps, like for trout in the summer, but for other reasons?
How many of you warm water insurgents use a stream thermometer?
If so what are your reasons for doing so?

Or should I just leave the thing at home?

 

[Dave_W]

I use mine for WW fishing, but not as frequently as when trout fishing. If I'm planning on writing a report here on PAFF, I'll take a water temp just to include it.

It's useful in early spring as I've found that about 40-42 degrees is the magic number when the pre-spawn starts to pick up. Temps below that usually see me sticking with trout. Summer on the big rivers I often don't take temps, but am sometimes curious about feeder creeks, frog water, etc and I'll check temps in those spots.

SMBs like warm water, but I think for muskies it's best to watch the temps and maybe chase bass if temps are in the 80s.

If you're spending a lot of time on the Susky, particularly in the same general area, it would be interesting to keep tabs on water temps this year, particularly in the mornings. At the end of the season, you'd have a valuable data set that might give you some insight on where fish were feeding (or surface vs mid water column) as well as time of day and correlation with water temps.

 

[sandfly]

yep even warm water can get to warm !

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Dave,

I like those ideas and think I will start to log that kind of information.

Bob,

It has been a topic of discussion on here in the past and no one can really pinpoint a number for SMB that indicates it's too warm for them. In fact all scientific evidence I have found show that larger adult SMB like very warm water to the point they prefer it (upper 80's).
Can you explain what you mean?

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Dave,

Good idea! I would add an important variable (aside from water temp.): Cloud cover. My best days this past year on the north branch were during late summer, cloudy/drizzly days, not just mornings.

Of course, you could get really crazy (thorough/scientific) and add moon phase, water levels, barometric pressure changes, etc. to your data collection.

Now that I think about it, I think I'll do that.

 

[afishinado]

For bass fishing, a cold front which drops the water temp even a few degrees seems to give bass lockjaw for a day or too until the temps stabilize. This holds true even in the summer when temps are in the ideal range for SMB, It seems any sudden change in temp that causes the fish to become lethargic.

 

[Mike]

I don't know about lethargic, but the drop in water temp makes fish move in some cases and stop moving in others. It shuts down spring migrations of all River species until the temp starts to rise again...as seen in fishways. When sampling spawning walleye or stripers in prespawn mode, it chases them out of the shallows. Likewise for prespawn crappies. Too much of a temp drop and even spawning or nest guarding bass will abandon their nests or nesting territories in lakes and rivers. I suspect that what angler's often perceive as being fish lethargy may frequently be movement of fish away from areas where they were located just prior to the temperature drop.

 

[Dave_W]

Flyswatter and Sal,
If you keep records of water temps, etc for bass this year, it would be a nice thing to share here. Write up a short report (however you want to do it, doesn't have to be fancy) and post it here at the end of your summer season or at the end of the year.

It would be an interesting read.