How have the fish fared so far?

[JeffP]

I was just wondering what everyone thought about heat and low water and its effects so far. I have done almost no fishing this summer. It seems like here in Lancaster County we seem to get a break with some rain and cooler days whenever I start to get worried. I just saw a drought map that looked like Poconos are the only area in a phase of drought but not too bad. Looks like more heat and humidity for next week.

 

[JeffP]

This should be in the general forum. Sorry!

 

[lycoflyfisher]

For much of this summer in central/ north central pa this has been a walk in the park compared to last year. Every time we have had am extended hot dry spell (2 weeks), we get a deluge and good flows and temps return. I would almost go as far as to say I would expect little to no mortality of wild fish from the weather we have had so far this summer.

We need a good spawn this fall.

 

[poopdeck]

I’ll echo the above. I think summer temps have been pretty mild and the drought non existent. In fact, just like last summer, water levels have been superb in my area with only a few weeks of what I would call low water but now we got rain right on cue.

 

[Dave_W]

All weather things considered, this has been a good year for both trout but also warm water species. We've had some hot days, but rainfall has been pretty consistent and well spaced.

I predict, based on this, a good fall fishing season as we move into Sept.

 

[troutbert]

There has been some very hot weather this summer, and more is on the way this week.

But we've also had frequent rains, which helps a lot.

 

[Chaz]

No affect here in the southeast, and there has been plenty of rain in NC PA. They've gotten rain whenever they needed it this year, not like last summer, when they had only 8 inches of rain all summer.

 

[ryansheehan]

I only fish tailwaters in the summer so obviously those are pretty much always fine. The one that runs into issues sometimes is the middle and upper yough as one is a "hybrid" tailwater and the other seems to run out of cold water. That being said both of those seem to be in good shape.

 

[jifigz]

Streams around me are running mighty cold for August. And I'm not talking about just little streams.

I gave up worrying about temps and fish a few years ago. The wild fish will figure it out and I can't spend too much time worrying about things out of my control. But this year has been wonderful as far as summer time flows go.

 

[larkmark]

Just because water levels are up does not always mean the temperature is in the range where we should fish for trout.

 

[wildtrout2]

jifigz wrote:
Streams around me are running mighty cold for August.

Agree. I have a few freestone streams that I usually fish frequently, but they haven't seen temps much past the mid 50's, so I've fished more for natives this summer. One stream a couple of weeks ago was at 50F!

 

[krayfish2]

By mid/late May, I was sure that things had aligned to put us in a serious drought position for the remainder of the year. Mother nature was good to us this summer. Everytime it looked bad, more water. I'd have to guess that the trout did well through the dog days. I'm going to guess the smallies benefited from not having swim around gasping for oxygen in 94 degree water for extended periods.

 

[jifigz]

larkmark wrote:
Just because water levels are up does not always mean the temperature is in the range where we should fish for trout.

You're right, it doesn't. But usually more water and faster flows leads to cooler water. And, in most places that aren't surrounded by tons of concrete and human development, rain will usually cool a stream. Obviously we all know rain in towns/concrete jungles will actually raise stream temps. I was on three streams just recently. Two were small limestone influenced streams and one was a large limestone influenced stream. All were right between 58 and 60 degrees. Not too bad.

 

[larkmark]

I was checking temps on some larger trout stream before these recent rains. The levels were decent but also not real high. Water was clear. While headwaters had temps in low to mid 60s, a few miles downstream water was around 70 to 72. Further down I am sure it was even higher. This was about 10:00 a.m. when air temps were going into mid 80s everyday. The cooler nights were what seemed to help but during the day things would heat up. This week we are seeing air temps into 90s every day.

 

[wgmiller]

I've been keeping my trout fishing to the usual summertime haunts: spring creeks and tailwaters (not you, Tully!). That being said, as mentioned above, the somewhat regular rain has really helped to buffer the higher temps we've seen this summer. I fished Donegal yesterday and with the higher flow from the rain the fish were more than willing to play. I think overall we've fared a lot better this summer than the past several years.

 

[larkmark]

If I get a chance today I'll check Donegal since I am working up that way. I'm curious how it will hold up in the 90 degree temps. A lot of the small streams dropped and cleared up fast. The river is way up and brown. Apparently brown or stained water warms up faster....I read that somewhere.

 

[afishinado]

Surprising to some anglers, an increase in flow of a stream can actually cause an increase in temperature.

This happens all the time at Valley Creek (see graphs below) >

 

[Susquehanna]

Yet when you look at Cross fork/ kettle or young woman's the opposite is true.

Can't really compare urban streams with forested streams in this regard.

 

[jifigz]

Susquehanna wrote:
Yet when you look at Cross fork/ kettle or young woman's the opposite is true.

Can't really compare urban streams with forested streams in this regard.

No doubt about it. A 100% forested freestone stream is gonna drop in temp with a good, solid rain. I have not clocked a warm temperature anywhere on any of the trout streams that I have fished this summer. Although, I haven't been out a ton.

 

[lestrout]

TomC's and Susq's points about Valley (basically an urban stream) vs. forested watersheds is why stormwater management is the priority for Valley Forge TU.