Penn's Creek Report Tempature Rising

[TimMurphy]

What is the cutoff temperature for bass?

Dear Troutbert,

When you can't drink a beer fast enough for the last sip to be cold it's too dang hot to fish. Personally, I won't fish for anything if the water temperature is over 82 degrees. I fish for fun, and I like to let the fish rest when it's too hot and steamy. If I feel hot standing waist deep in the water, I figure the fish are a little uncomfortable as well.

That said, I used to the fish the dam at the Goudey Station powerplant on the Susquehanna in Johnson City NY. To get the dam you had to wade through the cooling water outlet for the powerplant. Many times in July and August during hot spells the water in that pool was well over 100 degrees and I actually got scalded by the water a time or two. Once I crossed to the main river, I looked at my legs and they looked badly sunburnt. Smallmouth were still herding minnows in the outlet pool. They would come in as a pack and just blast the minnows and roll back out of the pool into the main river.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[Bamboozle]

What is the cutoff temperature for bass?

I really don't know but figured 93 degrees isn't good for anything...

 

[discomidge]

Penns at the Cherry Run lot was 73.5 at 4pm today, and dudes were all about heading in. I told a couple guys the temp that I had just taken, one said "I guess I've got a decision to make". He decided to fish, of course.

Summer came fast, which is a bummer, but this evening I remembered that hunting brookies is a blast. My bow and arrow cast was on, somehow.

 

[afishinado]

What is the cutoff temperature for bass?

From the article linked below >

How Hot is Too Hot for Bass Fishing?​

Bass can tolerate significantly high water temperatures considering their ideal temperature range, making even the height of summer very viable for bass angling. It’s important to note, however, that 85° is the cut-off mark where their appetite is suppressed in favor of increasing their survivability.

Best Water Temperatures for Bass Fishing (Complete Guide) - Freshwater Fishing Advice

Water temperature is the most crucial thing to consider when setting off to fish for bass, and it can be the deciding factor on how you should approach your angling

freshwaterfishingadvice.com

 

[Mike]

Penns at the Cherry Run lot was 73.5 at 4pm today, and dudes were all about heading in. I told a couple guys the temp that I had just taken, one said "I guess I've got a decision to make". He decided to fish, of course.

Summer came fast, which is a bummer, but this evening I remembered that hunting brookies is a blast. My bow and arrow cast was on, somehow.

View attachment 1641230854

You can take solace in knowing that they were not going to catch much at that water temp. Heck, given the lousy fishing reports (or the lies about bad fishing😉) that predominate this site in good conditions when it comes to Penns one wonders why many Pa anglers go there for day trips from any substantial distance at all except to enjoy the very nice scenery, perhaps see a rattlesnake, hit the drake hatch once in their lives, and pull the slot machine lever of angling the rest of the time to see if this is finally their lucky day on one of Pa’s better known streams.

 

[JeffP]

Yea the big BS i hear passed along is that you can fish for brook trout up to 67 degrees without having excessive mortality. Studies ahow their serum stress hormone(cortisol) starts to rise at 64 degrees. I suspect alot of people fishing the famous limestone streams till noon and hitting brookie streams in the afternoon dip the thermometer and keep fishing over 64-65 degrees.

My Cortisol level rises with a lack of trout fishing! Staying at Poe Paddy next week. We are taking the kayaks and going to hit some WW or just drink and hike. Still kind of bummed.

 

[Nocktavius]

My Cortisol level rises with a lack of trout fishing! Staying at Poe Paddy next week. We are taking the kayaks and going to hit some WW or just drink and hike. Still kind of bummed.

I think my cortisol levels would be even higher staying 30 minutes from any major road to take me to another waterway but knowing its too warm to fish for trout on the blue ribbon river that’s running right outside my tent. Like owning a Lamborghini but not having a drivers license 🤣

 

[Fish Sticks]

My Cortisol level rises with a lack of trout fishing! Staying at Poe Paddy next week. We are taking the kayaks and going to hit some WW or just drink and hike. Still kind of bummed.

I know, my summer night fishing will be restricted to tail waters and ice cold spring creeks but smallies, redbreasts, rockbass and fall fish on wets, dries and streamers isn’t too bad of a consolation prize.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Like owning a Lamborghini but not having a drivers license 🤣

What color is your Lamborghini?

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I know, my summer night fishing will be restricted to tail waters and ice cold spring creeks but smallies, redbreasts, rockbass and fall fish on wets, dries and streamers isn’t too bad of a consolation prize.

Those fish species ARE the prize.

 

[Fish Sticks]

What color is your Lamborghini?

My Lamborghini is a beat to crap 2008 black Honda fit that looks like I live and camp out of it due to my fishing road trips.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

My Lamborghini is a beat to crap 2008 black Honda fit that looks like I live and camp out of it due to my fishing road trips.

is at least manual? If so it is automatically cooler than any high performance car with a SCUMtronic transmission. Hey, Honda's are reliable though so I'm sure it has quite the mileage on it. Whatever happened to the notion of you buying that sweet old school Toyota van? I liked the idea.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't drive a G-wagon or a new Defender, the gear inside my POS car is worth more than the car itself.

 

[CLSports]

I can’t speak with first hand knowledge to the decline in trout populations on rivers like the Big Hole, Ruby, Jefferson, etc. that are mentioned in this article but I can tell you from the years that I spent on the Yellowstone, that there was a continual decline there in trout populations and sizes during the period I was there (2001-2019).

I’m sure there are multiple reasons that a person can point their fingers at as the causes for the decline, climate change, agriculture, etc.,etc. But one thing as much as any other sticks out in my mind: I have met the enemy, and it is me (or us, all of us).

It’s this damn forum, it’s the internet, its social media, it’s better fishing gear, better angling techniques, better cameras and photography, etc. It’s too many of us, being better fishermen, fishing the same places for the same fish.

Who the hell ever heard of carrying a second, third, or mabye even a fourth rod when they went trout fishing 30 years ago, much less a 10’ euro whatever type of special this or that type of rod, line or fly? (and I’m not knocking doing that just pointing it out as a contributory factor.)

At one time, I could walk 100 yards up the river from where we stayed on the Yellowstone, and catch 30 trout in the evening on a dry fly without moving 10 feet. In subsequent years, I could sit on the bank in front of our place and count 100 drift boats pass by in a couple hours, of which 3/4 were “guides“ with their clients, and they fished the same lies, over, and over, and over, and over, again and again and again. You catch a fish, then snag a fish, then fight the fish, often over playing the fish, then take the fish out of the water to take a picture, maybe two or three pictures, and how about a video then to post on the internet?

Oh sure, we love our rivers, but we’re loving them to death. And the same exact thing is happening here in PA, and, I’m afraid, on Penns Creek. (I don’t know him, but thank gawd for people like Bruce at a Penns Creek Angler.). And it’s happening on the Little J, the upper Delaware, and elsewhere.

Will it stop? Should it stop? I dunno.

You say you caught 30 fish in a night, then why not stop at a few and give the fish a break? If one person catches 30 fish or 30 people catch one fish then what is the difference really?

 

[Fish Sticks]

is at least manual? If so it is automatically cooler than any high performance car with a SCUMtronic transmission. Hey, Honda's are reliable though so I'm sure it has quite the mileage on it. Whatever happened to the notion of you buying that sweet old school Toyota van? I liked the idea.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't drive a G-wagon or a new Defender, the gear inside my POS car is worth more than the car itself.

i liked it too, saftey rating for my kids travelers was certain death to non-existent

 

[mt_flyfisher]

You say you caught 30 fish in a night, then why not stop at a few and give the fish a break? If one person catches 30 fish or 30 people catch one fish then what is the difference really?

Sure, I could have stopped fishing after 2 minutes when I had caught my first fish, or perhaps after 10 minutes when I had caught 5 fish. That’s a judgement call. I stopped after I had fished for an hour and thought I had caught enough. There was an hour or 2 of daylight left and I could have kept fishing.

Almost no one ever fishes that section of the river in the evening because you either need the landowner’s permission to be there, or access it by floating the river, which 99% do in the day time (9am -5pm for most).

I could be wrong, but I suspect that most others would also keep fishing as I did with rising trout all around them and no other fisherman in sight.

 

[JackM]

A 30 fish day makes up for 5 skunks.

 

[rancid waders]

I have caught 3 in night on that creek and walked off. I wont fish for trout if the temp doesn't do them any favors

 

[caddisflyer]

I just drove over two hours to fish the famous Penns Creek. I just spent a half hour getting my gear on and I am definitely fishing! (Pay no attention to my Release Wild Trout license plate.)

 

[jifigz]

So at what temperature do I need to quit fishing for trout? 68°? That is what I always thought was the cutoff. 64° for brook trout though, right? Do I stop fishing by a certain date on the calendar? I'm so confused. Maybe I should just focus all my efforts on catching smallmouth or fallfish or something.

Actually fishing is just a cruel, barbaric act anyways so I should just give it up.. After all, people who really care don't hook them in the face, drag them in, stress em out, hold them out of water for 2 minutes for a pic, then put em back.

 

[jifigz]

I took stream temps on every stream I wet a line in up in Potter the last 4 days. The thermometer sometimes shows very, very surprising results of both colder and warmer than expected.

Plenty of cold water up there to find though, even given low flows and late in the afternoon..