Time to Leave them Be (TROUT)

[laszlo]

The heat index thru the weekend is to be over 100 in SE PA

 

[pcray1231]

Flows are often more important toward holding low water temps than air temperature. Thats not to say air temp doesnt matter. It does.

But lots of groundwater = springs flowing full bore. Limestone and freestone springs alike.

 

[Swattie87]

It’s a lot harder for 100 deg air to heat 100 cfs of flowing water than it is 10 cfs. Hot air temps, and low flows are the double whammy.

 

[dryflyguy]

FWIW - I don't live near water that's cold enough to safely catch trout in now.
I had to drive almost two hours to do so.

Point being, and as many other posters have stated, there are plenty of options to catch trout in cold water over the summer in PA.
And for someone to essentially, make a blanket statement that we shouldn't be fishing for them right now is, going a little overboard IMO.

The OP posted this same thread last year - stirring up the same discussion.

 

[troutbert]

The State College forecast is for 93F on Friday and 94F on Saturday, and only getting to a low in the 70s overnight.

That is really hot weather.

When it gets that hot, a very large percentage of the streams that most people fish will go over 70F.

Including many brookie streams and many limestoners.

 

[dryflyguy]

troutbert wrote:
The State College forecast is for 93F on Friday and 94F on Saturday, and only getting to a low in the 70s overnight.

That is really hot weather.

When it gets that hot, a very large percentage of the streams that most people fish will go over 70F.

Including many brookie streams and many limestoners.

Agree.
And I would stay away from most streams with temps like that.

However, if I was off on those days - and really felt like fishing - I know a couple of tailwaters that would still have temps in the '50's

 

[k-bob]

this is interesting... think I will take a hike w thermometer and fishin gear to some small pocono tribs I want to see, ready to fish or not (if the water's too hot) in this heat wave. have seen some tiny pocono tribs have ok early am, kickin up fog, but this heat is gonna be interesting.

new toy:
https://www.amazon.com/Fluke-59-Max-Infrared-Thermometer/dp/B00UKXOW60

pat: "Flows are often more important toward holding low water temps than air temperature. Thats not to say air temp doesnt matter. It does.
But lots of groundwater = springs flowing full bore. Limestone and freestone springs alike."

swattie: "t’s a lot harder for 100 deg air to heat 100 cfs of flowing water than it is 10 cfs. Hot air temps, and low flows are the double whammy."

troutbert wrote:
The State College forecast is for 93F on Friday and 94F on Saturday, and only getting to a low in the 70s overnight. That is really hot weather. When it gets that hot, a very large percentage of the streams that most people fish will go over 70F. Including many brookie streams and many limestoners."

 

[FarmerDave]

troutbert wrote:
The State College forecast is for 93F on Friday and 94F on Saturday, and only getting to a low in the 70s overnight.

That is really hot weather.

When it gets that hot, a very large percentage of the streams that most people fish will go over 70F.

Including many brookie streams and many limestoners.

Yea, I'll probably be spending most of the weekend in the pool. I do know of several streams that stay plenty cold, but if I go to one of those, I will likely be soaking in it, rather than fishing.;-)

 

[k-bob]

posted this image in another thread: tiny pocono trib, below 60, recently creating fog as air warms... maybe weekend will be too much on many or all of them, but will take some temps and see...

 

[afishinado]

k-bob wrote:
posted this image in another thread: tiny pocono trib, below 60, recently creating fog as air warms... maybe weekend will be too much on many or all of them, but will take some temps and see...

^ Good stuff! I would be interested in seeing the results.

 

[SMAlbert]

Is there a way to find out water temps without physically going there and measuring it yourself? I can find water flow online but NEVER water temp.

Someone in another thread suggested locations in the Poconos to me this weekend. I can't image not fishing once I got there unless the water is actually boiling!

This is my first "serious" season of FF and when I get free time to get out I don't want to waste a minute of it!

 

[silverfox]

SMAlbert wrote:
Is there a way to find out water temps without physically going there and measuring it yourself? I can find water flow online but NEVER water temp.

Someone in another thread suggested locations in the Poconos to me this weekend. I can't image not fishing once I got there unless the water is actually boiling!

This is my first "serious" season of FF and when I get free time to get out I don't want to waste a minute of it!

While nowhere near a complete list of streams, this site has some useful monitoring parameters. Note that the values shown are samples taken at the time listed under the stream name. You can use the "graphs" tab at the top to generate a time graph of a given parameter. That shows you the high/low temps throughout a date range to give you a better idea of trends.

https://mdw.srbc.net/remotewaterquality/data_viewer.aspx

More information about the monitoring program is here:
http://mdw.srbc.net/remotewaterquality/

 

[k-bob]

I like the data linked in previous post. But they won't put monitors on many of the streams with trout and the lowest water temps, because the coldest streams will likely be tiny headwaters tribs with ravine or rhodo shade that get groundwater inputs.

The streams in the srbc monitoring data mostly drain 10+ sq mi, many much more (numbers given in watershed description).

A step-across brookie nano-trib could drain 1.5 sq mi or less (image post 29 = big pool for that 1.5 sq mi drainage stream). it may seldom be unfishable due to water temps, even if it is always tough to fish due to tiny size, brush, and access issues

 

[dryflyguy]

A few of the USGS gauges do have temp sensors on the larger streams,
Delaware, Clarion, and Youghiogheny Rivers.

Silver fox - thanks for posting that link.
I didn't know about that site.
Now I can check temps on the little j

 

[afishinado]

Each to his own, but I just can't see driving around in this weather and hiking in trying to find a stream with cooler temps. To hell with the fish....it's too hot for me!

 

[Mike]

Streams that support trout in Schuylkill Co that also receive substantial mine pool discharges have a good chance of being fishable as well, particularly as one moves upstream in the direction of the discharge points.

Additionally, I think some are being overly pessimistic regarding the stream temps that this warm spell will produce. I have done plenty of wild trout stream surveys over a period 42 yrs in 90-100 deg F and have had no trouble finding cool water temps. The water temp is taken at the beginning of each survey. Few of those years saw precip like we have seen over the past years, so I assume flows were lower in many cases than they would be now.

 

[k-bob]

Afish .... I hear you but I range from lazy to oddly motivated

FWIW Mike knows more than I ever will but his post make sense to me

 

[troutbert]

k-bob wrote:
this is interesting... think I will take a hike w thermometer and fishin gear to some small pocono tribs I want to see, ready to fish or not (if the water's too hot) in this heat wave. have seen some tiny pocono tribs have ok early am, kickin up fog, but this heat is gonna be interesting.

I'll be very interested to read what you find.

I've done a fair bit of taking water temps on trout streams when the air temps are hot.

One interesting thing I found is that some small streams in the Poconos are actually cooler further downstream than they are higher up.

You might check that out. Take temperatures where the streams are still low gradient streams up on top of the plateau, where they are flowing through wetlands, ponds, and impoundments.

Then take temperatures after they've dropped down off the plateau for awhile and are flowing through the forests as higher gradient streams.

The temps can drop substantially.

 

[Mike]

I saw the same thing that Troutbert mentions with respect to wild trout abundance as well. I surveyed very few of such streams with marshes in the headwaters over the years, but Black Ck, trib to Ltl Loyalsock, Sullivan Co was one of them, which I surveyed in 1979 during the statewide Coldwater Inventory. It originated in a marshy area and then progressed downstream into a woodland with steeper gradient. The wild brown trout population appeared downstream and improved the farther down you went. I attributed the trout population's characteristics to improving summer water temps in a downstream direction.

 

[k-bob]

Thanks last two posts are reminder to keep checking the temperature as you move along ...

for what it's worth here are two smaller streams than anyone would usually want to fish... Poconos mega Rhododendron 61 and 62 after 2 p.m. today... air 25 f warmer.