FS Digest

I’m in the Eastern Sierras on a trip I’ve had planned for awhile. Drove 5 hours from SF, went straight to the fly shop in Mammoth, they sorted me out with a bunch of flies and I fished Hot Creek and Upper Owens and got SKUNKED.

Wondering what role the temperature might be playing, it’s high 90s today and forecast shows triple digits tomorrow. I read online that trout lose a lot of energy in higher water temps. I don’t have a thermometer but the water temp feels fairly warm... high 60s?

Any adjustments I can make tomorrow to hopefully catch a fish? I’ve got my golf clubs in the car and am considering cutting this trip short tomorrow mid-morning if it still sucks and going golfing instead!

--
by timbo415

FS Digest

I would say try one more day, 1. seine the stream, pick up some river rocks and see what is there. 1. If nothing is rising, use a nymph. If you see big splashes, fish emergers or caddis dries, and if you see gulping, mayflies. Fish the early morning hours, get a round in, then maybe stop back towards dusk. But, warm water does stress trout, and anything above 65 is a no go for me as catching a trout in lower O2 environments does a lot of damage to them. GL tomorrow.

--
by senpairabbit

FS Digest

Thanks! I threw everything I had today. Literally probably tried a dozen or more fly patterns. Nymph, dry fly, everything.

Think I’m going to get up early and fish a couple of streams and if no action I’m going back over the hill for 18 :)

--
by timbo415

FS Digest

There are always days like that and anybody that tells you otherwise is lying:). Maybe try a dry dropper set up, or a two nymph rig. Enjoy being on a great stream, I am sure you may get lucky tomorrow.

--
by senpairabbit

FS Digest

Hot creek is hard to fish. Lots of fat hatchery trout. I’ve bounces nymphs right off their noses. I’m assuming Hot and Owens are running pretty high with the melt right now. Hard to fish that. If you hit the lakes in the basin or high alpine lakes across San Joaquin valley on the backside. Easy to catch hungry brooks

--
by jake_from_mars

FS Digest

It was shoulder to shoulder today, too. I left after less than an hour to go to the Owens.

--
by timbo415

FS Digest

Pull up google maps and hit some of the many other creeks in the area, between bishop and mammoth. Lots of options holding trout

--
by slightstream

FS Digest

Yep. Gonna try Robinson Creek in the morning.

--
by timbo415

FS Digest

Could be just picky fish, but my bet is that high water temps are putting them down. I’d avoid fishing there because A: the fishing sucks. And B:catching a trout in warm water stresses them so much that they very well may die post release due to low dissolved oxygen(or DO).

--
by stefanfolk

FS Digest

I wont fish if the temp is over 75 degrees. It's bad for the fish over all and not worth it.

--
by Mudsnail

FS Digest

Yep. That’s what I always learned. The fish get very stressed in the high heat and are likely to die if removed from water even for a short time. Hit the links tomorrow.

--
by scottawhit

FS Digest

As few others said, don’t fish for trout or any other coldwater species when water gets too warm.

Heat reduces the amount of useable oxygen in water while it increases the metabolism. After being fished the fish might not be able to recover and it suffocates after release. 20 C is definitely too hot but even below that, use strong leader and haul the fish in as fast as possible.

Good news is that warmwater species like bass, pike, musky, walleye and zander are much more resistant to low oxygen. Even with these, you should keep the fight short though.

--
by dodgydodgerson

FS Digest

So one of the things you’ll notice if you read books on catching trout is that usually the first chapter is about water temperature. If you are like me, you’ll skip this chapter immediately and skip to the parts on how to catch them. Out of boredom one day I read a chapter on water temperature and realized I had made a critical mistake. The chapter on water temperature is one of the most important if not most important thing to know if you want to catch trout. It’s of vital importance because basically temperature dictates if there will be any trout in the water you are fishing. Too warm and they will move from that water to find cooler water. So by measuring the water temp, you can know if you have any chance of catching trout. You mentioned the water feeling warm. Most likely the trout have moved up or out into tributaries into cooler water. Find that water by using a thermometer (I now consider it an essential fly fishing tool) and you’ll find trout.

Also if it starts getting over 65°, they are going to bite less, move away and you are more likely to kill them from exacerbating the stress they already are undergoing from the increased temperature.

--
by TacticalFishBro

edkealer

I like heavily weighted Thin Mint wooly buggers, fished in the deepest holes in the rivers/creeks, but as TacticalFishBro hinted at in his post, when the water temp gets too high you should go play golf instead!

jamesO

surprised it's even fishable. We were up there last week and the water was just way too high.