By Jeff Dean
Summer and trout don’t always go well together. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fish for trout, but you do need to know the thresholds and when to not target trout. Summer brings rising temps, lower waters and sporadic hatches. It may be a little more difficult to catch trout, but when is it easy? If it were easy, we wouldn’t be laying in bed at night wondering what we could have done differently that day out on the river. If you are willing to work, you can be successful while trout fishing in the summertime and here are a few tips how to make it happen.
If there are trout where you are fishing, then there is cold water, elevation drop resulting in pools with well-oxygenated water, and ample food for them to eat. In the colder months, the water is always cold, and cold water holds more oxygen. When the air temperatures warm up, the water temps rise and you need to get to higher elevations where the air temps are cooler, therefore, the water is colder and will hold more oxygen. Trout will go upstream to find the colder, oxygenated water. A good rule of thumb is to not trout fish where the water temp hits 70 degrees. If the water temp is above 70, go to a higher elevation and find colder water. Find nicely shaded spots with deep pools and actively running water and you should find trout. If the fish ARE NOT feeding on the surface, fish deep nymph rigs in the larger pools. If the fish ARE feeding on top, summer is a great time to throw terrestrials (hoppers, beetles, ants, etc.) and big bushy stimulators. Toss them under overhanging trees or run them along the edge of the faster runs and wait for the hit!
Most of us like to consider ourselves responsible anglers, so practice what you preach and know when to not fish for trout. Last year, much of the southeast (including those of us in the NC High Country) suffered from drought conditions and above normal temps. The lack of rain created low water levels and many of our streams were barely running at a trickle. The air and water temps were well above normal. We were finding water temps above 70 in late July. That’s when we decided we couldn’t be fishing locally for trout. Trout can be very easily stressed and high water temps will already have them stressed. Catching them puts a lot of additional stress on the fish. You may feel that you safely handled and released a healthy trout, but many times the stress you put on that fish will ultimately kill it. That being said, the NC Wildlife Resources Commission does do some stocking as late as July. These fish are meant to be fished, and many of them are taken home for dinner. Locally, the Watauga River and the Middle Fork of the New River were stocked with trout in July.
Conditions change and we need to adapt to the conditions. If the conditions are good for fishing… fish. If they are not… don’t. We want the fish to be there next time we go out, so “know when to say when”.
Jeff Dean is the owner of Watauga River Fly Shop located at 5712 NC Highway 105 South, Vilas, NC. Visit their website at www.wrflyshop.com, email them at info@wrflyshop.com, or give them a call at (828) 963-5463.