I almost went last night but to dang hot for me.

 

That should be perfect though.

 

Water in all my stretches was low to mid 60s yesterday and mid 70s today. Since I don’t plan on keeping fish I don’t plan on fishing.

 

Man, I feel pretty lucky to be up here.

 

Rusty Gates used to say when it is on they would hit a floated cigarette butt. I'm trying to do better than that. Here is my latest. Chances are I will end up mousing.

 

Getting the size right is the most important thing I think. That the size changes throughout the hatch is a bit annoying. I’m making a long weekend of it next week and mousing or fishing other hatches way up river might be the ticket. The rain forecast Tuesday might cool the water and let the fish recover by Thursday or Friday. I think a lot of them will die over the next 36 hours, they don’t last long above 74. Low water combined with the heat wave is one heck of a double whammy.

 

Yeah, it’ll be brutal before the weather breaks on Wednesday. I doubt the fish will have time to recover before the weekend mobs and I sure hope the guides are biting the bullet and canceling trips.

 

Yikes!

 

Wasn’t really fishing the hex, but I did get into about a dozen browns this weekend on the big man in the pursuit of skams, all on spawn bags or beads

 

First cast with the fly I posted earlier. Not exactly the size i was after and the little bugger destroyed the fly.

Had a small spinner fall and not many risers.

 

Caught an 18 and a 20 last night on the pattern I posted earlier in the thread. Pretty satisfying. GoPro wouldn't work! Only managed a few pictures on my phone of thr 20" fish.

Great hatch last night.

 

Hope you kept it or it's crayfish food.
Trout don't survive being caught in 70F plus water.

 

Before the weather made the rivers not fishable. A couple of good fish to hand for us and had a heartbreaker that I lost. Biggest fish hooked in a few years...

 

Browns are more heat tolerant than most people think.

 

BTW the old Orvis Silver label 8wt kicks butt and gets em in fast.

 

I remember fishing it 20-30 years ago. I remember freezing some nights and some I remember sweating my bells off. Weather is cyclical.

 

Another 20" fish last night. Ready to throw the GoPro out in the woods. Ended up with 10 seconds of useless video.

Was about to move on from where I had been fishing. Then I heard this fish! Wasnt sure if it was a fish or a muskrat. Had to work on him for 20 minutes getting the timing and placement right. Hit the same spinner pattern I have been playing with having clear wings. Definitely the most satisfying fish I have caught hex fishing.

Spool fell out of reel half way through the fight just to make things more interesting.

 

Glad to see you're having fun Steve!

 

There was a good hatch going on last night.

 

Fishing guide reminding people to delay trout fishing due to high heat – 9&10 News

 

Nice fish Steve!

We were on the same river last weekend. Fished daytime, and caught some dandy’s.

Got to love fish nazi’s. The ultimate moral high ground on fish mortality, is not to fish, ever. Some shouldn’t. No fish for you! LOL!

 

Pm was hot the last couple nights, Bugs and water, just take a couple and eat them!

 

I don't fish for temperature sensitive species when the water is in the red zone 68 for trout and 79 for muskie. We know more than we used to, laws are slow to change.

Also why I feel very lucky to live near the fish, waiting doesn't bother me

 

Some guys won't fish trout when the temps get above 70. But won't hesitate to fish beads for steelhead and don't think about the trout filling up on them and not being able to pass them.

 

Never seen hundreds of dead trout in the Muskegon and that river hits +80°. Granted I’m sure there’s a mortality rate associated with C&R, but that can happen at any temp. Guess we best keep them all.

 

I've seen dead skams floating by but never dead trout like browns. Not saying it doesn't happen,I'm sure it does.

 

Dead fish rarely float. If you are angling in hot water catch your limit and stop, that's fine by me.

If you are out there all night putting hooks and hands on fish, you're not using the best judgment.

 

Beat the water temperature to death, so how about we argue about etiquette? Busy time of year, but doesn't mean you can throw it all out the window. Golden rule on this one and respect others. If you wade into a corner at 1030 and someone is fishing that 30 yards of river, turn around or move on!! There is a lot of water and plenty of trout in this state! (P.S. if it was you last night, you know who you are and do better).

 

Nothing better than hitting the hatch just right. Been a few years for me.

Don’t want to hurt fish. Don’t fish.

Guides purposely catch the same big browns over and over all summer. They know right where they live. That would be tough to do if they kept dying. Lol

 

This 100% ^^^^^

I know some Trout guides, and they literally have names for known outsized large Browns in the waters they guide on. "My client hooked Jonesy last night, but he got off when the line got wrapped on a log." Those fish find a nice place to live, and pretty much stay there. You can catch them over and over in the same 25-50 yard stretch of river.

 

I sat the weekend out due to the high temps. Last night by my thermometer the temp where I was (popular NW river) was 69 an hour before dark. The fishing was good. I’ll be back out tomorrow night.

 

In the future maybe we should all post a picture of a thermometer reading embedded in any trout report to avoid controversy.