coldest water you have ever caught trout..

shademt

shademt

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Dec 20, 2011
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just curious as to the coldest water some of you other guys have caught trout in...
 
I've pulled trout and steelhead out of slushy water a few times. Guessing it was about 32.25 or so.

Any more, I just tie flies when the water is that cold.
 
Same. When you add in water pressure at depth, and even tiny amounts of salinity, those drop the freezing temperature of water. So I'd imagine I've caught trout in water a hair under 32 degrees.

In other words, as cold as it goes....
 
Not sure but probably in the mid 30's or so. They won't work as hard for it, but they still gotta eat. I usually don't take a water temp in the winter unless it's on a limestoner and I want to know how (relatively) warm it is. Otherwise, I'd probably rather not know.
 
i'm going tommorrow. Snowmelt today will have the water temps down for sure.
 
It's not a simple thing that they'll hit at this temperature and not at another.

Conditioning.

There's some merit in the direction of change thing, I think. 61 or 62 being optimal, and fish turning on as you go towards that. So that theory would say that lowering from 55 to 50 would turn them off, but raising from 32 to 36 would turn them on.

That said, you can only take it so far. I'd choose to fish 55 degree water over 35 degree water regardless of the direction of change.
 
I went yesterday... I don't know the exact temperature but my buddy caught one. I on the other hand just froze but that's expected when it's below 30 out.
 
Funny this should come up today... I caught a brookie on a dry fly in 39 F water today, first dryfly brookie I am certain I caught in water below 40. Of course in say 55F water you would catch radically more brookies on dries in that pool.
 
way to go k-bob...i actually was thinking of going today..but decided to cut wood instead. But i'll try to give them what for tommorrow. I'd settle for a brookie on a dry in 39F water any day :)
 
Pats right
many times in Montana I would start as soon as the slush ice cleared around 11am-really good fishing until around 2 then the snowmelt would drop water temp and fishing stopped dead-lol
Sometimes it can be too nice this time of year.
 
Thanks shademt. After casting dries and catching that brookie, I tied on a small nymph and caught several brookies that hadnt chased the dry. Still, it was nice to catch one on a dry today!
 
32 degrees. It's got to be very cold before moving water freezes. I was at the Salmon R. in '94 with a couple of friends when a front came through the night before. Well the thermometer dropped and kept dropping until the next morning. When we got to the river it was in the teens and the water had ice in it. Let me tell it was cold. T
he next day the temp didn't rise above 0 and the water didn't ice over. They were releasing some water, I'm not sure of the flow, but I remember taking the water temp at 32. In SE PA it hardly ever gets that cold, but during a long freeze it will. We actually caught a few steelhead in that weather.
 
I was at the FFO area of slippery rock creek on st. patricks day a while ago. And a nice hatch of stoneflys came off in the afternoon - with fish taking them like crazy. Must have caught over a dozen on them that day. And the water temp was only 38 degrees. So much for the old adage about needing at least 50 degree water for fish to rise.
 
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