Fly Fishing in Summer Heat
For those of you leaving rods in cases during our current heatwave, I have one question. Why?
Yes I understand that not everyone can regularly fish the quoted "best times" of early and late in the day. But providing you select where you fish with care good sport can be enjoyed during the daytime heat too!
The key to all this is water temperature. Forget about bright light putting fish down, anyone who has watched carp sun bathing at a lake's surface can see them enjoying it. The often heard excuse for trout moving down in the water is because they have no eyelids like any other fish, so if bright light is enjoyed by carp, why should it be so detrimental to trout?
The main reason as I see it is that bright sun light in summer usually means higher temperatures, so surface layers in a lake warm up. This in turn reduces dissolved oxygen in a lake's water close to the surface. As trout require approximately five times more dissolved oxygen in water than carp to live happily, they move down in the water to seek cooler more oxygen rich water.
So how does this affect our choice of where to fish? I hear you say. Well you have a choice! You can a choose to fish waters that have very deep water and fish fast sinking lines to reach the fish. Nothing new in that you all say.
Alternatively you can seek out waters that are spring fed and clear. Such lakes exhibit less water temperature variation during the year as springs constantly trickle in a supply of fresh pure water. Now providing you work out where these springs are and study the fish, good fishing can be had for spells throughout the daytime.
Want to know more about summer fly fishing? Go to our Fly Fishing Tuition page.
Tight Lines
Steve
2 Comments:
Spent a lovely afternoon at Carsington yesterday (Sunday) general visit, not fishing. Got chatting with a young chap who was looking after the anglers lodge about water temp and how this affects fish and sport. He advised that the thermometer that is suspended to a depth of 6 feet beneath the boat jetty was registering water temp of some 23 degrees (Thats at 6 feet under!!).
What say you regarding best methods of fishing in these conditions ?
In answer to "Wooly Buggar's" question, Carsington falls into the very deep water category detailed in the post.
As the water is very clear I'm not surprised at the temperature you quoted around the boat jetty.
With this water the only thing to do is fish a fast sinker, and locate the fish.
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