Thursday, August 4, 2011

Water Temps

There are a few things that drive bug activity, which in turn, have a huge effect on the quality of fishing; PH levels, plant-life, water quality and temperatures. The Missouri being a tail water, the flows are regulated, which often helps with water temps and is why they fish better throughout the summer than many free-stones. However, the Missouri isn't a true tail water in the sense that water isn't released from the bottom of the lake. Most of the water comes from the top and some from the middle. What that means is water temps increase more than on a true tail water.

Right now the temps coming out of the dam are fluctuating from 65 to 66 degrees. With air temps and sun, the water down-stream could easily be reaching 70 degrees and that's not good. Even 66 degrees is too warm for bugs so right now, we aren't seeing any tricos or midges. We are however, getting a lot of small caddis. The fish are migrating to cooler water but they don't have the same food that they had in years past.

At some point, the resevoir might flip. The cool water on the bottom, even though much denser than the warm water, will be pushed to the top due to the volume of warm water. If that happens, the bug activity will change and it could mean some insane fishing. Right now it's good up at the dam but it could get better. The further down-stream, the tougher. Hoppers are just starting but it's slow and only a few big fish coming up.

On the flip side, the last week has been very good for fish coming up on caddis in the mornings or late in the evening and when there are clouds. However, that activity has been mainly concentrated from the dam to Craig. Again, once you get past Craig, I think the water is too warm. We could use a cool-down either from air temps or the lake flipping.

Keep 'em where they live.

No comments:

Post a Comment