Slow fishing

[Doug Graebner]

Is the warmwater bite slow for everyone lately or am I just fishing worse than usual?

[Carl Z.]

August is always slow for me.  As the water temperature rises, the Disolved Oxygen (DO) goes down and the fish get stressed and less active.  As the days get shorter and the water cools down, the fish will start getting active again and bulking up for winter.

If you want to fly fish in this weather, look for areas where cool water enters warm, or where there are a lot of riffles to aerate the water.  

When wet wading feels like you are in a hot tub, it's time to do something other than fish.

Carl

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Carl Zmola

On Sun, Aug 29, 2021 at 10:01 PM Doug Graebner <dgrae...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is the warmwater bite slow for everyone lately or am I just fishing worse than usual?

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http://www.tpfr.org
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[Doug Graebner]

yeaaa that sounds about right. Also I had a short leader tonight so that doesn't help. I guess I'm just Rather More Used to trout where "pick a spring creek/tailwater" is always an option etc. 

[Andrew Sarcinello]

I haven't been out a whole lot lately but I second Carl's reply. I usually have pretty poor results until early October. September may be decent this year though since we have more rain than usual and some more flow and oxygen in the streams and rivers. October is one of my favorite months for warmwater species and September is usually one of my least favorite.

[Luke Morrison]

Interesting observations, I mainly fly fish in the Shenandoah valley for warm water species so my experience is limited to those systems. The mossy creek crew seems to revere august as their best month to chase smallies, into the first couple weeks in September. I believe they stop operating floats towards the end of September if I recall correctly. 

What is the water temp to not target smallies? I understand the reasoning for trout or striped bass, is there a temperature when you’re truly endangering small mouth by fishing for them? 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 31, 2021, at 1:56 PM, Andrew Sarcinello <andy...@gmail.com> wrote:

I haven't been out a whole lot lately but I second Carl's reply. I usually have pretty poor results until early October. September may be decent this year though since we have more rain than usual and some more flow and oxygen in the streams and rivers. October is one of my favorite months for warmwater species and September is usually one of my least favorite.

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[Yambag Nelson]

One of the Trowe brothers from Mossy Creek was on Tom Rosenbaurs podcast and they both said that if there is a temperature that is too warm for smallies, they don't know what it is.  Pretty much higher than whatever the rivers get to.  I don't think Mossy ever stops running floats unless it is during the spawn.  Certain months they probably spend more time targeting muskies though.

[Doug Graebner]

yea, tbh my main reason for not going for smallies more (it's actually closer for me than the tidal warmwater by a teensy bit) is that I don't have a boat and teh river looks a tick high to wade.

[Art Friedlander]

Haven't been out for a bit. Usually fish upper Potomac.

Any specific suggestions for locations to fish for smallmouth either wading or a float trip on the Shenandoah, Potomac?

Thanks

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/35f8e17d-3e6b-4abd-bdba-54752d95f79fn%40googlegroups.com

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[spst...@gmail.com]

Very highly recommended: Travis Edens, KF Guide Services, King Fisher Guide Services - Home (kfguideservices.com)

 

I’ve done 6+ float trips with him and he’s the sh*t.

 

-Sean

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/1636610911.1108776.1630592059719%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Art Friedlander]

Last minute change of plans offers unusual opportunity for steelhead fishing right from the ocean on the remote Aleutian Peninsula in Alaska.

If anyone is interested, please email me at just...@gmail.com

Art