During the past many years of trout fishing, we have been concerned with the warm water
temperature issue while fly fishing for trout every year. Water temperature is very
important anytime of the year but especially during the hot Summer season.

The subject of water temperature and oxygen content of the water has come up many,
many times with most anglers. The water temperature issue even becomes important in
many of the Rocky Mountain western trout streams. There, the early morning air
temperature often starts out at about thirty-five degrees but reaches as high as
ninety-five in the afternoons. I could write a book about the subject of fishing for trout in
warmer than normal water, but I will get straight to the point. We don’t catch or release
trout when there is a reasonable doubt as to whether or not the fish will live after being
released. We don’t have to worry about whether they will live or die because we know
what we are doing.

When you frequently catch trout and release everyone of them, you would have to be
plain stupid not to realize when the trout were stressed. We never guess at the water
temperature. We carry two thermometers and check the water temperature almost every
day we fish, especially if there is a question about it being too warm or too cold.  

The amount of dissolved oxygen in the water is directly related to the water temperature.
In case you don’t already know, cold water holds dissolved oxygen much better than
warm water. The effects of water temperature on the amount of dissolved oxygen doesn’t
change at a constant rate. It changes at an accelerated rate. In general, for most species
of trout, the fish are most active when the water ranges from about 50 to 65 degrees.
The cold-blooded trout feed at the maximum rates due to their metabolism level in this
temperature range. From 65 to 70, the accelerated rate I referred to begins to take place
to the point it becomes a big factor. In simple terms, at 65 there’s no problem and the
trout feed aggressively. At seventy degrees, there can be a problem depending on the
type of water. The dissolved oxygen content can be low.

Still water is one thing and fast, turbulent water is another. The amount of dissolved
oxygen will vary greatly. That’s why you hear advise to “fish the oxygenated water” all the
time. When the trout start hurting for oxygen, they will begin to cease their feeding
activity. It’s not a great deal different from the way they react in very cold water, just due
to a different reason.

When the water temperature reaches about seventy-four degrees, the trout just about
have to have highly oxygenated water to survive. Again, keep in mind that these
temperatures are guidelines. Again, the particular species of trout and its location and
more specifically the type of water it is in will vary this somewhat – not greatly, but a little.

All of us that want the fish to survive want a safety margin. We don’t want to catch a fish
that shows signs of being stressed. Just like when you climb a high mountain and give out
of breath (especially out West at ten thousand feet), you will have to sit down and you will
struggle for breath – the trout will stop fighting as hard. If it’s in your hands being
released, it won’t be difficult to hold. When you put it back in the water (which should be
done just as quickly as possible), it may hesitate before leaving. A trout that isn’t stressed
won’t swim off slowly. It will shoot off like a rocket, as Angie often says. If it rolls over, or
slows down and doesn’t shoot off like a rocket, it may be stressed.

Does this mean the trout will die? Not any faster than you when you give out of breath
climbing the mountain. It puts the fish at some risk, but just how much risk depends on a
lot of things. To shorten this, in bass tournaments with big dead fish penalties, there have
been many times that I have wanted to give bass mouth to mouth recitation, only to see
them active as they could be minutes later.

Will they swim off and die? According to many studies on just this subject, the answer is
usually no. The great majority of them will be just fine. Of course, every once in a while,
one may die. In my opinion, they will die at about the same rate as you if you give out of
breath climbing the mountain. Far more will die from anglers taking pictures and/or
mishandling the fish otherwise – far more.

Next Summer, if there’s any question about the water temperatures, fish at the highest
elevations. Take the water temperature. Don’t guess at it. If it’s below (lets say, sixty-eight
degrees) catch all you want and just make sure you release them as quickly as possible.
If it’s higher than that, or has the chance of getting any warmer, I would suggest you look
for another location. The trout will not be easy to catch and it is possible, if the fish is
mishandled, for one to die.

Some anglers have blown the problem of fish stress and mortality completely out of
proportion – some unintentional and some trying to impress anglers as the “savior of
trout”.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

One of the most frequent type of questions we get at Perfect Fly during the hot summer
months relates to how warm water temperatures affects trout and trout fishing. First of all,
anytime you are fly fishing for trout in either cold or hot weather conditions, you should
have a thermometer along with you. Knowing the water temperature can be very
important for several reasons. It’s best to always have one with you. By the way, there
are both analog and digital thermometers. The best types are the digital models.

One of the first things we advise anglers to do is to fish early in the mornings when the
water temperatures are the coolest. By early, we mean from not long after sunrise to
about 9:00 AM. This is earlier than most fly anglers get up in the mornings but it may be
the only time the trout are active and the only time you can catch them without adding
undue stress.

In the early mornings, the low water temperatures and low light conditions are usually
favorable. When the water temperature is around sixty-eight degrees F., there’s nothing
wrong with fly fishing for trout but you need to know the warmer temperature of the water
does affect the trout. In general, when water reaches the high sixties it becomes much
more difficult to catch trout. This is especially true if there is low water conditions which
are often associated with warmer than normal water temperatures. .

Low water conditions can be responsible for the water temperatures rapidly changing. It
takes less time for shallow water to adjust towards the air temperatures than it does deep
water.

Another handy item of equipment that helps out in most fly fishing situations involving
warm water conditions is a GPS. They can provide the elevation. Higher elevations
almost always have cooler water. Of course, you don’t need a GPS with elevation data to
get to higher elevations of the streams you are fishing. It’s just good practice to know just
how the elevation changes affect the water temperatures for future reference. We always
have a handheld GPS handy.

Another question we often get is “at what water temperature should anglers stop fishing
for trout”. Provided reasonable care is taken, there’s nothing wrong with catching trout on
the fly with water temperatures up to the low seventies if you care to try. The problem is,
it probably won’t be easy. When temperatures reach the low seventies, the fish almost
cease feeding. The problem isn’t the water temperature as such. It’s the low oxygen
levels associated with the warm water.

The temperature of the water and the oxygen content are inversely proportional. It
doesn’t change on a straight line basis. It changes on a sharp curve. The higher the
water temperature, the lower the oxygen level.

Studies done on the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park have shown that when
the water is in the low seventies, the trout will actually lose weight. They simply don’t feed
as much. The solution is to find cooler water, but if you insist fishing in water in the high
sixties or low seventies (which we do not recommend because of the increased difficulty),
find the highly oxygenated areas of the water – water falls, plunges, etc.

Regarding the question of whether or not it hurts the fish to catch them in water as high
as let’s say seventy degrees, the answer is no – not if reasonable care is taken. By that
we mean, if the fish is released quickly after being caught, they should be fine. When
water temperatures are in the low seventies, it’s best to leave the fish alone. The point at
which high temperatures can hurt the fish varies from species to species, area to area
and exactly how much stress is put on the fish during the catch and release. As a general
rule, we would say that when the water is close to seventy degrees, it is best to stop
fishing.  

Some believe that trout caught in warm water swim off and then die. That’s possible of
course, but not probable. When a fish that is overextended, so to speak, revives and
swims off, it’s usually fine. Don’ try to revive them. Just release them quickly. What does
hurt the fish, especially at high water temperatures (and air temperatures after being
caught) is keeping them out of the water a long time.  Far worse is mistreating them. I see
photos all the time where people have laid trout on the ground (usually by their rod) and
photographed them. That’s not good.

All fish have a slimy coating on them that helps protect them. It helps prevent fungus for
one thing. It’s easily removed from their outer body. Handling them with dry hands and/or
a dry landing net can do it. Always wet your hands and net before landing fish. Laying
them on the ground or any dry object can remove portions of it.

We should also mention that you should not fight a fish a long time on ultra light tippets
under warm water conditions as this adds to the stress. If a large trout is caught and
fought for a long time, it can be easily over stressed. So, it’s possible to do that. If you go
early, check the water temperature, and fish at higher elevations, you can do well in most
marginal warm water situations. Just use common sense and take care of the fish.

Copyright James Marsh 2014

The Pheasant Tail Nymph is trout fly designed by Mr. Frank Sawyer, who was the River
Keeper of Avon River in England in the early 1900’s. It was designed to imitate the
blue-winged olive nymphs on the Avon. He used only two materials tying the fly, find copper
wire and pheasant tail fibers. The fly sinks quickly with the weight of the wire and its fibers
appears to trout as legs and tails. Today, the Pheasant Tail Nymph is used to imitate a
variety of aquatic insects.

The Pheasant Tail Nymph is a good fly to use for for rainbows, browns, cutthroat and brook
trout.  It is often referred to as the PT Nymph. This fly is sold by just about every fly shop in
the World and is almost eighty years old. It has proven useful even for steelhead.

Al Troth, another famous fly tier, improved the Frank Sawyer nymph into the American
version of the Pheasant Tail Nymph. He added peacock hurl for the thorax. Our Perfect Fly
version of the Pheasant Tail Nymph uses the peacock herl.

There are many ways to fish this nymph. It can be fished on the bottom by adding weight to
the tippet a few inches above the fly. It can be fished under a strike indicator. It can be
greased up and fished as an emerging mayfly nymph. It can also be fished beneath a dry fly
as a dropper.

The Pheasant Tail Nymphs is a good generic trout fly to have along with you when you are
fishing streams where you are unsure about what kind of nymphs are most plentiful. Some
anglers consider it to be the American Express fly  – don’t leave home without it fly.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

The Woolly Bugger is an artificial fly that fits into the streamer category. It is a highly popular fly
for both fresh and saltwater species of fish. It is popular for trout, bass, pike, salmon, steelhead
and many other freshwater species. It imitates a leech, hellgrammite, and can even fool fish into
taking it for a minnow or baitfish.

We stock the Woolly Buggers in plain and bead head versions and call them both the Bugger
Leeches. The original Woolly Bugger fly pattern is thought to have been first tied by Russell
Blessing, of Pennsylvania, back in 1967.  Some say it is a variation of the Woolly Worm fly but
even if it is, the Woolly Worm fly is thought to be a takeoff on the British palmer fly.

It is considered one of the most productive fly patterns that exist. It is sold by just about every fly
shop in the World and for good reasons. The Woolly Bugger Fly catches fish. We have several
sizes and colors of the Woolly Bugger fly at Perfect Fly, and sell them under the trout, freshwater
and steelhead sections of the website.

The Woolly Bugger is a very versatile fly. All of our Perfect fly versions have some flash added to
it. We think the very small amount of flash increases its performance. This helps attract the
attention of trout and steelhead as well as bass and other freshwater species.

The Woolly Bugger has a lively marabou feather tail that moves in the water. The marabou
greatly adds to the movement of the fly in the water. The fly was originally designed by Mr.
Blessing for smallmouth bass.

There are several different ways to fish the Woolly Bugger fly.Trout and steelhead anglers tend to
fish it down and across on the swing. It is also very effective fished like most other streamers
using a strip retrieve. Allowing the fly to pause between a sequence of strips seems to help most
of the time The hackle twitches, the tail of the fly flares out and the fish grab it.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

The Hare’s Ear Nymph, and more recently the Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear nymph, is a classic trout fly.
The newest version is the Bead Head Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear Nymph. This fly has stood the test of
time and in still in use today although it has been around since the 1880’s. It may well be the oldest
fly known to man. The reason why is simple. It catches trout. Some think it originated as a wet fly
and in the sense it isn’t a dry fly, I guess that’s true. It may well be the top selling nymph in the
World but that is mostly because the major fly distributors have few specific imitations of nymphs,
mayflies or stoneflies. It is sold by just about every mom and pop fly shop in the World as well as
the big stores that sell fly fishing flies.

A Victorian tier named James Ogden is often given credit for it. It’s also thought that a Mr.
Frederick Halford made a version that was at one time used as a dry fly in the late 1880’s

The Hare’s Ear doesn’t imitate any particular nymph. It gives trout the impression that it is a nymph
and that’s about it. Even though trout can see flies under the water better than they can those on
the surface, it still usually works as long as the water is moving relatively fast. It is buggy and
shaggy and this gives it some movement which makes it appear to be alive.

The bead head version gives an added flash but we don’t think that’s very helpful in many cases
as such. Its value has more to do with helping anglers keep the fly down near or on the bottom
than anything. It works great on stocked trout.

The fly imitates a variety of smaller nymphs that are found in rivers and lakes. It is used mostly for
trout, but works well on panfish and other species of fish that eat mayfly and stonefly nymphs. It is
a generic fly pattern that does a good job of fooling trout into thinking it is the real thing. As
mentioned above, from an impressionistic standpoint, the shaggy appearance of the fly resembles
a lot of different species of mayfly nymphs and does an okay job of imitating stonefly nymphs.

The Gold Ribbed Hares Ear Nymph trout fly can be without any added weight in shallow water but
normally needs some added weight. It can be greased up and used to imitate emerging nymphs.
Some anglers fish it under a dry fly on a dropper rig and some use a strike indicator. We think it is
best fished by itself but we do admit this requires a lot more concentration than using a dropper or
strike indicator.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

The Elk Hair Caddis is by far the most popular trout fly for imitating adult caddisflies. It has been around for years and is sold just about by every fly shop in the World. The Elk Hair Caddis comes in many different colors to imitate a large variety of caddisfly species, especially when they are depositing their eggs. The Elk Hair Caddis fly was designed by Mr. Al Troth, a fly tier from the state of Pennsylvania. He later moved to Montana and became famous for his flies and was considered an excellent guide. The Elk Hair Caddis has been around since 1950 and as its name implies, uses elk hair for its wings. Mr. Troth designed the fly to imitate down wing flies, as they were called before anglers knew one species of caddisfly from another. Even today, most anglers aren’t really familiar with the many different species of caddsflies. Most hatch charts call the Yellow Caddisflies, Green Caddisflies, etc.

Mr. Troth used a wing profile and body style that mimics a whole range of small to large size caddisflies rather than a particular species of caddisfly. The versatility of the Elk Hair Caddis is a big part of its success. It can be fished dead-drifted over a rising trout that are eating egg laying adult caddisflies. It can be skated and twitched to mimic caddis depositing eggs on the surface of the water. Some species of caddisflies skitter across the surface to reach the banks as soon as they emerge and the Elk Hair Caddis does a good job of imitating them.

Anglers have two different chances to catch trout on adult caddisfly imitations. The first opportunity
comes when the caddisfly emergers, provided the species emerges on the surface. Some crawl out of
the water to emerge. The second opportunity is when the females are depositing their eggs. This is done different ways by different species of trout. Some dive and deposit their eggs on the bottom, others drop them from the air above the water but most species dip down and knock the eggs off on the surface. Some just land on the surface and deposit them. The fly work equally as well during the hatch as it does when the caddis are depositing their eggs.

Most anglers prefer to fish the Elk Hair Caddis dead drift. Others like to impart some action to the fly. The fly floats well and although it need a dab of floatant every once in a while, it floats high and dry. It even floats well in rough water. Elk hair is hollow and floats very well.

We sell the Elk Hair Caddis in a variety of colors and hook sizes to imitate just about all the major species of caddisflies. They come in brown, black, olive, green, yellow, and tan.

Copyright James Marsh 2013

Dave’s Hopper fly is a great, dry fly that imitates a grasshopper. When Dave Whitlock does
something, he does it right and his Dave’s Hopper fly is one fly anyone would have a difficult time
improving. It not only looks like a grasshopper, if fished correctly, it acts like one. Trout love
grasshoppers and they love Dave’s imitation of them. There probably isn’t a fly shop in America
that doesn’t have a few Dave’s Hoppers for sale, It is a very popular fly. It is also one that isn’t very
easy to tie. Its deer hair head helps keep it floating high and dry. Its knotted feather legs look and
act like the real things. Over the years, the Dave’s Hopper has caught thousands of trout as well
as other species of fish including bass and panfish. Smaller size Dave’s Hoppers are great panfish
flies.

Grasshopper don’t live in or even like getting in the water. They get into the water purely by
accident. They can fall from plants and bushes into the water, make a jump that they didn’t think
would land on anything but the solid ground and end up in the water, but most of them that get in
the water get blown in by strong wind. Most of the time, they land in the water near the banks. For
that reason, we highly recommend fishing the Dave’s Hopper parallel to the banks. That will keep
the fly in the most productive areas or strike zone, and help increase your odds of success.

Real grasshoppers that get in the water make an effort to get out of the water, or back to the bank.
If you want to experience this, just catch one and toss into the water. They usually kick wildly a few
times and eventually, probably from exhaustion, just stop kicking and drift. Watching the real thing
in the water will teach you a lot about how to present the fly.

You just about can’t present a Dave’s Hopper wrong. Of course, you don’t want to splash the water
with your fly line, and you do want to straighten out the line and leader, but otherwise, how the fly
lands isn’t very critical. It can land with a splash because that’s how most of the real ones land.
Don’t try to present the fly softly, or without making a splash. A splashy delivery may even help. It
can alert trout that can’t see the fly that something has landed on the water. In situations where
lots of grasshoppers are getting blown into the water by high wind, the trout will eventually start to
look for them, or line up waiting on one to land in the water. I have witnessed this happen where
hay fields closely border trout streams that have a huge population of hoppers.

Copyright James Marsh 2013