Some anglers tend to want to avoid fishing during the so called “dog days” of summer. Dog Days are usually considered to be the hottest days of the year ranging from about the second week of July to the middle of August. In ancient times, people associated the heat during this period with the concurrent rising of Sirius, nicknamed “the dog star. When it comes to fly fishing for trout, much of this line of thought has to do with the particular part of the country one is considering for the next fly fishing adventure. For example, if one is considering a stream located in Montana, this period of time may be considered to be one of the best times for fly fishing for trout. If one is thinking of Southern California or North Carolina, August is usually the prime time of the so called dog days and many anglers tend to think it is a bad time to catch trout on the fly. If the main consideration is choosing a comfortable time to fish, fishing during the dog days isn’t considered a good choice. If the main consideration is catching trout, it shouldn’t be a factor at all. Fishing during the dog days of summer, shouldn’t approached any different than fishing during any other time of the year. It does require some different strategies. It usually does require imitating some different types of food the trout will be focusing on, but it shouldn’t be approached with any negative attitude or thoughts about ones odds of success.
First of all, I think it is a big mistake to start thinking in terms of only fishing during the early morning and/or very late afternoons when the weather may be a little cooler. That may be a proper consideration if one is fishing water that is reaching a temperature over seventy degrees during the hottest part of the day; however, the best solution to that would be to choose another location with lower water temperatures. In some rivers, that simply means choosing a location on the stream at a higher elevation. In many streams, that means choosing a completely different small stream or river.
A huge factor to consider is the type of water you fish within the stream. It isn’t the direct affect of the temperature of the water that affects your odds of success or strategies you should use. Warmer water holds less oxygen and that should be a main consideration. You should fish the sections of the stream that contains the most oxygen such as runs, plunges and riffles. You should avoid fishing still water within the stream and other areas with the slowest moving water such as found in most large pools. The water depth makes little to no difference. The most oxygenated water in the stream may be only inches deep.
Another very important consideration as always is you should be imitating the most plentiful and available food the trout have to eat at the particular time you are fishing. Yes, many anglers turn their attention to terrestrial insects and they are important during the dog days but as I recently wrote a short article about, they shouldn’t be considered more important the the aquatic insects that may be available unless it is during times that mother nature is putting a lot of the land based terrestrial insects into the water with strong wind or water flowing into the stream from heavy rainfall.
Aquatic insects tend to be a little smaller than they are at other times during the spring, summer and fall months. The little White Wing Curse, or Tricos, are present in most streams and very important. Little Blue-winged olives can be important in many trout streams. Little Sister caddis, is one of the smaller size caddisflies that can be important during the dog days. Little Yellow stoneflies usually continue to be important. I don’t mean to imply that there are not any large aquatic insects that may also be hatching although there are usually less of them than they are at other times. I’m only pointing out some small ones that are usually very important. Crustaceans and baitfish usually don’t vary in size from other times of the summer months.
A bottom line consideration here is you should know how to properly present the small aquatic insects like the tiny BWOs and Tricos. You should also know how to change the fly your are using to match the stage of life of the little mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies for the time of day you are fishing. The final statement I will make for this article is I pay no attention to those who want to distinguish the so called dog days of summer as being a poor time to fly fish for trout. It isn’t.
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