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| Do you guys fish all summer long? Is it unethical to fish when the water temps reach a certain point? |
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Posts: 2097
| I fish southern lakes and stop once it hits 80's. It is frowned upon but there are a lot of people that don't care and fish anyway. |
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Posts: 397
Location: Wisconsin | In Wisconsin we see water temps reach 79+ in the heat of summer... That's when you need to put the rods and reels away haha. |
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Posts: 670
Location: Otsego, MN | In the dog day heat when those temps are consistently over 80 for days at a time. |
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Posts: 41
Location: Madison | It's really your call, like they said it's really frowned upon when temp goes above 80. And if you do decide to fish over that, take extra care when you do catch a fish, or if you do. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | I usually fish all summer long in NW WI. Last year was unusually cool and I don't think the water went much over about 76 all year on the deep lakes.
Couple years before that when we had super hot, dry weather I think I took a break for about a month when the water was WAY over 80.
A consistent 80 degrees is about my limit. I won't stop fishing if the water has been 75 and a hot, calm, sunny day pushes the surface temps to 80.
It's a judgement call, and probably takes a little time on the water, and having a few fish release slower than you'd like to really get a feel for things. When the water does get near the limit, it's especially important to stress the fish as little as possible, keep its head in the water as much as possible, and release it as soon as possible.
Tucker |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | Let's say the water temp is 80 at the surface but you are fishing 20 to 30 feet down or say where ever the thermocline is and you catch a fish. Through the whole process it is out of its preferred temp range for maybe 5 minutes tops with unhooking it and all. Is this really going to affect the fish all that much? I can see if you are fishing in 5 ft of water it can have affect. |
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Posts: 1638
Location: Minnesota | Last summer never got to hot to fish .. 80 is when I stop |
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Posts: 6
Location: Inverary, Ontario | Rotag, When temps are in the 80's the oxygen levels are very low near the surface, and worse if it's really humid.
It's really hard on fish, even when left in water. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | So I've been doing this muskie thing for 30 plus years and I had always fished all summer. I live 5 minutes from the launch so it's normal for me to fish 3 or 4 evenings a week in the summer. When I try to fish in the winter my Suick bounces off the ice. Its only in maybe the last 10 years that I have been hearing this 79 degrees your good 80 degrees not so much. So I checked my old logs ( excel spreadsheet ) and found 4 occasions where the water temperature was 80 degrees but never over 80. So bottom line I have sinned 4 times. I now spend more time on the Larry where because of flow from Lake Ontario temperature is not an issue. But I don't believe where I fish it ever was. Can't say I never lost a fish but the couple I did were certianly not due to water temperature.
Maybe we should only use hookless lures and not fish on days ending in "Y"
Edited by horsehunter 3/12/2015 5:45 PM
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | when it gets too hot, just put up the bimini, crack a cold beer and troll em to stay cool ... |
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Posts: 455
| If you go barbless and just shake them off then you are very unlikely to kill one. If you bust out the net the odds of death go way up. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | Rotag - 3/12/2015 4:59 PM
Let's say the water temp is 80 at the surface but you are fishing 20 to 30 feet down or say where ever the thermocline is and you catch a fish. Through the whole process it is out of its preferred temp range for maybe 5 minutes tops with unhooking it and all. Is this really going to affect the fish all that much? I can see if you are fishing in 5 ft of water it can have affect.
Thats one of those situations where I'd say it depends on the conditions. If the water is 80 degrees from the surface down to 20 feet, then I'd say it gets a bit more risky. Is the top 2 feet are 80 degrees and everything below it is 72, then it's pretty smooth sailing.
If I'm working rubber baits down a little deeper and they come back feeling cool to the touch, things are usually ok. If they come back feeling very warm to the touch, a fish is more likely to get stressed out.
The other year when it was so hot, walleyes coming from 22 feet of water felt very warm to the touch, and even smaller walleyes did not release very quickly.
It's hard to describe every scenario. I don't write 80 degrees in stone for when to stop fishing, but when I start seeing a sustained 80 degrees on my screen I start paying attention. |
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Posts: 2005
| I just adjust my temp reading down a few degrees and don't worry about it. |
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Posts: 1202
Location: Money, PA | We wait long enough all winter to be able to fish. I fish whenever I can. Also, consider ALL the efforts we as muskie anglers take to preserve, protect and manage the fisheries....No doubt catching fish in warmer temps is harder on them; impaling fish with 4/0 to 8/0 trebles is too! Adjust your handling routine and go from there...Theres a fine line between being sensible about things or being extremely obsessive.
I've fished ALL summer since 1989 and will continue to do so from ice out to ice up!
Edited by ShutUpNFish 3/13/2015 7:37 AM
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