Wednesday, July 21, 2010
I hear the owl cooing
When "daily maximum water temperatures reach or exceed 73°F at any time during the day for three consecutive days", Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks will impose Hoot Owl restrictions, meaning it'll be closed from around 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.until the water stays below 70 degrees for three consecutive days or September 15. We're very close on a few major waters, including the lower Gallatin (hit 73 once in the last week), the middle Jefferson (hit 71 already so the lower parts must be awfully close), the Lower Madison (71 twice this week), and the Big Hole (flowing below normal down low and has hit 72 for five straight days up high at Wisdom). The Yellowstone which is usually prone to high temps has stayed relatively low, maxing out at 64 at Big Timber last week.
We've honestly had about three weeks of fishable water on these waters (not counting the Lower Madison) and now they might be toast for awhile. Ugh.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Say it aint so! I had no idea that the rivers were already warming so much. I had assumed that with a relatively good water year and a cool start to summer, that we were in good shape still. I fished the lower Gallatin last night and was a bit surprised by how warm the water was. The fishing was darn good though...on dries no less.
Yeah, it seems strange, but that's what the gauges are saying. I read a report of a guy catching a 25-inch rainbow on the lower Gallatin yesterday, but that fish died after a normal fight and conscientious release, so I did a little research. If I'm not overlooking something, this is surprising and negative. Flows are still good, but temps are not.
I sure wish the temps out here in the south start on the down trend. The trout are so deep it makes fishing them fairly tough.
Josh,
Not related to this post, but was wondering which canon point shoot you use to take the super macro closeups?
thanks
Hey Lynn. I use a Canon sx200is and it has a "super macro" function. It literally lets you put the end of the lens on the subject - it's pretty impressive. And in the sx200is, it's got a built-in image stabilizer that also works well, so it's highly recommended.
Post a Comment