Hello Willi,

Around here, people are voluntarily choosing not to fish on vulnerable local
streams if the water gets too low and the temperature rises too much in
mid-summer. We also have a tailwater fishery which can be fished all summer
without compunction. Our closed season is from the end of September until
nearly the end of April, almost seven months, but even if it were open all
year, I personally would be inclined to leave them alone during spawning
season and in deep winter. I would like to be able to start earlier in the
spring though, weather permitting. A trout's weight loss over the cold
months is I believe, natural and not something to be overly concerned about;
it is probably analagous to a bear's weight loss during hibernation. Its
metabolism no doubt slows as the temperature drops and consequently it does
not feed as actively, even if food is abundant. If so, they are probably
harder to catch and not as much fun to catch anyway. Fishing in winter will
not do an individual trout any good because of the extra stress during a
stressful time but it probably will not do much harm on a population wide
basis - I reckon the fishing pressure would be minimal from October to March
and few fish would get caught anyway. There might be an additional reason
not to fish in late fall though - extensive wading could possibly disturb
redds.

Best regards,

Yuji Sakuma

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"Willi" wrote in message
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I'm pretty sure that catching fish at low water temps is less stressful
than at high ones. (I'll see if I have any info on that)

However, like you state, Winter can be tough on the fish. In streams and
rivers, if anchor ice forms, there can be significant loss. Overall,
although there is weight loss during the Winter, trout deal just fine
with low water temps. The trout have evolved to be able to handle it.
Shallow lakes do often fish kill during the Winter, but this is do to
oxygen depletion and not temperatures that are too low. There are some
sections of tailwaters where the temps "never" get out of the forties
and the fish populations are high and the trout prosper.

Higher water temps are generally the limiting factor in where trout can
survive. As a river flows downstream, average temps generally rise until
they reach the point where the trout can't survive. Today, most of the
trout water that has been lost has been due to increased water temps
caused by changes that man has made. Some of these things a removing
water for for irrigation so water temps rise more easily, the removal
of tree cover, etc.

Willi