Trout Fishing for Beginners: Water Temperature First

The thermometer outranks the tackle box

Most beginner trout advice starts with gear. It should start with a number.

Virginia’s Department of Wildlife Resources, writing about summer trout fishing, reports that trout become stressed in water temperatures in the mid- to upper-60s Fahrenheit. It adds that brook, brown and rainbow trout can all tolerate temperatures up to 77°F for short periods, but that such temperatures can be lethal if sustained.

Tolerance is not identical across species. Rainbow trout are comfortable at slightly higher water temperatures than brook trout, and brown trout can handle water warmer than either.

The practical instruction that follows is to carry a stream thermometer and take readings through the day — because water that reads a healthy low 60s in the morning will often climb by afternoon.

That table is also a fishing calendar. Virginia’s DWR describes success for wild and stocked trout as very high through spring, autumn and mild winter, while from June through September low stream flows and warming water make trout fishing more difficult. In that state, water temperatures typically peak at the end of July and into early August.

When the water is too warm, you have three moves

The agency sets them out in order, and they are worth following rather than improvising.

1. Fish the first few hours of the morning, then stop. The coolest readings of the day come early.
2. Go find colder water. A spring creek or a tailwater below a dam runs colder than a freestone stream in the same weather.
3. Change species. Swap the trout gear for bass, carp or panfish tackle and fish a warmwater river or a farm pond. As the agency puts it, the fishing there is never better than in the heat.

If you do fish marginal water, the same source advises upsizing your gear and carrying a good landing net, so that fish can be fought and landed quickly and kept in the water while you unhook them. A long fight in warm water is what kills a released trout, and our catch and release guide covers the rest of the handling.

Start on stocked water

Stocked trout exist to be caught by people who are learning. Virginia’s DWR describes its designated stocked trout waters as stocked from October through May with catchable-sized trout, and its delayed-harvest streams as stocked in fall, winter and spring.

That is a real advantage for a beginner: known fish, in known water, at a known time of year, in the seasons when temperature is on your side.

Two things to check before you go, both from your own state agency: which waters are stocked and when, and what tackle restrictions apply. Missouri’s Department of Conservation notes that each of its trout parks has its own regulation pamphlet and that rules and zones vary between parks — some restrict what may be used to flies, others to flies and lures, others allow bait. Turning up with the wrong tackle for the zone is the most common avoidable mistake on stocked water.

The rig, kept deliberately small

Missouri’s Department of Conservation gives concrete numbers, and they are smaller than most beginners expect.

• Cheese and dough baits — a treble hook in size 16 to 18 works well
• Salmon eggs — a single hook in size 10 to 16
• Lures and artificials — tie straight to the leader
• Weight — do not add a split shot unless the water is high

That last point deserves emphasis because it runs against instinct. A bait drifting naturally at the speed of the current looks like food; the same bait dragged along the bottom by an unnecessary shot does not. Our split shot rig guide covers what to do when the water is high, and the hook sizes page explains why a size 18 is tiny and a size 10 is not.

For bait, Missouri’s guidance points at the mechanism: trout rely mainly on their sense of smell as well as sight to detect food. That is why scented dough baits in an assortment of colours are effective on stocked fish, and why cheese and bread also work. The bait is moulded onto the hook so the hook is covered entirely.

Reading the water you are standing in

Trout hold where food arrives and effort is low: the seam between fast and slow current, the head and tail of a pool, behind a boulder, under a cut bank, in the shade of an overhanging branch. Our guide to reading water covers how to break a stretch of stream into those pieces before you make a cast.

Two beginner habits are worth building early. Fish upstream where you can, so your approach is behind the fish rather than in front of it. And move — a stocked pool that has produced nothing in fifteen minutes is telling you something.

Where to go next

Once the basics land, the natural next step is fly fishing, which was built around this species and this kind of water. Our fly fishing basics guide starts from zero, and how to fly cast covers the motion.

For identification, the species pages carry the detail: rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, cutthroat trout and lake trout. If you are unsure whether the fish in front of you is a trout at all, trout vs salmon sorts out the family.

What you may keep, and which waters are open, comes from your state fish and wildlife agency — see licences and regulations.