Tackle.net Logo

Q&A AI

Do trout like colder water or warmer water? When are they more active related to time of day and temperature of water?

While my expertise is primarily in bass fishing, I can share some general insights on trout, which might be helpful for you. Trout, like bass, are influenced by water temperature, but their preferences can differ significantly.

Trout are generally cold-water fish, thriving in temperatures between 50°F and 60°F (10°C to 15°C). When water temperatures are within this range, trout are usually more active and feed more aggressively, making them easier to target for anglers. As temperatures deviate from this range, particularly getting warmer, trout's metabolism increases, but their oxygen levels decrease, which can lead to less feeding activity and more stress on the fish.

Throughout the day, the activity levels of trout can also fluctuate. During cooler parts of the day, such as early morning or late evening, trout might be more active and feed near the surface or in shallower waters. In contrast, during the warmer parts of the day, they might retreat to deeper, cooler waters.

If you're targeting trout, consider these temperature and time-of-day factors to optimize your chances. For instance, using techniques like fly fishing with dry flies or nymphs can be effective in the morning or evening, while deeper water tactics might be necessary during midday heat.

If you have specific scenarios or further questions about trout fishing or bass fishing, feel free to ask!

Related videos
Transcript
04:58
07:34
Video
How Unseasonably Warm Winter Days Affect Bass Behavior by Intuitive Angling With Randy Blaukat give you guys is if you go fishing during one of these super warm days like this just pretend it's not warm continue to fish the same type of winter areas that you traditionally fish in and we're talking about deeper point ins and sides bluff banks fishing for suspended fish fishing deeper docks that type of stuff those fish are still going to be there they're not going to react to the increased temperature because it's not really going to increase the water surface temperature up that much because normally even though you have a warm day like we have today it still cools off in the night it may warm up a little bit more than what you think in the daytime but it's not like it stays warm at night too and another factor with that to consider is that in the winter time of the year you know bass have seasonal movements and seasonal personalities that they have and in my opinion the water temperature is not as important many times of the year as the daylight hours when you have decreasing daylight hours like we're coming up on the winter solstice in about three weeks we're gonna have some of the shortest days of the year over the next two or three weeks here and bass react to that and they they react more to the daylight hours than they do to the water temperatures and they're a complex creature i mean
Transcript
02:47
05:26
Video
Water Level/Temperature/Visibility...Which Is More Important? by Intuitive Angling With Randy Blaukat the swim bait is going to work over spoon a lot of different variables to that in the winter time water level is not that big of a variable because very seldom do you have high water levels in the winter time precipitation levels are normally low in the winter most of the time the lake levels are normal or low so that's not that big of a factor as you move into spring time of the year that's when the combination of water temperature water level and water clarity in my opinion is the most important because you have fluctuating water levels in the spring greatly to a large degree you also have fluctuating water clarities with that rain that comes into it and then you have warming temperatures that add a variable to that so those combinations of unstable water levels uh you know water clarities that are also unstable and change a lot and warming water that tends to put fish shallow for the most part and that's a big you know deciding factor in the technique that you want to fish in the summer time of the year the water level and the water excuse me the water level and the water temperature plays much less of a roll to the water clarity because in my opinions the water temperature in the summertime is irrelevant because i think when that water temperature gets above 75 degrees and and it doesn't matter how hot it
Transcript
08:57
11:31
Video
Here It Is!…A 40 Minute Seminar On How Weather Affects Bass by Intuitive Angling With Randy Blaukat them on that as long as that water temperature is like in the upper 40s once that water temperature starts dropping down below like 48 degrees those nasty days that you have in the middle of the winter are not very productive it just seems like those bass are just they're they're at their most dormant stage of all winter even though they're not they're never completely dormant but they're more dormant in those low light conditions just really don't help them out a little help them out at all so bass like I said in the dead of the winter I prefer those brighter calmer type days sort of the days that the rest of the time of year is not that good it makes it a little bit tougher now in late winter sort of the same thing happens again you start having to change and once that water temperature starts to go up a little bit you have a combination of a couple different things you have the daylight hours increasing as you get into February you have the biological rhythms of the bass changing because they're instinctively knowing that the spawn is down the road a couple months from now and they get into a pre-spawn phase and even though it's still winter time they make a little bit of a move and the weather greatly affects how you catch them then now once that water temperature starts climbing up say for
Transcript
05:34
08:19
Video
Light Intensity Affects Everything In Bass Fishing by Intuitive Angling With Randy Blaukat temperature in the mood and the personality and how active a bass is right off the bat now what you have in there is you got light intensity determines technique as well because you may consider you may have a day out there say for example it's a gene or something and it's a bright bluebird sky and you may think that that sort of goes against the fish being active since it's not a low light condition but if you have a technique that say you're flipping heavy covers how you're flipping thick thick flooded bushes say you're flipping thick matted vegetation the brighter higher level light intensities can actually be a benefit to you because that's going to position the fish in certain cover in a more catchable way and vice versa if you have a lower light condition in warm water it's going to sometimes it's going to make those bass more active and they're going to chase and they're going to get out on the edgy cover and you'll be able to catch them with moving power baits like crankbaits and spinner baits and that type of stuff so when you're determining the technique that you want to fish and the type of cover that you want to fish the light intensity in correlation with the water temperature has everything to do with it and that's another topic that we can get into at a later point now another thing about light intensity is
Transcript
187:19
189:26
Video
Bassmaster Live: 2015 Classic - Championship Sunday by Bassmaster fronts they feel the low pressure and the high pressure but the water temperature they're used to it it's been stable and you can get these fish to bite and move in bait like that they'll watch it Randy Howell live a critical critical miss a few minutes ago Kevin before this tournament we were talking about how this Lake was going to set up and the first day of this tournament guys were catching fish on boat docks five foot of water two feet of water all the way into about ten inches and you made the statement I do not care how cold the water is throughout this country when we have longer days they're coming yes those matters it's all about the time of the here you know this is the time of the year when the fish are staging and they're setting up they're thinking about moving up to spawn and they're gonna be up there even when the water temperature is cold I mean we had the first really hard patch of winter this past week I mean these are record all-time lows for this area and yet these fish are still up there that just goes to show you that you know that water temperature is really overrated the fish know what they need to be doing they're just gonna wait out these fronts but they're not leaving they don't leave especially large miles they're gonna
Transcript
04:08
07:00
Video
Light Intensity Affects Everything In Bass Fishing by Intuitive Angling With Randy Blaukat dead of winter when the water temperature is 40 degrees and it's a sunny day out or it's a cloudy day or whatever you will find out in those conditions cold water clear water in the winter time or even cold water and you know just average water clarity of three or four feet you will find out the bass always bite better in cold water under greater higher light intensities than they do under lower light intensities it has to do with a lot of the fish's metabolism and the water clarity uh you know the fish i mean the fish's metabolism and the water temperature versus the water clarity and the sky conditions um but that's one extreme now as the water warms up into the spring gets up into the 50s and 60s something like that that's when different light intensities are more optimal as you get water temperatures in the 50s and 60s in the springtime of the year it helps if you have some type of a little bit lower light intensity during and we're talking about lower light intensity we're talking about at different times of the day you'll find out that the bass are a little bit more active during those conditions and also as you move into the summer and the fall period you'll find out that bass are always more active during lower light conditions so light conditions have a lot to do that are correlated with water

More Trout Answers

Loading...
©2024 Tackle.net