Do Trout Need Vacations?

Yesterday in The New York Times, Bill Becher reported on a recent trip to California’s famed Hot Creek, where he managed to fool some very smart fish into taking small dry flies. His article raised the question of whether trout need — as some veteran anglers say — a “vacation” from being constantly fished. Better, suggest some experts, to have a closed season during the warmest months of the year. “Colder winter water holds more oxygen, so it would be better for the fish to have a closed season in the dog days of August, according to Roger Bloom, a senior fisheries biologist who oversees California’s wild and heritage trout program. More stress on trout comes from anglers fishing in slow-moving water in the heat of summer.”