A Long, Hot Summer

When I first moved to Wyoming, I lived in a city at 7,000 feet above sea level. The winters weren’t as bad as you’d imagine (a few days a -10F) and in the summer I don’t recall the temps breaking more than the mid-90s. Two years ago, my wife and I moved to a different part of the Cowboy State, trading in our easy access to Wal Mart and Wendy’s for a town of 1,200 at 3,800 feet above sea level. I didn’t know this at the time, but we moved to an area that regularly posts the hottest summer temperatures in the state, as well as a few strings of -30F days during the winter.

And this summer has been brutal, as it has for most of the Mountain West. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight to the heat, either. I’m headed to Alaska at the end of this week when it’s projected to be over 100F the two days before I leave.

Luckily, it’s only been during the last two weeks that the water temps have gotten into dangerous territory for trout, and then only during the afternoon. Streams are still running in the low 60s, at least on the valley floor. Up in the high country, I haven’t fished water that’s cracked 59F yet this summer.

We had a good winter with average snowpack, and a late, chilly spring, which I think helped our stream temps stay so stable for so long. But I know just over the border in Montana, that’s not the case.

This article, by George Ochenski, details how tough the situation is in the Bitterroot Valley. When he wrote the story in mid-July, he said that “most of our major world famous trout streams are already under ‘hoot owl’ restrictions – or shut down completely to fishing.”

A quick glance at the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks website confirms that. Hoot owl restrictions are in place on the Beaverhead, Big Hole, Bitterroot, Blackfoot, Clark Fork, East Gallatin, Gallatin, Jefferson, Madison, North Fork Flathead, Rock Creek, Ruby, Silver Bow Creek, Smith, St. Regis, and Sun. That’s a who’s-who of Montana trout rivers. Now, not every section of river is dealing with hoot owl restrictions, of course. The Beaverhead, for instance, is still cool and in good shape below the dam.

But the point remains that it’s hot, and that trout fishing is tapering off for many of us in the West. I’m in a lucky situation since it happened later for me than most, but the heat still hit my favorite fisheries.

Which brings me to the point of this column – how long were you able to fish this summer before water temps got too high to safely chase trout? I’m curious how long the summer season lasted for anglers, and an informal gathering of this sort of information would be helpful in quantifying the impact of this summer on our favorite sport.