Do you carry a thermometer when you're fishing? I do. I thought it was silly, back when I was younger and thought the excessive amount of gear fly anglers like to carry was just absurd. And, well, it is. There's plenty of superfluous or completely unnecessary gear being purchased- a thermometer, however, is not one of those things. A small thermometer is a key piece of equipment to help an angler catch more fish. Buy one. Seriously.
More important than just carrying one and sticking it in the water is really properly using it.
Not every part of the water is the same temperature, and to get a good understanding of what is going on an angler needs to think about where they're taking a temperature. The slack, shallow pool off the main current of a river will invariably be warmer than the riffle just 20 feet away, unless there's a spring seep there. The surface of a pond will be warmer in the spring and early summer than the bottom, but may in fact be notably colder after the first frost in the fall. To get a really thorough idea what's going on, I take a couple of different readings at different depths and in different locations. If there's a striking difference in temperature between one spot on a pond and another, it is certainly going to impact the behavior of the fish.
Equally important is keeping record of the temperatures you take. Unless you have an extraordinary memory, write it down. Keep logs. Make not of the weather when you took the data, what the weather was in the prior days, and what time it was. And of course log how the fishing was. Water temperature and fishing quality are very much correlated, and if you've got a substantial back-log of reports and associated water temperatures, you'll be all the more prepared to repeat successes and rule out bad conditions as well. The unfortunate reality is that it will take time to get a solid, predictive pattern. I've been logging consistently for the better part of 4 years and still don't always hit the nail on the head. I've got a much better idea of how things work though. I know what temperature gets carp up on certain mud flats, and I know what temperature gets the walleye moving into the areas I target them early in the season. I also know what temperatures really kill the action in different places for different species. This means I can catch fish much more consistently, or at least waste less time fishing unproductive water and times.
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| Monitoring water temperature has been key for catching trophy black crappie. |
Aside from helping you catch more fish a thermometer can tell you when you should be fishing as well. After all, none of us want our released fish to keel over and die shortly after we've caught them, right? Carrying a thermometer when trout fishing in the summer is imperative. Be sure that you aren't fishing water that exceeds 67 degrees Fahrenheit. If you find a cold pocket, be mindful that trout use small spring seeps and the mouths of tributaries as thermal refuges, and that even though localized temperatures might be cold enough, the trout using these areas are under significant stress and should not be targeted.
Thinking back, it's funny how reluctant I was to both start logging and start carrying a thermometer. It upped my game hugely, really taking things to another level. Of course, there's many things we all did as beginners that we can laugh at now. But if you aren't already, I certainly recommend getting a cheap little thermometer to carry with you on each and every fishing trip.
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