Blog
July 28, 2009
Water temperature and activity
After being stymied on the flats a couple weeks back, I have put some thought and research into the effect of water temperatures on carp. Instead of running the long format, here is the bulleted version of findings and musings
- Carp prefer stable water temperatures, rapid increases or decreases will force them to slow their feeding, and on the flats especially, find deeper water
- Carp have survived in a block of ice with minimal flow in the lab
- Water temperatures for the flats have to be a steady 70-80 degrees for fish to come up and feed.
- When temperatures are above the magic number, time your fishing early and late, or on overcast days when water temperatures run a bit cooler
- When temperatures are below the magic number, fish mid day on sunny days when water temperatures are a bit warmer.
- Early and late in the season (pre spawn and in the fall) has fish competing over a smaller density of food, and you can find some very aggressive fish in these odd 'warm' spots. (Power plants outflows are the new spring creeks in the winter, who knew?)
- The more I carp fly fish, the more these things start to make sense, especially when compared to redfish and bonefish. While the literature on carp is very scarse, reading some good books on reds and bones will up your game 10 fold!
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