High Water Temps Making Fishing Tougher
The lack of rain has caused water temperatures to rise into the low 90s which has significantly slowed the bite down for our resident Tarpon. However the top water bite for Spec Trout and Redfish bite has been decent in the early morning. We have our clients on the water by 5:45am so they can have 5 hours of great fishing before the sun becomes so intense the fish shut down.
This is the perfect time to introduce a little science into the fishing report. Very few anglers consider the effect of water temperature and salinity on dissolved oxygen in the water. I’ll try to cover this as simply as possible and try to keep the science part to a minimum. This is very important information that every fishermen needs to know when fishing the warm water months of the year.
Dissolved Oxygen and How It Affects Fishing
The most important fact is that dissolved oxygen levels are about 20% less in seawater than in freshwater and DO decreases as water temperature increases, this is exactly why you want to fish early mornings to take advantage of higher oxygen levels from night time cooling.
For example, at sea level if the water temperature is 70°F, there would only be 8.68 mg/L of DO at the surface. Remember that dissolved oxygen decreases exponentially
as salinity increases. So lack of rain has a two fold effect on the fish and how good the fishing is. The salt content increases thru evaporation and and lack of rain means there is less fresh water to cool the surface and lower salinity. If you want to catch more fish during the HOT weather and water periods of the year get out early, especially after a round of decent summer thunderstorms the night before.
Hope to see you on the water!
Capt Eric Anderson
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