Hi Joe, Your cold weather experience on the Blue is very interesting. That special local structure provides a good way to watch for negative effects during C&R fishing. As I remember, there are some pretty productive pools right in town too!
But on the subject of cold water, I've been scanning my bookshelves for info and found some interesting stuff in the book by Robert Behnke "Trout and Salmon of North America". Apparently, only arctic char and Bear lake cutthroat will remain active enough to put on weight during the winter. He doesn't address the topic of winter mortality, but there is a suggestion that some info exists on low temp effects on trout activity. "Bear Lake cutthroat trout are the only trout, except for Arctic char, known to increase in weight during winter months when water temperatures are below 39 degrees F. All experiments with brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, and other forms of cutthroat have demonstrated that when water temperature falls to 39 degrees F and lower (as occurs in most natural environments where trout live), the fish stop growing and eventually lose weight, even with unlimited food. The reason Bear Lake cutthroat trout can continue to gain weight during winter is not known, but it may be the result of evolutionary programming. The major food source, especially in winter, of large (16 inches/ 41 cm or larger) cutthroat trout in Bear Lake is the Bear Lake cisco, which spawns in winter, mainly in January. Since the cutthroat trout most likely prey on spawning aggregations of the cisco, it appears that a life history of active feeding and growth in winter allows the cutthroat to capitalize on this opportunity." I'll keep looking for more info on this. Thanks very much to everyone else who commented, especially with the advice not to expose fish to the sub-freezing air, and to avoid putting them on streamside ice. Take care, Mark --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I fished in Colorado outside of Breckenridge last winter. Maybe as > many as 25 days in the same area of small pools on the Blue River > upstream from Dillon Lake. If fish were dying after I caught them > something was eating them quickly as I never saw a dead fish in the > water. They could not float downstream as there were several shallow > pools where the water ran very slow and you could see the bottom easily. > The water slowly filtered out of these pools through small rock dams, a > dead fish would not have been able to pass through them. > > JoeL > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
