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Read more about the lack of snow, and the bad fishing side effect at: http://troutster.com/lack-of-mountain-snow-make-fishing-terrible-2018/
A lack of snow in the mountains, could make for a tough summer trout season in the Rocky mountain West, Oregon, WA, CA, ID, NM, AZ and more!
The current levels of snow in the rocky mountain west are at record low levels.
While you might not think this is a big deal, I assure you that it will have an effect on the summer fishing season.
as spring snow starts to melt, the reservoirs begin filling up to capacity. once the snow is gone, the water flowing into the water body slows down, but often times the lower end of the reservoir remains steadily dumping large amounts of water.
The farmers down stream of the reservoir are not concerned about fishing, they are often sucking the rivers nearly dry to water crops. And they are doing it legally, because of outdated water rights laws.
Excessive amounts of flow will lead to the lowering and eventual warming of the reservoir, causing a dramatic effect to the fishing downstream.
Trout not only like cold water, they require it. Warm water will hold less oxygen, launching already sluggish fish into a life and death struggle to stay alive.
They will rarely eat, making fishing difficult if not impossible.
This has happened a number of times on several tailwater rivers over the years. This year could easily be the worst in history.
By late summer the water will be extremely low and warm, leaving the fish downstream fighting for their lives.
Once the water temperature reaches the 60's, fishing will begin getting tough. As it starts to approach 70,s.... You'll notice that the fish no longer have the energy to fight.
Once it gets this bad, some states will begin closing down fishing in rivers during later parts of the day, or closing fishing down entirely on certain rivers.
Catching a trout in 70+ degree water will stress the fish to a point that it might not recover from.
If y..
