Hi trout lovers, I hope to share this with enough people that we can all agree to be kind to our fish and make good choices when the water temps rise on our favorite lake (lakes).

East Lake is one of the best shoreline fishing lakes we have in Central Oregon, and it often provides great fishing opportunities wading and walking around the perimeter of the lake.

With the heat I found by noon the water temperature had risen to 68, 69 and even up to 71 degrees.

Fisheries managers and scientists recommend the cutoff to catch and release trout at 68. Even at 68, play them quickly, keep them in the water, and spend time (maybe up to a couple of minutes) reviving them in the net before letting them swim off under their own power.

I believe that the early risers among us still have the ability to wade the shores from dawn to maybe noon, but carry your stream thermometer and use it frequently after 10 AM to keep checking.

There are some great thermometers available, the 2 I like best are the Fishpond Digital Thermometer that I have attached to my Fishpond Net, and the thermometer that is an adhesive strip that sticks to your net made by Jared May of Cling Flyfishing. 

Use good practices, and remember that the long term results for the trout population is more important than a short term gain and killing our resources.

The deep water areas held temps nicely yesterday on the hottest summer day of the year (so far) and we found mostly 65-67 at the surface, and using my Fish Hawk digital thermometer to 20 feet it was in the low 60’s. We did a lot of nymph fishing using deep indicator methods (slip strike bobbers on 18’ leaders) and type 7 lines with 4’ leaders, and 10-12 foot leaders with a drop back bung during Callibaetis times. All work.

I’m guessing that 3 Creek Lake (our other great shoreline wading lake) will be the same until we get cooler days, so wading anglers take note of that there as well.