Streams in the Swan Hills region
 

Best not to fish the Swan Hills streams during this warm, dry spell. The fish are stressed. Lower flows and high stream temperatures have had an impact. The grayling, for instance, are suffering and seem 'played out' when hooked. Not a good indicator of the general health of the creek(s). 65+ F water temperatures!
Hope for rain, cooler nights and days.

That’s good advice!

BW

Great advice and thanks for sharing!

Freeman river today
 

This is the Freeman river today:

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...August%208.png







Those tea coloured waters really absorb heat. Consider going elsewhere. Better flows can be found in the North Sask drainage.

smitty9? Do you think there'll be belly-up fish in the Freeman?

Maybe. Warm temps alone usually don't kill fish, unless it's really outside their tolerance.

Usually it's coupled with a lack of oxygen. Plenty of riffles in the Freeman. Lots of logjam / woody debris as well to in seeking shadier water.

So, my guess would be we wouldn't see a significant fish kill, unless the water gets REALLY low and warm.

Right now, fish are surviving, but they don't need the added stress of angling.

Water temp over 20 degrees can put extreme stress on a fish when hooked and playing especially long fights. The issue is a lot of people will play the fish to long
I live 100 feet from a small river and I monitor very well and see where the fish go depending on the water temp, right now the fish in the deep holes 6 feet or deeper or they r in oxygenated water where the water flows over rocks and helping the water to grab o2