Water coolest at noon?

[randojl]

My family and I really enjoyed 8 days in the Park last month. The synchronous fireflies lived up to the hype and I even caught a few fish, including the second-to-largest rainbow I've ever caught in a very small favorite stream.

This post is really about stream temperature. Somewhere I read that when it's hot to fish early morning because "that's when the water is coolest." I just visited the Little River stream data webpage and looked at the temperatures for the first time:

(http://dipper.nws.noaa.gov/nexhads2/jsp/dipper/prepareDCPChart2.jsp?nesdis_id=DD5263E0&nwsli=TWNT1&pe_code=HG)

I was surprised that the water is warmest at midnight and coolest around noon. Seems that fishing at noon when the water is warm might be a winning strategy... any thoughts?

[ijsouth]

I think those times are Greenwich Mean Time, or Zulu Time...I think you would add either 5 or 6 hours to those times to get the local time.

[randojl]

I think those times are Greenwich Mean Time, or Zulu Time...I think you would add either 5 or 6 hours to those times to get the local time.

Of course it's GMT, now that I look at the chart with both eyes. I believe you actually would subtract 5 hours to get EST or 4 hours to get EDT, which would put the minimums around 9:00AM EDT and the maximums near 6:00PM EDT.

The stream gauges around here are managed by the USGS and show local time, so I didn't even check that for the Little River gauge which looks to be from NOAA. Thanks for the help!

[ijsouth]

You're right...subtract - Greenwich is ahead of us.