High water levels help New York’s stream trout, but inhibit some anglers this summer

During most summers, trout stream anglers around New York worry about high stream temperatures and low water levels and the impact they can have on cold-water-loving trout.
That hasn’t been the case during the wet and weird summer of 2023, with near record precipitation in parts of the state providing plenty of cold water for fish, but also re-arranging streams during flooding in early July. And record high water levels actually kept anglers off some Adirondack streams that stayed too high to fish, an unusual problem for the depths of summer.