TROUT STREAMS AROUND ELMIRA COURTESY OF DR. HENRY REGIER

Canagagigue Creek’s Trout-Water Tributaries: A Stress Test Related to Stream Temperature
Henry Regier, 8 July 2010
We had an intense heat wave for several days here in Elmira and surroundings. Daily maximal air temperatures were in the low 30s C and nightly minimal temperatures were in the low 20s C. It hadn’t rained for about a week. Previously the spring and early summer had been relatively cool and wet.
In the early afternoon of what the meteorologists forecasted would be the last day of this particular heat wave, i.e. Thursday 8 July, I drove around and checked the water temperatures at several locations in each of the three tributaries that I had inferred, from sampling over the past 12 years, to have stream reaches of suitable aquatic habitats for speckled trout. A summary of my data follows.
The air temperature throughout the 2 hours of this ‘sampling run’, from 12 noon to 2 pm, was 33 C with an exception of 32 C at one location, according to my measurements. (I used two different thermometers and they agreed within 1 C degree.)
Swamp Creek runs roughly parallel to the Northfield road and less than 1 km to the east of that road. It starts near the Seiling Pit, about where Sand Hill Road crosses Northfield and ends about I km south of Church Street /Guelph Road where this tributary runs into the main Canagagigue Creek below Elmira. Near the source of this tributary the water temperature was 15.7 C and the temperature increased to 18.3, 21.0 and 21.0 at successive road crossings. So the temperature of this stream’s water increased about 5 C between the source and the mouth of this tributary.
East Branch of the Canagagigue Creek starts near where the University of Guelph has its aquaculture station about 3 km west of Alma and runs southwestward into the little reservoir above the dam at Floradale. At road crossings, from near the source to the mouth, this stream’s temperatures were 15.5, 17.0, 21.1, 22.2 and 24.9 C. Over the course of this reach the temperature increased nearly 10 C.
The reach of Larch Creek (or Lorch C. or Schwindt C.) which may have trout in it (at least seasonally) runs toward Elmira and the main stem of the Canagagigue Creek from about 5 km to the west of Elmira. At two road crossings the water temperature was 26.4 and 27.8 C.
I compared the temperature data summarized above with similar data collected on over 10 occasions during the past 12 years. To emphasize, each of these occasions relate to the end of a hot dry spell weatherwise.
On 8 July 2010 Swamp Creek showed somewhat lower temperatures than on most of the previous occasions, but not unusually low temperatures.
The temperatures of the East Branch of the Canagagigue Creek were about average.
The temperatures of Larch Creek were on the high side. Where this tributary flows under Floradale Road the water temperature was higher than on any previous sampling occasion during the past 12 years. Where this tributary flows under Snider Road temperature wasn’t as high as it had been on three previous sampling occasions.
As with data from several previous sampling dates, Larch Creek seems to be more vulnerable to ‘heat stress’ during hot dry periods than the other two streams.