Too hot for trout: Why some anglers in the US are rethinking their approach to fly fishing

MISSOULA, Mont. — In the early season, when the rivers are still running high and cool from snowmelt, KynsLee Scott loves trout fishing. As a fishing guide and conservationist, her life revolves around it, she says, standing in the shade of tall pines on the banks of the Blackfoot River. Lately though, she says with a pause, “It’s been harder to love, simply because of the changed environment.” Scott is an angler — one of many in the western U.S. — snagged in an ethical dilemma brought on by the “absolutely alarming” shifts she’s seen with a warming climate: When the trout you’re fishing need cold water, and cold water is increasingly scarce, how and when should you fish? “For me, unless I have to do it for my job, I don’t feel good about coming out and targeting already stressed fish,” she says. “It sucks. But we have to adjust what we’re doing to have a resource at the end of the day.” Western Montana is particularly water-starved this year after a meager snowpack and scorching ...