Originally Posted by
peter
question:
Two weekends ago caught stipers 70-78 feet deep.
This weekend caught one at 70' in the main channel about noon.
Talked to a friend that caught some sunday afternoon at 70' by the dam.
Did not see anybody catching fish.
Sunday I was marking a ton of bait and maybe fish from 18' to 35' close to and in the main channel between Beaver and Indian. Pulled up downlines for a bit to 20-45' still did not catch anything but did not fish that depth for more than an hour and a half.
Then I hear a guide saying they were fishing sunday at 20-35 feet and caught nice fish by mid morning. I mean if I was making decisions based on my graph only I would have been fishing 20-35..but having caught fish deeper and deeper as summer progressed could not see how the fish could go from being caught at 78' to 20' in one week. I will add that the shinners did much much better in the shallower depts which I will guess is due to more oxygen in the shallow water. At 70 feet they lasted about 20 minutes. Also cold fronts passed the Friday of each weekend.
Perplexed not about not catching fish-had quite a few lookers, but about the extreem differences in depth.
When they pull the cold water out through the sluice gates I would guess the oxygen goes with it. Is that oxygen replaced in the cold water that remains in the lake and if so at what rate? Based on bait tank procedures I would not think that oxygen is inherrent in cold water just because it is cold or we would only need ice and not also an aerator to keep bait alive.
Any body have any ideas.