I have been fishing Otter Pit for crappie and doing well in the grass where I found some small scrub trees that were submerged. Water temp was 92 deg F at the surface and the fish were in 7 to 10 ft of water near a drop off.

Fished Bluegrass Pit yesterday. I mapped a huge shelf that I found. I used 10 marker buoys to mark the outline if this shelf and get that pictured in my mind. Then when I picked up the buoys I added each spot along the edge of the shelf to my GPS as a waypoint.

I found a nice deep brush pile in 20 ft of water. Bush came up to around 12 ft from the surface. I caught only one crappie from this brush pile.

I found out that the 12" bass are hanging around 18 ft right on the drop off. I caught at least 15 largemouth bass that were short yesterday. Each was carefully handled and released IMMEDIATELY. They are appeared to be in very good shape. I caught these using live minnows and a drop shot weight. I used 6 lb test Stren line Magnithin type. A graphite 7 ft long rod and a open faced spinning reel with a good drag system.

I had heard others telling me that the bass were in 18 ft of water and they were absolutely right. They were spot on! Right at 18 ft. I'll take some deep water temperature readings the next time I get out to fish.

I want to determine where the thermocline is located on this lakes.

Then later that evening I fished a shallow self and caught a few more bass in 5 ft to 10 ft of water. They got up on the shelf and I used an ultra light outfit to catch these bass. I caught on more crappie in about 7 ft of water in the grass.

Submergent vegetation in the hot summer months seems to be where I am finding the crappie this year. I still found some in about 20 ft of water suspended ten feet down from the surface at Otter Pit.

They fish find shelter, food and good dissolved oxygen levels in the weeds.

Another thing that I often forget is the the weeds take up CO2 from the water. This will change the pH of the water in the area around the weeds. CO2 when mixed with water is an weak acid. Carbonic Acid. By adding CO2 to the water at night the water becomes more acidic. By taking away CO2 from the water during the daytime the water becomes more basic. The pH swings may be minimal in lakes that have high buffering capacity. Limestone type lakes will have lots of carbonate to buffer the pH levels. One would have to use up all the Calcium Carbonate before the pH levels would shift very much.