During the night, I woke up and caught part of an Infisherman show. The hosts were reporting on ice fishing, and presented some things that I had not heard before. The premise of there show was where to look for the fish.
The hosts reported that the temperature of the water within the column could differ as much as 8 degrees from top to bottom under the ice, and that fish usually seek the warmer water within the column which is located at the bottom of the lake or in depressions.
This would lead one think that we should be fishing on the bottom at the deepest part of the lake.
Now, I know that water temperature is of importance to the fish for comfort, but it would seem that food and oxygen would also be part of the consideration.
I'm not ice fishing this year, but I would like to know about the temperature differences. If someone had the equipment to measure that difference, I would like to know if it exists.
I have followed the In fisherman group for several years, and found them to be very helpful with their info. and you can generally trust them on what they produce.
If anyone has the ability/equipment to test out this report, I would like to know.
Thanks
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A few weeks ago, I purchased a thermometer on a cable from TubeDude, that is designed to do exactly what you are requesting -- measure the water temperature at various depths. I purchased it primarily for use on my boat; however, if I can remember I will drag it out on the ice one of my next trips.
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Last week I went ice fishing to Strawberry and we finally decided to fish over 35 feet of water. We drilled many holes from 20 feet to 40 feet without seeing fish on the finder. After dropping our lures down to various depths, we discovered that the fish seemed to come off the bottom of the lake to our lures. You could not see the fish on the bottom. It seems that they were hugging the bottom, maybe to keep warm. I would be watching the screen and suddenly a fish would zoom off the bottom and look at the lure and go right back to the bottom. I thought then that maybe the water was warmer there and the fish didn't show up on the finder because they are on the warm bottom. Food for thought.
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Temperature becomes important in many cases; however, I believe that oxygen is more important...in many of our reservoirs, for example, there is an oxygen deficiency in the deeper parts of the reservoirs, so the fish move to areas where more oxygen is available. And, because oxygen isn't as readily available in the deeper parts of some lakes, the food is also not available.
In lakes/reservoirs where oxygen is readily available throughout the water column, temperature plays an increased role. For example, smallmouth bass will seek the warmest oxygenated waters in Utah reservoirs during winter months. Also, some trout will feed throughout a water column during the winter--like splake--because they become more active with colder water temps...
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Water is perhaps the most interesting compound on Earth because of its unique properties and life on Earth as we know it would not be possible without water's unique properties. Water differs from most other compounds because it is less dense as a solid than as a liquid. Consequently ice floats, while water at temperatures just above freezing sinks. As most compounds change from a liquid to a solid, the molecules become more tightly packed and consequently the compound is denser as a solid than as a liquid. Water, in contrast, is most dense at 4°C (39.2°F) and becomes less dense at both higher and lower temperatures. The water near a lake’s bottom will usually be at 4°C (39.2°F) just before the lake´s ice cover melts in the spring. Water above that layer will be cooler, approaching 0°C (32°F) just under the ice. That's a 4°C (7.2°F) difference. As long as the oxygen hasn't been depleted much and there's food available, if I were a fish I'd be hugging the bottom in the warmest water too. Now, if the oxygen was very depleted toward the bottom, I'd still hang out in the warmest water, but only as deep as the oxygen level would allow.
If you want to check out a very cool web site about Lake Ecology, go to [url "http://waterontheweb.org/under/lakeecology/index.html"]http://waterontheweb.org/under/lakeecology/index.html[/url]
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Yesterday I dropped my thermometer to the bottom of Pineview. At the surface it was close to 32 degrees, after that the temperature was a consistent 36 degrees until reaching the bottom. At the bottom,in 45 feet of water,it was about 39 degrees. This might explain one of the reasons so many fish are hugging the bottom under the ice
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