Rockport and fish finders

[cje04]

Went to Rockport yesterday. Arrived around noon which is less than ideal for fishing but stayed through the evening. Only caught one fish. Lot's of recreational people out all along the bank and in boats which made finding water to target difficult until later when people started leaving. Water temp was around 73.

Question. We drove around the perimeter of the lake a couple times and even went out in the middle just searching for fish. We never found them. Most people we talked to said to fish were deep. We should have seen them. I thought maybe the fish were shallow in the top of the water column where the fish finder wouldn't pick them up however our attempts to find them with our lines was unsuccessful. I've seen fish at other lakes so I'm not questioning if my fish finder was working. Have others had this experience? Is this typical? I did not expect to cover as much water as I did and not find fish. Something just doesn't add up.
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[Jmorfish]

The only thing I can think of to do is to repeat your trip, but not on the weekend....I'll bet the fish show up on your screen again....esp. off that large point on the shore opposite the boat launch, or the area just left of the boat launch.....those areas typically show alot of fish, but I can only imagine how much they get scattered with all the activity on the water on weekends....Guluk....
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[a_bow_nut]

Had that going on at Deer Creek one day then realized that i2had left my finder on the 200 hertz setting. Worked much better after I switched to the wider cone.
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[woodpile53]

we ran into the same thing at rockport the other day,,it was pretty strange,we hardly graphed a fish all morning until we hit the river running in,
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[Tin-Can]

Saw an article recently about thermoclines in some water. A water temp difference may make it difficult for the sonar to "see" thru it. In fact, that is one trick the Navy used decades ago to hide our subs from searching anti-sub surface ships and airborne dipping sonar.
But I think maybe that issue has been solved to most extent.
The water temp you see on your fish finder is the temp of the water at whatever depth your skimmer is. Rockport is at higher altitude than say Willard Bay, so the deeper it is the colder is should be. May just be creating a thermocline. Or of course as was said, the fish may all just be hiding out to get away from the power squadron. []
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[Anglinarcher]

Even trout will sit on the bottom when they are stressed by light, noise, pressure, or temperatures.

If there is no separation between the bottom and the fish, it takes a really high end sonar and a real expert to see them. Don't believe the unit advertisements. LOL

Often the Thermocline will separate the oxygen as wall, with too little oxygen below it, OK oxygen but too warm above it.

I would not consider Rockport as "fished out", but as suggested, check out a week day. Also turn the gain way up and see if the thermocline shows up.

[cje04]

Thanks for the insight. I will have to try again with the recommendations.
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