Water Temp. Question!

brendanc · Post by **brendanc** » Tue Nov 12, 2002 10:16 pm

Craig,

I have caught a few bass shallow in some extremely cold water with ice on most of the water surface. The one thing I noticed was that the lakes where I caught these fish were "shallow" lakes. The water temp doesn't vary that much from 3'-5' of water. On the other hand, when they have access to water 20' or greater, all the fish I have caught came from the deeper wintering areas. As a cold-blooded species, their body temp directly impacts the need for food. Johnnie talked about 37 degrees as the magic number that turns off bass. At 37 degrees, they really don't need to feed that much. It has been observed by divers like Bob Underwood where fish would retreat to the depths when the water temp drops below 40 degrees. They will spend to winter months in these deeper areas until early spring. Right after ice out can be some of the best fishing of the year. When these fish start to suspend and rise in open water to the warming surface temps, you can really have some amazing days. Especially when the lake has open water baitfish like Alewife in it.

I agree with you that just because we don't catch a fish in a given area, that doesn't mean there's not any fish around. It's just that during the winter, I have seen videos, read books, and spoken with divers that have observed the majority of the bass in a lake with water greater than 10' will school in the deeper water. Why? Who really knows? I would guess that it has something to do with stabilization of the water temp. At that time of year (at least up north) they just become dormant based on their body temp.

MMT · Post by **MMT** » Wed Nov 13, 2002 11:25 am

Bren, I totally agree with the concept that if bass have access to deeper water, they will for the most part use it, but shallow water will be close by. I'm talking largemouths right now as Spots and smallmouth can get very palaegic in cold months. I guess living on LI and fishing so many places that don't get that deep made me reply in the way I did. I still do feel that you can always find a fish or two shallow though.