What water temps do I look for on my New Fish Fox?

[Knotlost]

What are the temps that Im looking for when fishing for...

Steelheads

Kings

Lakers

I just got my new fishfox and fish out of oswego mainly so what exactly am I looking for?

thanks..

[Tim Bromund]

I assume you mean fish hawk

Steelies like warmer water, so if you want to target them look for the top of the thermocline or around 55 degrees and fish up from there. The thing with steelhead is, they may only be 40 feet down, but they usually like being 40 feet down over 500+ feet of water so it can be a good run offshore to target them.

for kings, I look for 39-42 deg ice water for the bottom of my program and fish up from there. Lots of times the big matures will be sitting down in the ice water when they are not actively feeding and they'll make quick forays up into warmer water, sometimes way out of temp feeding in 60+ degrees, but then will drop back down, so I set my bottom line (usually my probe rigger) at that depth and the rest of my spread is up above that. That 39 deg water is also where the smelt will be by the way.

Lakers like cold water similar to kings, but won't come up out of it much and they are also bottom oriented, so look for where 39-32 deg water meets bottom and troll slow. (I admit I don't target lakers, so take that advice for what it's worth)

Though you didn't ask, browns also like warmer water but will be close to shore for the most part, so for them look for where the top of the thremocline (approx 55 deg) intersects bottom and work inside from there, usually within 20 feet of the bottom. Lots of times off of Olcott, we'll find browns in 35-45 fow in the middle of summer. in 65 deg bathwater, I would guess it'll be the same at Oswego.

Tim

[Knotlost]

Yes im sorry it is a fish hawk, fish fox just sounded right.... thanks for the info. Im realy hope we can do better with the kings this year.