Temperature

[Yankee Troller]

OK guys, here is something Billy and I talked about this past weekend. When Im fishing temp I will set my probe at 39-41 degrees and the rest of the riggers just above that. With most of the set in that 42-50 degree water. What do you guys look for?

By the way Billy does the same.

This whole discussion started when my dad as ****in casue the probe read 39 degrees. He says we never fish water that cold for kings. Well, if he would stop eating his corn pops and reading the news paper in between fish he would know a bit more!

This ought to be a good one!

[TrophySeeker]

Interesting question. I guess it depends on how quick the break is. I was out tonight, and it took 10 feet or so to change the temp 3 degrees. In that situation I ran my deepest rigger only down to 46 to 48 degrees (90 feet down over 200), with a free slider. The outside riggers were staggered above. We didn't kill them, but everything took a hit eventually. I don't think I would have tried to get down to lower temps than that. But, when the break is 10 degrees over 10 feet, I'd probably run my deepest rigger in the temps you mention.

Just my opinion, but that's how I set my rigs up.

[ray koziatek]

42 to 57 is what i look for.the salmon like the cold stuff but seem to be a little more dormate there. most bait is up and outa temp fer salmon but they head up there for a snack i think when there (salmon)in the upper temp zone 55deg ish there looking for food and are more likley to hit your bait,your papa may be a little smarter than you think,or im as dumb as him..................

[chugbug]

Does temp still play a part in there location with the spawn coming on in Sept. or does the spawn change everything ??

[Guest ReelDiel]

chugbug...temp is not a big a factor when they start to stage.

YT....i normaly park one rigger on 40-42 degree stuff then a couple in the 45-50. then if possible a couple in the 50-55 (steelies). For most of the year my bigger bites seem to come from the deep one but they are not as active as the stuff a little higher. if the break is really spread out i will start one in the 40 and go every 10'. I like 10' i think a fish will easily come up that much to strike.....what do u guys think? also if it makes ya fell better my old man is normally sleeping at the wheel and driving in circles...lol if i'm not mistaken 39 degree water is the most dense, thus having the highest O2 levels. also ask your pops what everyone is hopin to see for surfaces temps in the spring to get things poppin 40-45?????? :shock:

[Billy V]

Your Dad was pretty animated over this topic YT. :shock: :shock: It was pretty funny!

Just my personal $.02, but here goes. Take from it what you want. I know YT's Dad thinks I'm nuts and maybe everyone else on this thread will too. But it's how I do it on my boat.

When I'm King fishing, the first thing I do when I'm setting up is I look for 38-40 degree water with my probe. When I find it, I set up with at least one rig in that ice water, and then set the rest of my rods up higher from there. If I'm marking fish at that depth, I'll put more rigs in that ice water. It's my belief that the biggest kings typically come from that colder water. Most of the season I tend to fish temp first and the graph second, although as the season wears on I'll fish the graph more and more since the fish don't seem to hold in temp as much as they do over the summer. But if I can reach it, I always keep at least one rig down deep. I agree with YT's Dad in that most of the Kings we take at this time of the year don't come in 38 degree water, but from my perspective, it certainly doesn't hurt to have a bait or two down in the ice water. Keep in mind that this is just my initial set-up. If we're smasking the fish in 55 degree water, I'll put more baits in that water to try and maximize my catch, but I'll hardly ever give up my one ice cold water bait and pull it up higher.

Here's just one example: Last Friday in 180-225 FOW we had 50-52 degree water down only 50 or 60 feet, and there were hooks down there. The 38 degree water was down close to 100'. I set up most of my spread 40-70' down and we took multiple fish off of those sets, but I threw a 500' copper rig out the chute just to get down into the ice water. We took the two biggest Kings of the day off of that rig. I told a couple buddies of mine that I had that rig out and they told me I was nuts, that I didn't need to fish that deep. Ok, maybe I didn't need to be that deep, but the two folks on board who took the two biggest fish of the day sure were glad we had a rig that deep. Same thing happened for us the next day too. That's what makes this sport so cool. YT's Dad has his way of doing it, I have my way of doing it...everyone does it a little bit differently. None of us are wrong. We're all trying to get to the same result, we just go at it different ways.

[muskybob]

I told a couple buddies of mine that I had that rig out and they told me I was nuts, that I didn't need to fish that deep.

That's cause they didn't have someone else to crank in that 500' + after the run, of copper.

[GAMBLER]

I use my probe and fish finder together. I put rods were I see fish no matter what the temp is. Lately, I have caught a lot of kings in 70 degree water.

[LongLine]

I use the probe to find the quick temp change. Generally it then runs on the bottom of it & the other rigger runs in or on top of it.

Till the next time I'm out :roll:

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[mikejonestkd]

Thanks for the info guys, it'll give us more to think about., and try next time we are out.

We fish the temp break whenever we can, regardless of depth or time of day.

We usually try to find the biggest temp break and as long as it is in the 44-50 degree range below the break we park the deeper rigger there, then we place the higher rigger 5-10 feet above the deeper rigger. I usually try to get the dipsys to the colder water at or below the temp break.

Then we start to look at the FF and adjust the running depth if the fish are showing up either deeper or shallower than the temp break.

we really need a fishhawk probe but our little temp and depth gauge still works ok for us, for now....

[Erbyjoe]

I am far from an expert on temp fishing but after I read keating on kings I set up in 40 deg water and work up from there.I always have one in the cold water and then if we start hitting them in the cold water we will move another rig down but I always have one in that temp.I'm still in the learning phase but it seems to work for me.