fish temps

[smaltcody]

I was just wondering if someone could give me a refresher on what I want for lure speeds and temps for rainbows browns alantics and kings and lakers are I just got my subtroll finally working

[ Post made via Android ]

[JBoock]

Preferred Temperature Chart from http://www.attheoak.com

For Freshwater Gamefish:

Species

Degrees Fahrenheit

Chinook & Coho

52-55

Lake Trout

39-51

Rainbow Trout

60-70

Brown Trout

56-59

Brook Trout

55-65

Landlocked Salmon

45-55

Largemouth Bass

70-75

Smallmouth Bass

65-70

White Bass

65-75

Perch (White, Yellow)

55-70

Walleye Pike

55-70

Northern Pike

50-70

Muskellunge

60-70

Chain Pickerel

50-70

Sunfish, Bluegill, Crappie

65-75

Note...The above chart is the researched consensus of opinion.

However, here are the preferred temp favorites of a few top Captains at the Oak. We thank them for sharing very critical details that take years to learn. First, two variants...around staging periods in late August, many times some darker kings wander up higher than their usual preferred temp zones (btw, the real high fish are sheepies). Second, 10% of the time, bows and steelies could be anywhere, including below the kings.

Here are the preferrences of some of the very successful Charters you read about all season long in our reports.

Species

Degrees Fahrenheit

Kings

47-52

Lake Trout

46-52

Steelies, Bows

55-60

Brown Trout *

54-55

* On Browns...54°-55° on bottom, but 56°-58° 5' to 10' up. First half of July, find clouds of bait near bottom west and east of river mouth near bottom... dynamite!

We had our best luck with the Fishhawk. Of course there are other capable units out there. Handle with care...we blew three of them, then went to feeling the balls to make sure the deep one was cold and relying on our Raytheon color video to bracket those kings, bows or browns. Several top Captains are currently doing that (bracketing with the video). But every Charter Captain and successful recreational angler out there agree on one thing...speed at the ball. There's not always a wet-netted boat next to you to match speeds with. Our lake has wicked currents much of the time and currents speed changes in each different direction you troll. IOHO, success could be doubled with a good ball speed indicator. Once again, there are Captains and recreational anglers out there with years of experience who rely on rigger cable angle, the bend in the dipsey rods, etc. that do just fine! Without your own probe, probably the two surest ways to determine the current speed down below is the bend on the dipsey rods and VHF radio contact with others who have units. The dipsey rod bend is a good indicator because 95% of the water pressure is on the dipsey diver itself, not on the thin wire or superline pulling it. However, on the rigger cable sometimes it's misleading because drag on the much thicker rigger cable can cause excessive cable slant-back close to the boat. Remember, the most critically important speed down below is when using dodgers and flashers. We suggest going with a reliable deep temp/speed unit, especially for the speed info.

Hope this helps. There is a lot of good information on this site.

Jay

[jasonsmith1354]

[smaltcody]

Thank you

[ Post made via Android ]

[TyeeTanic]

Hey JBoock.

In the first set of numbers, that range for Rainbows (60 - 70F) looks way too high. The range under steelies for the charter targets looks more realistic.

Also they say big kings (tyees) will be in the 42 - 45F, but there aren't many, so it will be about size vs. quantity of hits.

[JBoock]

Mark,

I agree about some of the temps. I found the At the Oak web site a few years ago and it has some very useful information for any newbie on Lake O. It is a starting point for a life long learning process about catching more and bigger fish on the lake.

Jay

[Paul Czarnecki]

Mark,

I agree about some of the temps. I found the At the Oak web site a few years ago and it has some very useful information for any newbie on Lake O. It is a starting point for a life long learning process about catching more and bigger fish on the lake.

Jay

And the one thing you will ultimately learn, Jay, if you haven't already, is that temp means NOTHING to fish when they are feeding. I catch more kings and steelhead "out of temp" than in temp and sometimes ridiculously so. Keeping yourself "grounded" by adhering to preferred temps is the surest way to be embarrassed at the cleaning station. Think outside the box (and the temps) because the fish sure as heck do!

[hawkeye625]

Last summer we kept the probe in 54 degree water and fished up from there "most" of the time. Averaged 22 legal fish/day. If we were marking bait/fish higher or lower we would adjust accordingly. 2.2 - 2.5 at the ball worked for us. Most days we had a good mixed bag of fish.

Jeff