Thread: Raccoon report

Originally Posted by Team9nine

We'll have to wait and see how this plays out. It doesn't seem like we've had anything terribly unusual weather wise that would cause the differences we're seeing. I normally would trust the gauges, but a couple of them do seem strange to me for this time of year. Anything electronic is subject to going faulty, as well as anything taken and recorded manually (human error). I'm also not familiar with how the translation from human record to electronic graph is accomplished (manually? automatically generated?).

Have only been on Heritage and EC in central Indiana the past couple weeks, but bite has been normal and surface temps were running around 75 degrees, so nowhere close to turnover during a more traditional year.

If the lakes are truly about flipped, we should see a more or less straight vertical line on the temp side with the next set of readings. Right now it's just the last gasps of a really deep thermocline. That is what I'll be looking for. If the readings are correct, those few lakes that seem odd should completely turn and their graphs reflect that. If it is some type of error, we'll know it because the graphs will revert back to showing a more traditional thermocline depth level, which would never happen in real life because there simply isn't enough heating going on with the shorter days and lower sun angle now. We'll know soon enough - I'm really curious to see what happens here.

There is no way that six lakes are showing faulty readings guys. Occams razor.

Originally Posted by Trout211

There is no way that six lakes are showing faulty readings guys. Occams razor.

You sure wouldn't think so, but even Occam's Razor isn't an absolute. Those Missy/Sally readings don't seem right, either - 50 feet of water column heated to 70 degrees on Oct. 01???

My trust is in what my electronics show me..and my abilities to catch fish…when they will take a bait.

Originally Posted by Trout211

There is no way that six lakes are showing faulty readings guys. Occams razor.

Trout211 - I think you're correct on this one. Fortunately, I've tracked a lot of this in the past and was able to dig through my archives and pull up some old records and lake profile graph captures from this same time period over the past 5 years. A couple years nearly mimicked what we're seeing right now, so while it seemed really early to me, especially given the hotter than normal September we had, it's only slightly earlier than most years according to my records. Was also on Heritage again on Friday and made it a point to graph the basin of the lake down near the dam and found plenty of fish using the 28-30 ft range, suggesting it has likely also neared turnover completion. Hoping to get out to Cat or Coon if the weather allows next week, so I'll see what I see there. By then a few of the Corp gauges should be updated and we'll be able to see normal progression on these lakes that weren't quite completely flipped yet on both the oxygen and water temp profiles.

As for fishing this past week, picked off 100+ crappie on Eagle Creek Tues, and then a total of 96 crappie at Heritage on Wed and Friday. Water temps in the low to mid 70s at both places and the best bite was fairly shallow, in the 8-12 ft. range.