water temp

wow what a change from last Saturday to yesterday
water temp was 65-66 Saturday........yesterday 57-58.
fish were GONE!!!!!!!!!!!! searched the whole lake , marked plenty of fish just off the breaks, but they would not even nibble.
did find some gill with there backs out of the water trying to warm up, that was around 5pm and the air temp was 64 at that time.
ended up bring home a mixed bag of about 20 , crappie and gills.
I am betting as soon as it warms up again they will be right back in the shallows, they have to get bedding SOON.

Thanks John,

Trying to head out this afternoon after the dreaded monsoon pushes through. I have a starting point based on where I found them a couple weeks ago however, I suspect the water temp there will be way colder because of all the rain water being put in to the lake and the colder temps from the last few days. Might be a bobber and minnow kind of day

Yep John. Although I didn't get back out since the last time when the water was pushing up in the low 70's, I figured all that rain brought the temps way back down and pushed the fish back out like you say.

Just as suspected John. Two weeks ago I had a 71 degree surface temp on Bruin lake (high sun). When the sun went down, the temp slacked to 68. I hit the water Friday and the temp was 63.

I didn't mark a whole bunch of fish but I did catch them at around the 5 to 7 ft mark. All but one were males and their tails were all beat up from fanning. I did catch one smaller female that still had eggs.

They did not want a jig. Ended up using a bobber and minnow and a #4 gold aberdean hook with no weight. Let the minnow free swim the hook around. Couldn't buy one casting a jig and any soft bait combo either.

I did manage to catch one fish shooting a dock (if you call it shooting anyway)!

Looks its water temp will be going down with this cold front and mess up fishing

And now I'm dumbfounded. Water temp was 66.4 today. Took my dad out to catch some to take to walleye camp. It was slow but we managed to get 12. All of these were females with eggs. I think this water temp and air temp is pushing them on and off their beds.

Two weeks ago, the females bellies were bloated and full. Today, you couldn't tell until you cut them open.

I need to locate my thermometer so I can get an accurate bottom temp instead of just a surface temp.

I would suspect once you get a couple feet down it will be COLD. We just got back from Rend Lake and they are just at the tail end of the spawn there. We did good trolling Flicker Shads at .9mph in March at LOZ when the water was around 50, I wonder if we could to the same here? It may depend on the forage base though, it's mostly shad at LOZ.

Nick,

I do pretty good on soft plastic shad for crappies. No reason to think Flicker shad wouldn't work.

I suspect one of two things from last night. Either A) a later strain of crappies were moving in to spawn or B) these fish were already done and already starting on next years eggs. The sacks in these fish were really small. I'm know that other fish have two skanes of spawn. They release both of them within a day or so. I wonder if crappies will develop their eggs for next year in one skane while they are spawning. Seems like the only explanation I can come up with. A couple of the fish were well over 12 inches and if they were spawning, their bellies would be full like they were two weeks ago.

this has been a very frustrating spring, weather completely messing up the spawn.
I have been to gun a couple times, they are there one minute and gone the next.
thornapple lake is only two miles from my house, I caught about a dozen on sunday, all small , but about half were females still full of eggs, and they were in about three feet of water, temp at 65
more rain and wind on the way

You got that right John.

Forecast for wind and rain all the time. I still don't have my corn fields in. Which is a good thing as they would have been washed out. Bad thing is I need good weather to do that. The same weather you like to have when you go fishing!

Water temp on Gun lake Saturday and Sunday was 66, of course I was of the lake at 10:00 Am both days

Tried going after Crappie on Sunday and same thing as last time I was out chasing Crappie, they were biting good then noting

I had 69 at South Lake saturday evening and 68 at the Bruin chain on Sunday morning. Same as you Jim. Found a few under some docks early then nothing. Seems they are transitioning now. My normal summer fishing spot produced nothing but a pike.