Water Temps = What Exactly?

I didn’t want to hijack the Fall Trolling thread and I’ve been meaning to ask this anyways. I know very little about what happens at what temps and would appreciate any insight anyone can bestow on me.

bigcrappie wrote:

The Tullibee spawn when the water is 42 degrees. When trolling at Oct Full moon on the rocks you can feel your Rapala bounce off them and that is what the big girls are feeding on. Biggest fish I caught have been between 10-2am out there. With Day light savings time being Nov 1st this year we might catch the tail end of the moon phase but that gives you a extra hour of darkness.

Good to know, thanks!

I was thinking about starting a thread asking what everyone correlates to particular water temps. The only one I might know is 41 degrees is the temp walleyes spawn in the spring(?). I had no idea tullibee spawn in the fall. Very cool.

If you (and others) wouldn’t mind, what are some temperature marks you watch for throughout the year and what exactly are you correlating them to? What temps signal something significant in terms of fishing?

When the water temps are 50 to freeze Up is the best time, The full moon seems to turn them on also. But I have been out there and could not see my hand in front of my face and did good also. Your fishing in 4-10ft so a little wind or walleye chop is good. If you make areas late in open water they are good first ice also. marking deep weed edge is how I find good early ice spots.

Since every body of water is different, temps too can vary even within the realm of a single fish specie. In general though, I look for 50 degree water in the big river as a point where I start to use plastics more aggressively for walleyes and sauger. Similar temps can be the signal to switch to blades or hair jigs. My opinion is that the coldest water in the dead of winter is prime plastics water. slowly diminishing in productivity until the water hits about 44 degrees. As the water temp comes up in the spring its been my observation that the preference for baits/lures can change almost hourly once the temps get to about 40 degrees.

On my pet crappie water I do not use any live bait and use water temps to help determine where the crappies will be found or what size of plastic I may want to use. The water I fish has some current and in March is usually showing some spots along shore that I fish with 38-42 degree water. I generally will use plastics in the 1.5″ to 2″ range. Once I find 42 to 48 degree or warmer water I’ll let the fish decide on plastic size, but generally will be fishing plastics in the 2 1/2″ range.

At the 38-42 degree mark I look for crappies to have transitioned out of the deep wintering areas into deeper/steeper shoreline….8 to maybe 18 feet….not necessarily where the staging for spawning takes place though. from 42 degrees to right around 58 degrees the fish will be showing signs of very early pre-spawn staging but still need the deeper water to retreat to if cold front occur or the water rises although the crappies will move into shore and spawning locations on a daily basis during the day and shrinking back to the deep at night. At 60 degrees I see indications of some actual spawning in the larger fish which will spread into the lesser fish as the temps reach up to 66-69 degrees. Post spawn, the crappies will use the main lake basin more than shoreline. In the fall I start looking for shoreline fish when the water temp is approaching the 60 degree mark.

Great type up Tom.

For me and fall muskies, 52 and up I use jerk baits and 52 and lower I soak suckers.
I had a bunch of notes on other species but I cant find the file.

Rodwork wrote:

Great type up Tom.

X2

Great responses so far, lots of valuable info. Thanks for sharing and please keep ’em coming!

I was surprised to see 49 degree water out on the southend tonight.
Made one spin around a submerged rockpile and decided that I didn’t want to get rained on and beat cheeks back to the lift.
No bites

It wasn’t rain that pelted us tonight off Indian Point!

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The_Bladepuller wrote:

I was surprised to see 49 degree water out on the southend tonight.

Crazy, it was 61 on Tuesday evening. 12 degree drop in four days seems like a steep drop but it’s been cold and windy. Time to get out there.

Very cold, for this time of the year, and combined with the winds we had Tuesday thru Thursday it makes sense.
I’ll be pulling the dock and last boat hoist out next weekend.
There were years when I’d trailer my boat up and launch at Terry’s or over to Mac’s after Wahkon was froze over. No more of that stuff for me.

Pretty much 55-56 all over east side last night. Dipped to 54.7 after dark. Always found the first quick dip in temps under 60 shut them off for a day or two. Them it was lights out.

I’m going to go out again this evening andwill get another reading. I had the oldest’s husband look at the graph also. We were both surprised but the wind had been out of the N / NW for most of the week with cold temps.
Frost on the grass this AM and light fog on the H2O.

43-52 in the fall and 60-73 or so in the spring. Be there at those times and you will up your odds flat out on almost any body of water.

I always was of the thought that stable water is the best in the fall. Falling temps from 80-60 or so is some of the toughest of the year usually.

During spring, you want that water warming.

Length of daylight has quite a bit to do with it also.

Yesterday I fished a Mississippi backwater where the water felt cool and we smoked big crappies and really decent sunfish…8″-9″. I’ve never so many nice sunfish. The water was under ten feet deep there. I think the sunfish are migrating back into the wintering waters off the wingdams of the main channel now. Today I fished a marina on pool 4 and caught plenty of fish but all smaller. The water this morning felt quite warm as did the fish.

The shoals of tiny pin minnows haven’t shown up in the marinas yet so the less protected and shallower areas, like backwaters, are cooling faster.