How deep can they go!

dartonmav60 said:

As deep as they want to! Livescope has revealed this truth once again yesterday as I sat on a school of Whites that were 70 to 80 ft with the bottom at 80ft. We were taught in school that a fish couldn’t live below the thermocline, there was no oxygen! I guess these were holding their breath! lol

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Is the thermocline set yet?

I haven’t seen it on any of my lakes but most of them aren’t near 80ft deep.

The deepest I have ever caught a black bass was 68 foot in about 85 feet of water. When I saw them on the graph I would have never dreamed they were blacks. This was on ouachita

Way back when it was legal to fish up against the Bull Shoals dam, I was downriggering a stick-bait at 125 feet and caught a 14-inch Kentucky. Over on Norfork, I was jigging close to the 101-Bridge in 80 feet of water and pulled up a 15-inch crappie. Poor thing almost had it's eyes hanging out it's head by the time I got it to the surface. Funny thing is that the Kentucky at 125 feet looked absolutely normal and swam off when I chucked it back in.


Cheers......

Plenty of fish live below the thermocline. Here in AR, on these deep reservoirs, we sometimes see the deep living fish die off in late summer, early fall. This usually happens when there has been a year with a lot of inflow into the reservoir bringing with it high levels of organic matter. This organic matter sinks to the bottom, and the decomposition of the organic matter removes oxygen from the water. Since the thermocline is normally in place late summer, there is not a lot of mixing between layers of water to replenish the O2 - so the deep water fish pay the price.

To be honest, I dont remember a late summer die off on Degray - but wouldnt doubt it has happened. Used to happen fairly often on Greeson, and occasionally on Ouachita. Usually in the lower, deeper end of the lake. I can remember many times, going out on Greeson and seeing white bellies floating everywhere. A lot of the still alive - and still good to eat.

You are sure right about the fish die-off's, Swamp. Here on Norfork, we had three high-water years in a row and it killed off every striper over 18 pounds in the lake. I am talking thousands of fish belly-up in September. You would think the Core would take that into consideration and try to regulate water levels better but it doesn't seem the case. Every year since the die-off's, it's been "touch and go" about is the lake going to flood or not and to be truthful, seems like we are just lucky when it ends up "not". I fully realize that in the Core's scheme of things, fishing and recreation are at the bottom of their priority list.

What seemed to have survived the high-water events are the hybrid stripers, or at least they were not as affected as the stripers were. Wish the F&G would concentrate on stocking hybrids over stripers and at least it would make the fishermen happier.

Cheers......

DeputyDog said:

Is the thermocline set yet?

I haven’t seen it on any of my lakes but most of them aren’t near 80ft deep.

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I don’t even look anymore! Haven’t in years!

So deep they gotta turn the flashlight on...
Livescope has changed everything.... Rewrote the books..