Crappie in 30ft of water??? WHY!!??

[CrappieCrazed]

Well, hit lake waynoka this afternoon for a few hours and wanted to see what you fellas thought about the fish I was getting today.

If you all remember last winter I was catching crappie in lake waynokay in the winter by fishing about a foot off the bottom in 30ft of water. Everybody was asking why the hell I was fishing like that because it was the season to be fishing shallow. Well, dammit I tried shallow and I couldnt by a fish so I tried deep and caught them. Well today I went back to the lake and tried fishing the way I had been catching them the past few days, which fish were suspended at about 10-15ft deep in say 15-20 foot of water. Fishing was really tough and fish werent where they were 2 days ago. Head to the other end of the lake and see a guy anchored out in the middle of the lake. I wave and watch him catch a fish. As Im going past him I ask him how fishing has been today and he saids he's been pounding crappie all day. I look at the graph and he's fishing in 30some feet of water. He proceeds to tell me that he's dropping minnows all the way to the bottom and reeling up about a foot or 2. I watched him catch several and asked him if he catches them here like that a lot. He said he lives there and at any time of the year in deep water anywhere in that lake fish just off the bottom and you will catch fish. Even in the spring he said. After talking with him I realized this guy was no spring chicken and proceeded to tell me that lake waynoka was so much different than any other lake he fishes. He said he fishes paint creek, cc, EF (which he also has trouble finding fish go figure), and cowan and lake waynoka is by far and away the furthest out in left field and can't figure out why the crappie are deep all the time. I sat there next to him and caught several crappie. Not many keepers. Is the lake a freak or is there an explanation why the crappie stay deep in that place spring summer fall and winter. I cant figure out why they would be over 30 feet deep today. make any sense to anyone else.

Remember though, I fished this there this spring and everyone was saying fish shallow and guess what. couldnt catch fish shallow to save my life. Moved into the deepest area of the lake (bout 40ft deep) by the dam and caught the ever loving crap out of fish.

[Lowellhturner]

Could be several reasons; A are there known springs in that area? Springs/ "weeps" underwater can be all but impossible to identify/ locate, generally though they push heavily oxyogenated water at a constant 56 degree temperature up into a lake or body of water ALL yr long regardless of the surface temp or weather conditions; you might as well say during the hottest summer they are "air conditioned" and during the coldest winter they are "heated" compared to the rest of the same body of water- KEEP IN MIND in shallow water or if the discharge is great enough any ice over a spring CAN be much THINNER (or not frozen at all) due to warmer water rising towards the surface! THEY CAN BE DANGEROUS TO APPROACH: PLEASE USE EXTREME CAUTION!!! Fish don`t have to worry about that, and tend to FLOCK to springs, especially in colder temps; shad especially so, and if cover is present (or is introduced HINT HINT!!), so much the better. B seasonal prey availability could also play a role; aquatic redworms become very abundant in the fall as the food chain breaks down; along with other aqutic morsels that briefly "bloom" on softer bottoms. C Is there any outstanding bottom features that could account for the abundance of the fish; old creek channels, deep basin edges, transitional zones, ect. Gotta be a good reason so many are there...

[Fish Assassin]

That is the most intelligent response I have ever seen posted!! You are right on!!!

[Lowellhturner]

Could be that fish too much (so says the significant "other"- is that POSSIBLE?) Also, CJ Brown- "Lake Erie South" has 6 known springs/ "weeps" that once upon a lark, er, lake tied a thermometer to my anchor shaft and dropped 25+ times, let set 5 minutes and then quickly pulled back up from 30+` to read at night, pre GPS. 56 degrees is the magic number... took several hrs to accurately locate 4 of them. Guess what happened next? (HINT! HINT!!) Bombs away...does a fish attractor make a big splash if no one else is around to hear it in the wee hrs of the morn? NOT if you gently put it overboard so there`s NO chance of anyone else hearing it...(HINT! HINT!!)