Warming Long Post in Two Parts coming up. Over 1400 words here and the limit is1000
Part 1:
Roberta:
I think that the heat or the tiny bit of extra warmth that is surrounding the dark colored wooden objects in the water is why the algae grows there first in the early spring time. After a long cold winter when life slows way down the early warm days of spring stimulate the growth of algae once again in the shallow warming waters. It's also why the minnows show up there to feed on the tiny bugs that feed on the algae. Zooplankton (Tiny Animals) feed on the phytoplankton (tiny Plants single cells plant organisms). All because the area surrounding that darker wood is radiating out the extra heat into the immediately surrounding waters. Chemical reactions (life) occurs faster with it's warmer. Chemical reactions slow down when it's cold. Aquatic Life speeds up when there is heat added to the water. Maybe only a foot or so out before the water is colder. That first foot of water surrounding the tree may be just a fraction of a deg warmer than the ohter waters especially in the late afternoon after the sun has been shining on the tree all day long in the cold winter time. What I was trying to imply is that during Winter a slight warming spell will warm up dark colored trees on the North Bank and in early March or even in Feb on a nice calmn warm day you may find lots of fish (crappie) in area that warm up just a bit more than the surrounding waters. Someone else talked about a shallow bay with a dark bottom on the North side of the lake. That too may warm up on a sunny afternoon and call the fish in.
I had read that the trees warmed the water around them but never really thought that much about it until the ohter day when I could visually see the difference in the temperature around the trees in my yard. Seeing the snow melting so fast at the base of those tree and even the smaller shrubs that are in my yard made me stop and think... just how much is that temperature difference between the bottom of the trees and the yard a few feet away from the tree. Would a temperature difference of only 1 or 2 deg F make the snow melt that much faster. I only wish I had taken the time to go out an measure the soil temperature in a few places to find out. But I didn't want to bad enough.
The Sunlight is the key to life. Where there is sun there is warmth. Where there is warmth there will be life. Even in the very deepest parts of the Earth's Ocean's there is life where there is heat. Chemical reactions can also produce heat and the earth's mantle is full of energy and heat or should I say molten rock. That molten rock comes up out of the mantle in the deeper parts of the ocean where the earth's crust is thinner. That molten lava heats up the ocean waters many miles down beneath the surface of the ocean. The heated water can sustain life down there. Tube worms as long as 6ft grow on the bottom of the ocean near this hot lava vents. Hot water and sulfur form the basis of life in these regions. Now we are talking about places that are miles down in the ocean and where sunlight can not reach. That is a different form of life than what we have previously known about. In the past most deep ocean bottom dwelling creatures depended on the dead life at the surface dying and falling into the depths to provide food for animals living of the ocean depths. All that food that fell to the floor of the ocean was produced in the presence of sunlight at or near the surface of the ocean.
I think that the mantle of our earth is melted by radiation. Uranium which we mine out of the earth is very heavy. Would it not sink to the middle depths of the earth or be pulled deeper into the mass of motlen gas when the earth was first formed? Something is heating the inner earth and I think it must be radioactivity or the decay of the different heavy elements deep inside the earth. Now if you belive that the earth was once a buch of hot gases that cooled and solidified while flying though space then you know about how the earth was formed. The surface of the earth cooled and solidified the earth's crust where we live today. But the earth's crust is not very thick and most of the earths mass is made up by the mantle and the core of the earth. Since we can't see the inner earth all we can do is send sound waves down into the earth and listen for the echos and then try to figure out how they bounced off things deep underground and came back to our sound receivers. By timing the sound waves we can tell what is below the earth's surface. Sort of like using a depth finder to see what is below the surface of the lakes we fish. Certain rocks and soil types transport the sound waves faster than others. And liquid hot rock (Molten Lava) would behave differently to sound waves than solid rock.
But I digress as normal LOL
Bottom line is that the heat at the surface of the earth where we all live is generated mostly by our sun and heat sustains the beginning, middle and end of the life cycles of plants and animals on this earth.
So find an area with warmer waters and you will hopefully find more fish to catch.
The hard part is finding and knowing where the warmer water will be. I have not figured that out all the time. And there may be so many warmer spots that there won't be enought schools of fish to occupy all of those spots. So finding the best warmer spots is the key. Only time on the water searching out those spots will help you learn the patterns.
Timing is everthing in life. Be there at the wrong time even if you are in the right spot and you still won't catch fish. You may see them on the depth finder but sometimes they just won't eat. Maybe they are sleeping off a good morning breakfast of minnow or crayfish. I would think that a fish with a stomach full of shad would not be willing to chase a fake looking jig but that a crappie that has not eaten in a day or so would be eager to hit that same jig. I have learned that fish in captivity and in water at 74 to 78 deg F can feed twice a day and feed well on minnows. My captive crappie will eat two or three chubs in the morning and be ready to feed again at sunset. I have not tried feeding them in the afternoon to givet them three meals a day. It's just too expensive to do that three times a day. I am about ready to go out and buy some more minnows today because I ran out of minnows about three days ago and I know my crappie must be hungry. I don't have anything to feed them. The bait shop owner didn't give me the extra minnows like his son normally did. He only gave me three dozen and I really doubt that he gave me the full three dozen and they didn't last me a week. His son will give me about 5 dozen when I pay and only ask for three dozen. I guess he want's to keep me coming back and wants to support my project.
Crappie like to stay around cover. That we know. But we can only guess as to the real reason why they are there. Are they there for the food that the wood provides? We know that wood decays in the water. It rots. We know that wood also decays in the forest. Life grows on the dead wood and bacteria and fungi live and eat the wood. But what eats the bacteria and or the fungi? Could the zooplankton eat the bacteria and fungi? I bet they do. And the minnows come into the wood pile to get breakfast. Minnows eat the zooplankton. Studies have been performed using fine mess nets that are dragged behind research boats and they studie the life that is captured in these plankton nets. Some areas with lots of nutrients have billions of these small creatures in a small area. In areas with the right nutrients these small organisms can thrive. As the wood in a brush pile decays that were once tied up in the wood strucuture are released back into the surround soil and or water. Those nutrients Phosphorous, Nitrogen and carbon as well as sulfur are what the tiny phytoplankton need to live and grow along with sunlight.
I won't get my Ecology Text book out but a lot of what I am telling you all comes from my studies in Ecology and Chemisty at Purdue. I also studied Oceanography, Geology, Environmental Pathology and took many biology course as well as BioChemistry along with Genetics. All those courses and the information that I learned let me see life in a different way these day. They say you are what you eat. But I also say you are where you have been. One's life experiences make you who you are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roberta
Dark colors absorb heat; light colors reflect it. That's why ice fishermen are warned to be careful around piers and trees sticking out of the ice - those areas are the last to freeze and the first to thaw. It's also the place we are most likely to catch fish through the ice, but that probably has more to do with cover and food than heat - Roberta