Temperature vs Depth Profile of Blue Grass Pit at Blue Grass F&W Area

Yesterday I was able to do a temperature profile of Blue Grass Pit's South section. I only did readings from the surface to 25 ft due to the lenght of my temperature probe's cable. I measured the temperature every five feet this time out as it was getting dark and I was in a hurry. Next time I will try to take measurements each foot.

I took the readings at N38.08971 W087.46363 Decimal Degrees of Longitude and Latitude.

At the surface I measure the water's temp at 28.5 Deg C
At 5ft below the surface the water's temp was N/A
At 10ft below the surface the water's temp was 27 deg C
At 15ft below the surface the water's temp was 25 deg C
At 20ft below the surface the water's temp was 21.5 deg C
At 25ft below the surface the water's temp was 16 deg C.
I think that the thermocline is somewhere between 20 ft and 25ft below the surface at BlueGrass Pit.

The depth was around 35ft in this area.

Surface winds were light and out of the North yesterday.

I caught one small 9" bass on a fly rod yesterday and turned him back into the water immediately. I caught him around 8:00 PM and I was fishing just North from the Boat Ramp and on the West Side of the Pit. This area was shaded at this time of the day and I figured the fish would be in the shady part of the Pit that time of the day. Two other guys said that they caught a couple of short bass. But remember that there is an 18" length limit for largemouth bass in Blue Grass Pit. When Blue Grass Pit first opened to the public there were reports of many nice LM bass coming out of these water. Just this spring somone caught an 8 lb LM bass.


The geese (30 of them Canada Geese) have taken over Otter Pit on the South end of Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife Area. They think that it's their home. LOL Well they like to walk into the water from the land. They tend to use the new concrete boat launch ramp. I can tell that they use the ramp as there are many small reminders all over the concrete after they walk though the area. Also the asphalt road that leads to Otter Pit is covered with Bird fecees where the geese walk across the road to get to the field just West of Otter Pit. Sugar Ridge Fish and Wildlife Area has the same problem on some of the roads by one of thier fishing pits. Come hunting season these 30 geese (most are young of the year) are going to find Otter Pit not quite so hospitable. :) These geese have no fear of mankind. In fact they almost ran me over when they tried to get into the water. Since I was fishing at the boat ramp they instead had to fly over the cattaills along the bank to reach the water. They like to hang out on the road way between the two pits by the boat ramp. I believe that there are two goose familys using Otter Pit. I remember earlier this spring when the geese were still small seeing two pairs of older geese with small ones trailing behind the two sets of adults. Now that the young geese can fly the parents are not so protective of them. Earlier the parents would be wary if you got close to the young geese. Geese have been know to break bones when they are defending their nests.

My last trip out to Otter was last week and I caught about 12 small 8 to 9" white crappie.

Today I turned three White Crappies back into Otter Pit by the boat ramp. I caught these crappie earlier this year or last Dec and was keeping them in my 20 gallon aquarium. Well, Wednesday I cleaned out both my aquariums (20 gal and 10 gal) since the crappie and minnow waste had built up to the point that the pH of the water changed from 7.0 down to 6.2 or less. I was getting tired of changing the water in the aquarium, so I decided to get rid of the three smallest white crappies. I kept one large (10" long) White Crappie and my Black Crappie and these two will stay in the Aquarium for the time being. It was getting costly feeding all 5 crappie minnows every other day. Hopefully I can keep these two crappie fed on a smaller budget and not have to clean up after them so often now. I also turned loose a warmouth sunfish and a small bluegill sunfish today.

I tried to attach a float to the small bluegill to see where he would go, but he went into the weeds by the boat dock and got the fishing line fouled. I had to wade in and free him from the attached line and float. The experiment didn't work like it was suppose to.

I have read in the past where the old guide would attach a string and a ballon to some fish and put them back in the water and follow the ballon to the schools of fish. But my little attempt at replicating this failed.

I used one of those leader to fly line barbed eyelets to attach the line to the fish's back. These little needle like devices have a eyelet on one end to tie the leader to and on the other end it's a sharp pointed needle like structure with several small backwards pointing barbs on the neede like section. You can stick the needle end into the end of a #8 weight Floating fly line and then you can tie your leaders to the eyelet on the end of the needle device. I used these devices in the past before I learned to tie a good nail knot. They work great as they can penetrate the fishs skin and not too much damage. The come out pretty easily so when the fish goes into the brush pile he can free himself if the line leading to the float gets wrapped around a stick or something. One or two quick bursts from the caudal tail fin and the barb is pulled free from the fishs' back. These barbs are approx 1/64" of an inch in diameter and only about 3/8" long at the most. The small hole in the fish's skin should heal after a few days. I used 4lb test line to attach the float so it would be easy to break in case the needle like device didn't come out. I had to wade out to reach the sunfish which has swam right into the shallow water weeds and it became entangled in some weeds. I pulled the line out and the sunfish swam off.

I did the same thing with one of the White crappies and he swam out into the deep water for a few mintues. I think he swam about 100 to 150 feet off from the boat ramp into 20ft of water and then he can back into the shallows to the same spot where the bluegill swam to. Since they spent the night together the night before in my aquarium maybe they became friends and wanted to hang out together after they were released. LOL But something made them both swim to the very same area. They ended up not more then 4 ft from each other.