Panfish's lockjaw based on weather conditions

[Leo Nguyen]

It's been tough lately at the local lake that I'm at for fishing. I checked and rechecked my personal fishing database, and found some odd discrepancy in my finding for fish biting periods, especially cold seasons. Please, chime and in a correct me when I'm wrong:

Gills:

- Temperature change within 3 days in period, with a 5°F shift from warm to cold and cold to warm, feeding stops (lockjaw?) until temperature become stable, or at least temperature shift is in tolerable range between 1 to 2°F.

Redears:

- Not sure what's the deal with these fishes. They eat regardless of the temperature shifts, and I absolutely have not caught enough of them throughout the year to collect the data.

Crappies:

- Temperature change within 1 days in period, with a 7°F shift from warm to cold and cold to warm, feeding stops (lockjaw?) until temperature become stable, or at least temperature shift is in tolerable range between 2 to 3°F. However, I manage to land a crappie out of nowhere during a troll back to shore using a floating crankbait Rapala X, shimmering colors. That threw me off completely.

Recently, I literally was on top of the huge underwater habitat, 20ft down, dense with panfishes. Tossed everything down, scents and plastics of all sorts, yet, not even a nibble. Tossed the hoard of 25+ crickets twice on the surface to attract them, and not even the basses want to come up and chomp on them. Use every sort of rigs I could come up with, soaked the line for over 2 hours, and absolute nothing. Not just one habitat, but several with dense population. Temperature at the surface was 53°, bottom was 56°. Thermocline on that day was 16ft down, at 54°. Before that, surface was 47°, bottom was 54°. Thermocline at 14ft, 51°.

A few others that I know off use dropshot rigs, and jigs. They landed a few redears, and gills ear the shoreline. Okay..I'm absolutely baffled. Anyone has knowledge to share about this scenario?

Leo

[Leo Nguyen]

From the reported info I got off the boaters, they indicated the schools were huddling among each other, as Tony had mentioned in other topics, during winter time. Same with the basses. Large bluegills were caught and released. Smaller ones, not so much. Temperature has been constant, but wind was kicking up in early morning hours (8 to 10am), and late day (3pm and later). Shallow areas were effected, where no fishes were detected. Literally. The spawning beds were empty. WOW! All the fishes were in deep water, feasting on the lake's constant up-churning of foods. Thermoclines were detected between 12 to 18ft in the deep area. Very nice large range for the thermocline at the lake. Similar data reported in for the larger deeper lakes. Thermoclines were rising anywhere between 10 to 25ft above the norm, as the "Santa Ana Wind" conditions kicked up. Thermal exchange from surface to bottom create a massive feeding opportunity at the bottom, but nothing at the top or in the shallow. The only ones searching for foods in the shallows were the trouts, which linger between 2ft near the shoreline down to 22ft in the deeper area, but nothing deeper.

It's so nice to have people to do comparison notes, especially those with expensive equipment and love to be collaborative. Unlike the egotistical wannabes that hoard info for themselves because they feel superior than the rest. Without the enthusiasts and specialists that love to share info, they're in the dark with their tools. So, I humbly bow to you Dwayne, and the rest of the members here at the site. Cheers!