Had something cool happen yesterday

[stguy]

I was setting up a downrigger with a DB smelt and as I was feeding out line a close to legal size salmon took it off of the surface like a bass and landed on my swim platform, flopped around for a couple seconds and went back in without getting hooked.

Been a good year for strange things so far.

[seamonkey84]

Wow, almost jumped right in the boat lol. at least once a trip, someone always has to do the fish call

[taxid]

Wow that's really cool!

[Jim C.]

Interesting, Glen. Probably would have hit a surface popper on a flyrod.  Just goes to show, you never know!

[taxid]

When Baitbucket took me trolling on Quabbin we saw a fish feeding one the surface in June as we were headed across the reservoir.  I would think it was too warm on the surface for salmon, but maybe not juveniles? IIRR Baitbucket seemed to think it was a possibility.

And as many of you know salmon, trout, and catfish are physostomous. For those of you that don't know, this means they have a pneumatic duct that connects their air bladder with their alimentary canal. Allegedly they can quickly come to the surface out of deeper water as in after bait fish in warmer water, belch out the build up of gas in their bladders, and go back down to the deeper water.

That said I have caught rainbow trout that had trouble going back down after they got off the line.

[stguy]

When Baitbucket took me trolling on Quabbin we saw fish feeding one the surface in June as we were headed across the reservoir.  I would think it was too warm on the surface for salmon, but maybe not juveniles? IIRR Baitbucket seemed to think it was a possibility.

And as many of you know salmon, trout, and catfish are physostomous. For those of you that don't know, this means they have a pneumatic duct that connects their air bladder with their alimentary canal. Allegedly they can quickly come to the surface out of deeper water as in after bait fish in warmer water, belch out the build up of gas in their bladders, and go back down to the deeper water.

That said I have caught rainbow trout that had trouble going back down after they got off the line.

Very interesting, we caught a beautiful 4 pound salmon a couple of years ago 180 feet deep and before I could get any slack out of the line it was 3 feet in the air behind the boat. I always wondered how it could survive coming up that fast.

[seamonkey84]

When they see food, they will venture out of their comfort zone for a while. It’s like they’re holding their breath to grab food and then diving down for Oxygen. I’ve seen trout feeding on the surface when the thermalcline was just 15ft down.

[taxid]

If my thermometer is correct my trout pond is up to 68 or 69 from bottom to top during the day during our current heat wave. I was concerned, but no morts and they are feeding well up to three times per day. However I do have a fair amount hanging around the area where the 52 F. well water dumps in. Fortunately once the sun goes down the water temp drops back down to 65 F. by the morning even though air temps have a hard time dropping below the 80 at night.  Once temps drop down into the low 80's during the day for highs vs. our high 80's and low 90's recently, the pond temp will drop back to low 6o's during the day thanks to the incoming well water at 30 gallons per minute.

Some say I shouldn't mix the water column in the summer during the day with a diffuser, with a surface aerator on top of that. However I'm not convinced D.O. levels wouldn't drop in the deeper water. with the heavy fish load I have. I'd rather keep oxygen levels high even with somewhat higher temps. The 3 to 4 pond brook trout seem to be healthy and hungry so I'm not worried about the steelhead, browns, and tigers. 

[Turnbuckle]

I am always blow away with the cooler temps not far down when I check the Sebago temp listing. It was 80 on the surface today, but could get action down 30 where it was mid 50s.

[taxid]

What always amazed me, at least out here, is how sensitive the trout were to cold fronts, even though there was no temperature change down there in the thermocline in 23 to 40 feet of water. The hottest moggiest nights were the best for night fishing for suspended rainbows and browns, but after a cold front came through forget it. I've caught my limit on nights that were moggy but a day later after a cold front came through notta.

Is this true out your way with the salmon in the lakes even during the day? 

I can only surmise that a pressure change has something to do with it because it sure isn't temperature.

[seamonkey84]

I feel like it has more to do with the lighting change and maybe pressure, though moving up or down a couple feet will make up for the difference in any atmospheric pressure. I can’t comment about the night fishing aspect with respect to blue bird skies after a front.

[Stickbait]

Thats great!!
Ive had browns come up and snatch a spoon as i was clipping on to the downrigger. Talk about getting the blood flowing!!

[fish wayniac]

Glen, That’s a cool story! I saw one time that my down rigger rod was bouncing then I saw a salmon jump right out of the water 20 ft behind the boat. I did land it though and after let it go.

[JDK]

That is cool.

I caught salmon in the top 10 feet of the water column this past weekend.  Surface temps were 72-74 but I have no idea how cold down below.  They were not juveniles.

We have caught them on fly rod poppers while fishing for smallmouth.

[Huemorin]

JDK, I had the same experience this past weekend.  90% of my action was right non top, with the surface temps from 69-73 depending on the time of day.  I had one good hit on the lead my last morning out and lost what I believe was a decent fish with about 1.5 colors left to get it to the boat.  My other surprise which I was happy about is that the brookies out numbered the salmon which is usually rare for me on that lake.