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Thread: Why Is This A Bad Place For Trout To Winter?

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  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default Why Is This A Bad Place For Trout To Winter?



    Let's hear your thoughts?

    I have my theory...................

    Want some input here.
    When you arise in the morning, think of what a
    precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think,
    to enjoy, to love.
    - Marcus Aurelius

  2. #2

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    ...cuz its such a great-looking spot that every poacher in Wisconsin knows about it?
    ...cuz the fish might get impaled by falling pine needles?
    ...too much icy cold water flowing down from above?
    ...no hiding spots for trout-food critters?
    ...its really shallow up under that rock ledge?
    ...the King of the River lives there, and he eats all the other trout?
    David Merical
    St. Louis, MO

  3. #3
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    Does that stream flow into a cave? I can't see the river emerging from the rock overhang.

  4. #4
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    Because it is in Wisconsin

  5. #5
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    First off I bet you are asking what a “Wintering” hole is. It is typically the deepest hole in the area that trout school up in and spend their winter. There are a few factors that make a good wintering hole. Slow current is required so the trout can hold in place. There typically is a fast water top of the hole to bring in food.
    I fished this hole 10 times last March. It was new permission and I was really excited. I thought it looked like MONSTER water. I took friends a couple times because I didn’t believe I was doing so poorly. 10 outs….4 anglers total and ZERO trout.
    I was looking at the photo this morning. The hole is clearly deep and it is the deepest hole in the area. The current is slow on the deep section.
    There is a current section at the top of the hole. I just couldn’t solve the riddle. I put the photo on close up. I looked at the water first. Then I looked at the rock.
    My educated guess tells me the HUGE rock face is facing north and west. This is the direction the winds typically come from in the winter here. There is lots of rock exposed . This rock face sucks up all that cold and transfers it too the water. This rock face super cools this hole.
    I looked at the shallows and noted the bottom was very silty and thought about that also. If a trout wants to winter it needs food. Invertebrates need a food source to live there. Silty bottom means no food source for the main stay of that trout’s winter menu.

    The water is too cold and there is no food.
    When you arise in the morning, think of what a
    precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think,
    to enjoy, to love.
    - Marcus Aurelius

  6. #6
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    I can't say about the food but I don't agree that the rock face is making the water is too cold.

    Rock acts like a huge temperature sink that moderates the temperature. Because of it's mass, it is slow to heat and slow to cool. It could make the water slower to cool in the early winter and slower to warm up in the spring; but in mid winter, I think the rock below ground at the level of the water would be close to average temperature at that depth in the same area.

    Wind speed has no effect on the actual air temperature. It does make things cool or warm faster. So the rock surface would get a bit cooler or warmer faster, but this temperature needs to be transmitted to the below ground to affect the water temperature at depth. At any depth, that rock is surrounded by the ground which moderates the temperature of the rock. If the rock is colder than the surrounding ground as you believe, the rock gets warmed. So as the cold air temperature moves through the rock underground, the surrounding ground moderates the temperature of the rock making those temperatures equal.

    The ground is virtually an unlimited temperature sink. It can warm that rock to ambient ground temperature without any problem.

    Therefore, I believe the temperature of the rock next to the deep water is exactly the same temperature as the soil bottom that is next to another hole that is just as deep. Temperature changes in the air are not instantaneously transmitted under the ground by rock. It takes time, and time moderates any temperature changes.

    Your temperature theory is easy to test. Put a thermometer in the water to see if it is colder than the water above this area. Since cold water is denser that warm water and sinks to the lowest spot, you need to test the water at the same depth in both places. An infrared thermometer could be a way of easily testing the surface water temperatures.
    Regards,

    Silver

    "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought"..........Szent-Gyorgy

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