Did a water column temperature test on Wednesday at 11am. Right smack dab in the middle of the south basin. 67.9 surface 66.9 @ 5ft; 65.6 @ 10ft; 64.5 @ 15ft; 63.2 @ 20ft; 62 @ 25ft; 61.1 @ 30ft;
58.6 @ 35ft; 57.4 @ 40ft; 54.8 @ 45ft. Most of our action was still in the upper 10ft of the water column. We did drop a line to 15-18ft. Lost a few heavies there. We didn't get skunked & we did have some action but most was on the topline with hot orange early & burnt orange later. Lol. Other than that, it was hot & pretty flat water morning. The green cloudy water is tough to see when the lake shallows up so be careful out there! The upcoming heat will heat up the water column but should start to congregate the trout more in the normal haunts for trollers. The trigger is 70F surface temp for 7 days. The trout are feeding on shrimp on the west side. They start in around rock piles that are 7-12ft, as the morning temps rose, they gradually moved to the second ledge 17-30ft but remained fairly close to the bottom to around 24ft depth. They were tapering off the early bite but there were a few that hit & ran at that level. Burnt orange, all around best & light olive trolling flies got smacked at all levels. Changes are coming. Since the drought years, it's common for our dissolved 02 to drop to levels unacceptable for trout below a certain depth in summer. They have resided & active in water temps of 72/73 in summer, if that's the best 02 level, no matter what the water temps are below that. So keep that in consideration. We have seen a thermocline form & wash out shortly thereafter. Good luck out there. It's been tough for the average troller. Transition time for the lake is a few weeks early. But she'll come around. I'll be out again next week.