I'm about 99.9% sure that I learned, from this forum, I believe it was from Bob Lusk, that the critical water temp for a massive Shad dieoff, was 42 degrees.
Well now, my concern is specifically for Clear Lk. California, which is normally pretty cold this time of year anyway..... However, after a week of the coldest weather in close to 10 years, our surface temp has dropped to 40 degrees yesterday morning, and 43 last evening !
I understand that the water down deeper might be a few degrees warmer, but we have at least three more nights in the upper teens, to low 20's to go !
Please keep in mind, that 9 years ago, during the last major cold front, we did in fact, have a HUGE Shad dyoff ! Personally, I feel like it's VERY possible, if not totally likely, that we are fixing to have another massive dyoff now ! But the majority of the people I talk to don't seem to understand the seriousness of the situation, and / or they don't think it will be an almost complete kill.... like somebody hit a light switch (even though it was exactly that way 9 years ago).
So, I guess what I'm trying to confirm, is that 42 degrees is the "light switch" number. Are there any other contributing factors ? Water pH, disolved oxygen, etc ?
Is this the right forum section ? Or should I copy and past this to another section, as well ?
Thank you very much,
Fish Chris
That is about right. The deeper the lkae the better your chances of the shad finding some thermal refuge. Not much you can do about it anyway though other than pray.
BTW you wrote " fixing to..." I'm impressed I thought only us southerns had the sense to use such language. I feel for you on the shad but you will just have to evaulate the loss in the spring.
Fish Chris,
There may be a bright side to this, or at least not as gloomy...a highly respected fish pro here in Texas has told me, more than once, that threadfin shad are very vulnerable to predation at those low temps and many, many will die from predation before the actual temp related fish kill...so, you could have some great, fat predator fishing down the line in springtime. In a big lake, the threadfins should bounce back fine.
If you look back 9 years ago, was that event followed by some improved predator fishing?
Threadfin shad
(Dorosoma petenense)
Range
The threadfin shad is a member of
the herring family and ranges from
Florida to Mexico and northward.
Introductions of threadfin shad as a
supplemental forage species have
greatly increased its range. The
threadfin is susceptible to winterkill
at water temperatures of 42° F, limiting
its range northward.
http://srac.tamu.edu/tmppdfs/13452410-14...2c89991436f612b
Thank you guys for the quick replies. Here's an update; I just got off of the phone with a very knowledgeable outdoors writer, who lives on Clear Lk. He tells me that the their was a bass tourney yesterday, and several of the guy reported a surface temp of 38 degress in the morning, and only up to 40 last evening ! ......yet, still no signs of a Shad kill ? Geeez, those lower depths have got to be getting close to 42. In fact, I'm surprised that it isn't already below that. Clear Lk. is a shallow, natural lake, with an average depth of only about 20 feet.... not all like most of our man-made Cali resovoirs.
BTW, it's kind of a long story, but it was precisely because of (IMPO) the last massive Shad die off at Clear Lk. 9 years ago, that led to the biggest boom of giant Clear Lk. Channel cats in it's history. No, I don't mean the catfish population increased, I just mean that because of the lack of food in most parts of the lake, the catfish ended up becoming "super-concentrated" in a very small portion of the lake, which still had Shad, presumably because of warm water springs which saved the Shad in that tiny area.
In any case, for better, or for worse, if their is a massive Shad kill, things will certainly change big-time !
Hey Meadowlark, before the last Shad kill (just like now) there were / are so many Shad in Clear Lk. that the predators can basically swim with their mouths open ! Bass and Catfishing has been pretty tough, as the fish are just so well fed.
Hey Greg G, as a matter of fact, I lived in Louisiana for 3 years.... So ya'll ain't the only ones who talk like that :-) LOL
Peace,
Fish
Bass and Catfishing has been pretty tough, as the fish are just so well fed.
If there is a shad die off then your predator fish should become more catch able until the shad population rebounds.
Just a quick question, has the wind been blowing hard? If so that colder surface water is more like to mix and make it down deeper in the water column increasing the likelihood of a die off. If the wind hasn't been blowing hard you might not see much of a die off.
Hey, Fish Chris. Welcome to the forum. Please don't let me side track this thread, but
how the heck big is that largemouth in your profile photo ????????Just thought I'd ask.
That LMB looks like a solid 5 or 6 lbs. to me.
If that fish was in Bruce's arms, it wouldn't fit on the monitor screen :p (according to Theo).
Apparently the real pros hold a fish way out and entirely hide their hands so there's no perspective. It kind of makes the fish look like it's floating in air.
Anyway, back to Fish Chris. Your fish is obviously a monster. No amount of arm stretching would every change that. I'm just taking a wild stab that the fish is a bare minimum of 16 pounds. Am I close?
Just under 16 lbs (15 lbs. 12.8 oz to be exact) is my guess but I might have cheated on my guess.
I have had dreams of a similar fish in our pond and me catching it.
I hope it was obvious that I was kidding about my 5 or 6 lb. comment.
Guys all you have to do is go to FC's home page look up top 10 records (#5) and see his pic and story. 18.4 lbs.
Fish Chris, I saw some of your other photos on another forum.
http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1174058462/0#0 All I can say is WOW on that great body condition of the SMB.
How big is that fish? I couldn't see a weight listed.