Question on Herring (Alewives)

[go_fish]

When I go fishing at Waywayanda or Aeroflex and drop a live herring to the bottom in about 50 to 60 foot of water, the herring comes back dead. Well, at least in my experience. It is about 41 degrees at that depth (right now). Why does the herring die? Not enough oxygen down there, too cold? Since the herring cannot survive that deep does that mean there are no other fish down there?

[oelgnal1]

Can't say for sure but my experience is that alewives don't fair well in cold water and while fishing open water in the Winter, I've seen dead or almost dead alewives on the surface. I wouldn't think that a fish from 70 degree water being lowered down to 40 something degree water would fair too well. This time of year they are on or close to the surface and as the water warms they seem to go no deeper than the thermocline in deeper lakes.

[Ken Lyons]

If you’re fishing for trout or salmon what most guys do is look for the bait balls. That wiil tell you the depth that herring can survive and where the game fish will be. The thermocline on Waywayanda doesn’t get deeper than 30 ft if I recall correctly and then not until late in Summer.

[Capt. Lou]

This can happen in any inland lake , it has very little to do with temps but generally a lack of oxygen is the culprit . This varies in lake to lake your northern lakes like finger and gt lakes dissolved oxygen is available much deeper .
There is a lot of reasons for this variation in lakes which I won't go into here .
Local lakes all have depleted oxygen levels sans Round Valley and some other clearer water lakes that allows sun to penetrate and vegetation to grow and provide oxygen . In lakes wirh less clarity vegetation will not grow and thus no oxygen is made .
Fish locators have become the norm in locating thermocline but I can do the same with an electronic thermometer . If u know the temp range of the fish your after then just use thermometer to locate that depth , outline its thickness , fish within or above and your now fishing in correct water at least .
Once thermocline forms it will not break,but it will bend so the leeward lake side in wind will ride up, while the windward will push down , this occurs on larger lake primarily after several days of a heavy blow from a certain direction.
Early spring using your therometer or Ff with thermo you can locate these warmer water shorelines and get into fish quicker .
If you ever fished early spring on the Great Lakes you would quickly realize that even a couple of degrees in temp,could on any given day mean success or failure
Not many anglers downtemp locally Great Lakes guys live off those numbers, since many species such as offshore steelhead favor temp up and down and generally don't stage off shore
This outline is generally for trollers but bait fisherman can tap,into these methods and should to add a few fish to the cooler .

[slider]

Capt Lou said it all, although shocking herring sometimes will kill a weaker bait fish, by shocking tossing bait into fridge water after being kept in a much warmer bait bucket..But most of the time lack of oxygen seems to be the culprit most times when fishing deep..One little tip if the bait fish come back with mouth flared wide open thats usually a sign your fishing to deep..its like the bait is taking its last gasp..

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by Ken Lyons

If you’re fishing for trout or salmon what most guys do is look for the bait balls. That wiil tell you the depth that herring can survive and where the game fish will be. The thermocline on Waywayanda doesn’t get deeper than 30 ft if I recall correctly and then not until late in Summer.

^^^^ correct
If the alewives are holding at say 25 feet, and you are dropping down 70, all you are doing is killing a $1.00 [or more] bait fish... Most NJ lakes do not have much dissolved oxygen at those depths, outside of maybe Round Valley and a few others that have good lake trout populations.. Thats the best indicator of good oxygen content on a lake bottom, lake trout, as they require deeper colder water than Browns/Rainbows /Salmon, and simply dont survive otherwise.....
LL Salmon/Rainbows/Browns will be in or just above or below the thermocline and typically not too far from the aforementioned "bait balls".. When you find the clouds on the screen, look for V's or slashes above, off to the sides, or just below them.. Those are typically game fish.. They usually aren't too far from the alewives. The thermocline in most NJ lakes is typically around 25-30 feet , but that will vary according to month and weather conditions of course.
Remember, LL salmon, rainbows,and browns are NOT lake fish, they are designed to be stream fish.. However, in lakes they must adapt to their food source, and in lakes with alewives, they key there always, and NOT to depth or structure.. Clean any salmonid from a lake with a lot of alewives, and you will almost never find anything else in their gut.. If you do not have a good fish finder in lakes with suspended schools of alewives, you need to get one, as it gives you an idea where the bait is, and when you find the bait[alewives/herring/sawbellies/mooneyes], you will have found the salmonids... bob