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How much can water temperature in a lake vary by depth?

The variation in water temperature in a lake by depth and different times of the day can significantly influence bass fishing strategies. During the day, surface water temperatures can increase rapidly, especially in shallower areas exposed to direct sunlight. As Alex Rudd highlighted, surface temperatures can fluctuate by as much as 10-11 degrees from morning to afternoon. This is due to the prolonged exposure to sunlight during the day, which heats the surface layer, compared to the cooler temperatures at night when there is no sun.

Depth plays a crucial role as well. As OttDeFoe mentioned, during late summer, the surface temperature can penetrate deeper into the water column, making the temperature relatively uniform from top to bottom. However, this isn't always the case. In many situations, especially in deeper lakes, there can be a significant temperature gradient with depth. The deeper waters tend to remain cooler during the day compared to the surface.

The concept of "turnover," as discussed by TackleJunky81, also affects temperature distribution in a lake. During turnover events in fall and spring, the water from the bottom and top layers mix, leading to a more uniform temperature throughout the water column. This mixing is driven by the cooling of the surface water that becomes denser and sinks, displacing the warmer water from the depths.

For bass anglers, understanding these temperature variations is crucial. Bass are sensitive to temperature changes and will often adjust their location based on the water temperature. During warmer parts of the day, they might retreat to cooler, deeper waters or shaded areas. Conversely, during cooler parts of the day, they might move to shallower waters or areas warmed by the sun.

When planning your fishing strategy, using a fish finder or a portable temperature gauge, as mentioned by TackleJunky81, can be invaluable. These tools help you identify the temperature at different depths and times, allowing you to predict bass movements more accurately.

In summary, water temperature in a lake varies by depth and throughout the day, influencing bass behavior and fishing strategies. As an angler, keeping a close eye on these changes can help you find more success on the water.

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ALEX RUDD on When to SPEED UP or SLOW DOWN by Serious Angler Network → is that like i can see temperature fluctuations as much as 10 11 degrees this time of year from morning to afternoon and it's literally because you know at night that water temperature for eight nine hours that's dark outside or a little bit longer a little bit shorter has enough time to cool down eight or nine degrees and then it gets so hot during the day that it raises back up that eight or nine degrees and so a great example is you know this morning i got to the lake you know before daylight put the boat in and i was getting a surface temperature of 78. by the time i left this afternoon i was getting a surface temperature of 88 to 89. and so that was literally just the difference between there being no sun on the water and sun on the water now how that ties into moon phase is that when we have a full moon there is not a doubt in my mind that those fish are feeding all night long i think fish feed on light a lot more than people think they do and i think that how much lot of fish you know is is seeing and receiving dictates a lot of their life including how they feed and so if we have a full moon you know a clear sky with a full moon that's really really bright those fish can see really really well and so

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The Turnover by TackleJunky81 → over is that the entire body of water your whole water column all actually goes to the same temperature as that surface air is going to cool it begins to cool the surface water temperatures and it undoes that stratification that you had during the summer months and the magic number is about four degrees Celsius which you can see from the clip so I'm going to put in a deeper which is another really great thing about having a portable fish finder is that you can take it with you toss it in get some temperature readings get some depth readings it's just really handy to have even when you're not looking for fish themselves it's just great to get some information about your body of water so anyway as you can see from those readings now that this Lake is about between 41 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit which your 4 degrees Celsius mark is about 39 point two degrees Fahrenheit so you can see this probably is just warmed a little bit on the surface from those warmer temperatures that we've had this past week but in the turn over the whole water column reaches about 4 degrees Celsius so you have that mixture that happens of that colder water that was down at the bottom throughout the summer now mixes throughout the entire column and then as the temperatures continue to cool and you go into winter you have like a Reese traffic ation so you have

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What's Happening In Our Lakes? Fall & Spring Turn Over Explained. by TackleJunky81 → the ice melts and that water begins to warm it becomes heavier as it approaches at four degrees Celsius mark and begins to sink now as you move on through spring you go back into the summer stratification where we began where you start seeing that warming and you see those layers start becoming defined again now again as a quick reminder before I go into a recap of the seasonal changes that your Lakes may experience not all lakes not all bodies of water will experience these again it's dependent upon depth temperature at the climate even topography plays a role into what may happen and what you may experience in your own particular body of water so just a recap in the summertime you have those defined layers and then as the water begins to cool you have that mixing in the fall turnover in the winter as those temperatures continue to cool you have that inverse stratification where you got your colder water on top and your warmer water on bottom and then as that the Sun comes out and begins to melt the ice and warm that top layer you go through another turnover in the spring and then you approach the summer again and your leg begins to stratify so if you liked the video please give it a thumbs up like it comment again if you want to see any more videos that are maybe a little more

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Hot Summertime Techniques with Pete Gluszek by The Bass University → going to go out to deep water had this conversation with with one of the students a little earlier well what's deep water deep waters relative term some Lakes deep water is 10 feet other Lakes deep waters a hundred feet and it really did to me deep water defines by where the water temperature changes or where the habitat changes maybe usually where the grass ends you know that's that seems to be a general that's the you know where the grass hands that's deep water some grass ends in 40 feet of water some grass in grass beds end in five or ten feet of water so it's a relative term place like Grand Lake these fish spend an awful lot of their time shallow it's the nutrients that come into this lake or what whatever the bait fish are feeding on is keeping those fish shallow a lot of the year so some lakes the fish will behave in a shallow water pattern all year long you don't got to run out to those deep water drops best way to do that to figure that out is follow your sonar and your sonar is going to tell you where the bait is and the bait is going to tell you where the bass is Garmin is a spot you want to be on your best habitat when that currents running in the summertime the fish are difficult when it's not running

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Water temperature myths busted! by OttDeFoe → they might come up a degree I thought it was at 3 feet didn't change so one thing that's interesting this time of year this is late summer my September it's still hot outside you know we're way past early summer mid summer that type of stuff and what happens on a lot of lakes this time of year is that that surface temperature has bled all the way through down that was 14 feet deep and it was maybe a degree cooler than what my surface temp was reading on my hummingbird that water temp being the same from the top to the bottom that's why you see this time of year a lot of the fishing gets really scattered you may catch a fish out in 20 feet you might catch one in two feet you may catch one in eight feet those fish really this time of year their main focus is gonna be on food so anywhere you find a good population of food food whether that's bluegill crawdad shad anywhere that food source is that's where the bass are gonna be you know early in the summer when those fish are first postponed they like to go back out to deep water because it's a retreat for them it's much cooler than the surface temp maybe 75 80 degrees but they can go back out there to that deep water that's in the 60s and rest up and recuperate

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Best Shallow and Offshore Winter Fishing Areas on Clear Water Lakes | FTM Live Stream #66 by Bass Fishing Declassified → a high of 40 in the daytime and it really begins uh cooling off that that surface temperature throughout the lake and one of the things you have to realize about early winter fishing when you're gauging water temperature is the water temperature you want to go by is what the water temperature is on the main lake at the very warmest part of the day because you you sort of get a fake water temperature if you take the water temperature like back in the cove or somewhere right off the bat in the morning that's going to give you a false water temperature just because of the night so the true water temperature is like you know something that you see on the main lake uh during three or four o'clock in the afternoon so when that first starts to happen uh in this part of the country and through the same um geographical uh areas going east like you know if you go from table rock east you know through some of the tennessee lakes kentucky lakes into lake norman sort of that same geographical area you know we're starting to get now into water temperatures that are sort of like in the upper 50s which in december that's really warm but we've seen a trend you know weather patterns climate change all that type of stuff we've seen a trend where water temperatures are simply not as cold in december as they were 30 or 40

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