Summertime powerplant fishing
Water stained; 98 degrees at the hot water discharge, 73–79 degrees in main lake .
This is the report for our local powerplant lake here in Texas. Air temps are already in the mid 80's to low 90's and will soon be near 100. I have seen the hot water discharge as high as 108.
How do you approach a lake like this? Better to fish the cooler water? Warmer water?
I would think deep and near the edge of grass lines. But not sure which end of the lake. what techniques do people use?
Max depth is 42 feet near discharge and 31 feet at the lower end of the lake. Both of these are in the river channel.
I fish a lake here in TN that is almost exactly like what your conditions are. I have been having better luck pitching on rock banks where channel turns back. Seems as if the current is pushing bait to the out side of channel and if it is also close to to drop of perfect spot!
We've got 2 power plants here on Norman. We have deeper water, which probably mixes to keep the overall temp a little lower, but I've caught some bass in seriously warm water. We have spotted bass, and I'm not particularly sure they care about the temperature as long as there's some food around. Otherwise, the largemouth tend to be further north, above both hot water discharges. I'm not sure that's entirely to do with water temperature, as that's also where the water is a bit more stained, the water isn't so deep and there's more shoreline cover. Remember that the discharge will also create current.
Thanks for the input
Hot water discharges are tricky when the water temp gets that high. The fish get so hard to trigger when the water temp gets that high. If the bait stays in the discharge, the bass will stay too. Use super fast retrieves and topwater.
Mostly, the bait leaves when the discharge gets too high and bass follow. Fish in the summer are mostly deep. Find the bait depth using you your sonar and target cover in that depth zone. If your a shallow water guy, you can always find some fish shallow. Incoming creeks can often run a little cooler and I like to fish the backs of these creeks in the summer months.
