Fishing Thermometers

I did some looking. It seems the the digital alternative is about $150-$250 and called fish hawk DT. It seems like it would be fun, but for about $20 you can get a deptherm. But the Fish Hawk DT would be a very cool Christmas gift for a Stillwater fly fisherman.
 
I did use a darkroom thermometers for years. Then I bought a "fishing" thermometer and lost that one.

I was leaving for a fishing trip and realized that I needed a thermometer and stole the small digital meat thermometer. I have been using a meat thermometer for almost a decade now.

I do use it to get a surface temperature before I start fishing.

Later in the season, I am not sure how helpful a depth thermometer is in eastern Washington.

For my Biology 1C class (ecology) my class science project was the development of the thermocline over the spring quarter. I was fun titrating chemicals in a small boat to get dissolved oxygen levels and temperature by depth.

As it got warmer the thermocline formed and and the perfect trout temperature was found below that level. Unfortunately, at that depth there was NO DISSOLVED OXYGEN.

Lots of lakes in the basin also run out of oxygen during the summer, but the thermometer would show perfect temp for trout. Those books on the lakes of Washington that show water chemistry and DO levels and temps for different times of the year.

If you can find a DO meter and temperature probe built into one, you will get lots more useful fishing information.

That was the best thing about a forestry degree. The line between professional education and a very useful personal education was blurred. Later, in my professional life I cultivated fisheries biologists, but found most of them did not add to my fishing success.

There was ONE fisheries biologist, that was an incredible fisherman. He did not want to waste his time fishing with a rank amateur like me.
 
@509
Thanks for the input.
Been at this for over 44 years. Not an expert. Formal invite to jump in my boat next time u come to the Central Oregon area. We can waste time all day.

Bob
 
Fascinating discussion for me.. Dissolved Oxygen. For a few hundred bucks you can get a DO meter but ...... "If a DO meter is too steep of an investment right now, a digital depth thermometer (a thermometer on a marked cord) is a great secondary option. While it won't give you the exact oxygen parts-per-million, you can drop it down to find the thermocline (the layer of rapidly cooling water). Because cooler water holds more oxygen, finding that temperature break usually puts you right in the oxygen band where the trout and bass are staging."
 
Jim in Anacortes said:
Fascinating discussion for me.. Dissolved Oxygen. For a few hundred bucks you can get a DO meter but ...... "If a DO meter is too steep of an investment right now, a digital depth thermometer (a thermometer on a marked cord) is a great secondary option. While it won't give you the exact oxygen parts-per-million, you can drop it down to find the thermocline (the layer of rapidly cooling water). Because cooler water holds more oxygen, finding that temperature break usually puts you right in the oxygen band where the trout and bass are staging."
Click to expand...
Was that an AI generated reply? That is oversimplified and wrong on multiple levels.
 
Jim in Anacortes said:
Yes that was AI generated. I sincerely apologize for not making that clear.
Click to expand...
Well, thanks for letting us know after the fact.

D.O. in lakes is much more complex than a simple correlation to temperature, like @509 wrote. And good luck calibrating a $200 D.O. meter.
 
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