Mysteries of the Deep: Schooling on Cisco Smallmouth
By Andrew Ragas Lakes are the lifeblood of the northwoods. From the expansive Great Lakes to the inland lakes throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Northwestern Ontario, a large percentage of our lakes surface acreage and water columns from top to bottom have gone unexplored. Similar to the world’s oceans, the shallower regions of lakes, fished and mapped to death by bank beaters, have understandably received the lion’s share of fishing pressure. As our lakes near-shore habitats and locations continue to absorb the greatest number of anglers and exploitation, their much more expansive vast open water basins have gone ignored and unvisited. Its fisheries are still largely untapped and undiscovered by anglers. Most bass fishermen mistakenly believe a lake’s biodiversity and fishing productivity lessens as you fish deeper water down towards its thermocline. That belief exists in part because it’s more difficult to consistently catch fish as you cover greater ranges of depth and large expanses of surface acreage. Bass populations in these open water environments might also be of lower density too. Even though these factors add to the level of fishing diffi