False bottoms on vexilars

[TroutFishingBear]

Well, in one lake in particular, I have a problem with false bottoms with my vexilar fl-18. (It is fairly new, I got it oct. 2004) The vex says the bottom is at 40 feet for example, and my jig keeps dropping til about 50 feet. It really bothers me, especially as I am laker fishing and have to finesse those finicky lakers just right or I don't get them to hit. The funny thing is it only happens on that lake. It started last year too, we would go there 2 and 3 years ago and see the bottom just fine with my bros fl-8. (his fl-8 is getting false bottom too). DO you guys notice this problem at all, and do you have any way to fix it?

[TroutFishingBear]

Are you fishing anywhere near a dropoff when this happens?  If you're close to an edge you'll get cone blocked as I call it and you run into the problem you're describing. 

Yeah, I am fishing near a major dropoff in most cases when this happens on this particular lake (ruedi reservoir), but when we aren't fishing a sharp dropoff, just kind of a gentle slope, we still get a big false bottom. The thing that boggles my mind is in the spot where there is no sharp dropoff, we used to get a clean bottom, same exact location on gps coordinates. Kind of wierd isn't it? This one local named mike that fishes that lake all the time said the forest service dumped a bunch of trees in the lake, but I can't find any documented proof of that for sure.

[TroutFishingBear]

I have a 12 degree cone, and the old vex that my brother still has has the dual cone. He uses the 9 and always has for lakers. I wonder why he still gets false bottoms, which he didn't used to. Maybe the forest service dumping a bunch of trees in the lake is true?

[iceintheveins]

Yes there is a lot of clutter on the bottom, a lot of sticks and rocks sticking up. Plus the lake is wildly fluctuating at times and I'm always fishing near steep drop offs. Usually I get a 3 - 10 foot false bottom. So for lakers at this lake I just fish blind, fishing in the dead zone within a foot of the bottom, while watching the rest of the water column as always, even though lakers here don't hardly suspend at all. Sometimes I will reel my jig up high enough to separate itself from the false bottom, and a laker will follow it up.
Just depends on where you are fishing. Near steep drop offs or if there is a lot of debris on the bottom, you will get false readings.

Tyler