Rob, Fishing the thermocline here in GA is a way of life in the summer time. It's where 90% of the bigger fish hold throughout the summer and is the reason why bigger fish are harder to catch here in the summer than most of the other seasons (nobody fishes for them). We often times catch fish 20ft down suspended over 100 + ft of water. If your a trophy spotted bass guy your hands will be tied behind your back for a good while if your weak in catching suspended fish.

We do alot of brushpile planting to take advantage of the thermocline and a few other tricky methods like suspending brush from wave barriers. My lake has very little DO below the cline and the quality of the water above it isn't that great either due to lots of chemical runoffs from farms upstream. It depends on the year and the weather mostly. We got alot of rains this summer so it wasn't as prevalent as past years. But when we get those hot drought months that is when the cline will pinch the fish to a certain depth level.

You can easily see the cline and the plankton life that hang around the thermocline. It's like the dead sea below it and above it. Most fish that are suspeneded are using contour or structure to suspend over. You will see alot of fish on channel ledge suspending fish as well as fish suspending over strategically placed brush or timber if it is available. Having said that I would venture to guess that 90% of the Spotted Bass I catch over 5lbs are suspended fish based off of the depth that I catch them at. But in a nutshell there is a ton of opportunity for catching these fish. I would venture to gain that this is still untapped territory for most anglers and probably the least understood. The old adage that suspended fish are inactive is nothing further from the truth. They will bite you just have to find the right fish.

Mike