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Subject: "Thermocline" Previous topic | Next topic
swimbaitSun Nov-01-09 08:05 PM
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#11464, "Thermocline"


  

          

Anyone ever fished it? I never have. Not intentionally.

I was reading this old bass fishing book, and they were dithering on about the thermocline. Talking about how to see it on your ancient fish finder. Talking about how to target bass that should be living at that depth.

Never once, in all my life, have I bothered to try and find the thermocline or fish at that depth. Am I missing something? To me this is like the color-c-lector.

  

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UrbanSun Nov-01-09 10:46 PM
Member since Sep 22nd 2004
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#11466, "RE: Thermocline"
In response to Reply # 0


          

In theory, you should fish at or above the thermocline because that is where dissolved oxygen levels are high enough to allow fish to survive. The problem with this theory is it doesnt hold true across lake types; more specifically it depends on the lakes trophic level. In highly fertile, eutrophic lakes (Clear Lake) DO levels typically are very low below the thermocline (but, the thermocline in Clear Lake can dissolve and reform quickly at any time of year, i.e. polymictic). In relatively infertile, oligotrophic lakes (Pardee), DO levels are usually very high anywhere in the water column even though a thermocline forms. So, trying to eliminate fishable water based on the thermocline is not straight forward and can be very complex depending on how far you want to take it. Ive thought about this stuff before, and thought about how I could use it to my advantage, and the only way to do it is to carry a DO meter and take readings each day you fish. My conclusion was this was way too complicated, would take up too much time, and would take away from the fun of fishing. Its easier to just fish at different depths (and at this level taking into account where the thermocline is provides a good starting point) until you hit pay dirt, then concentrate on the depth you were getting bit.

  

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swimbaitFri Nov-06-09 09:18 AM
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#11477, "RE: Thermocline"
In response to Reply # 1


  

          

Steve - appreciate your insight as always. Your comments go me to thinking more... and I think perhaps the real way to learn more about the thermocline would be to put an underwater camera down at times when an obvious thermocline is visible on the fish finder. I think that would really help me to understand what is going on.

With my aluminum boat I couldn't really meter around on the big engine and look for broader patterns of fish activity relative to thermocline. With the boat I just bought I plan to do a lot more "metering around". I don't have an underwater camera but one of these days will get one.

This is the kind of stuff I like to investigate and look in to, but I have this feeling that in the end it will prove irrelevant to my fishing. Fishing for big fish my approach is just so much more brute force, process of elimination than it is calculated.

My approach to new lakes is to simply go around to all of the most obvious spots and fish them from deep to shallow. Then I hit the spots that feel right throughout the season. Then over a period of years I learn which spots produce fish. And I learn which times of year are best. Sometimes it narrows down to 2 week windows.

Then I know to go to certain lakes at certain times of year and fish certain spots. And none of that involves looking at the thermocline, the moon phase, or the water temperature. It's just understanding a pattern of fish behavior on a given lake. And that just takes years of fishing to figure out. It also helps if you can get in and fish the lakes when they are good for swimbait fishing vs. after they've been beaten to a pulp (the accurate description for almost every lake in CA now).

I feel like when I go to the lakes now I'm just fishing scraps of what used to be. And I feel bad for the guys just starting out trying to figure stuff out, because frankly you are not going to get much feedback from the bass. Which lengthens the learning curve ... a lot.

In any case I still try to learn more about all the possible factors in case something useful presents itself :) With fishing being tough for big bass now for going on 3 years in nor-cal you have to take whatever you can get and try to milk any small piece of conditional information.

  

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Triton MikeTue Nov-10-09 03:27 AM
Member since Jan 19th 2006
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#11478, "RE: Thermocline"
In response to Reply # 2


          

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

  

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