Fishing the thermocline

[txchaser]

Somewhat of a "thanks BR" and somewhat of a recap post. A few members have mentioned over the last few months that you are unlikely to find any bass below the thermocline. And one member (probably @WRB) said that the bigger fish hang around the thermocline.

So I paid attention, and when I fished Saturday my first objective was to find the thermocline by cranking up the sensitivity on my electronics. Looked like around 12-14ft. And saw a decent amount of baitfish and other goings on in the 7-9ish foot range. And the occassional school blowing up shad on the surface, which I had seen in the prior weekend. I expected that was going to stop around 10am, and it did. 

 

Well that eliminated a very substantial part of this lake, as unless I was going to punch mats or chase the schoolies, I had a good depth range to fiddle with. I don't fish cranks deeper than a squarebill very often, but this seemed like a good setup to go play and learn. I found a big deep flat that wasn't obvious on the map (the map is... not wrong, but it is misleading). And the flat had deep on one side and big weeds on the other, but it was deep enough that there wasn't a ton of vegetation - anything shallower than 7" or so gets weed-choked very quickly.

 

Net net, I caught a bunch of fish, and sure enough the bigger ones were right at that thermocline depth. The biggest one went 6lbs 14oz, and was the most vicious strike I've ever had from a largemouth... I thought it was a striper! Nearly took the rod out of my hand, peeling drag trying to run deeper, etc. And the remainder of the fish came from fishing deeper/slower using a A-rig and a white chatterbait. Every now and then they'd come up to chase the a-rig, but if I kept it low and slow there were a lot of bites. 

 

Recap - 

1) using the thermocline eliminated water

2) fishing the thermocline got me a bigger fish

3) knowing where the bait was gave me a top depth too

 

Bonus, paying really close attention to finding spots that looked the same explained why I had a crazy-good day this winter... I never could figure out why those fish were where they were, I sort of lucked into the pattern this winter and just went with it. But I couldn't explain why it only happened on that spot.

 

What would I have done differently? Tied on a carolina rig and tried that in the same spots too. I suppose I wasted too much time trying to make a frog bite happen over the weed beds, and I had low confidence in a t-rig given how keyed these fish were on shad. 

 

[Bankc]

My favorite time to fish is in the summer once the thermocline hits.  Until the thermocline, deep water bass are basically off limits to me.  But once we get a good thermocline, I find it a lot easier to find and catch these fish.  That, added with the need for shade in the shallows, and I spend a lot less time looking for bass, and a lot more time catching them.  They're more aggressive in the spring and fall, and I'll often catch more fish then.  But I'll often spend more time moving around, looking for them, than actually fishing.  

[Catt]

Very observant 

 

A little short cut I use, after I find the thermocline depth, I target structure at the depth.

[scaleface]

I like to find the thermocline and the depth most of the fish seem to be relating to . Then go out on an extended point and fish from one depth to the other .  Hit it just right and stay there for a few hours with non-stop action . I also target flats the same way . I dont get the numbers but catch an occasional lunker .

[T-Billy]

 

7 hours ago, Catt said:

Very observant 

 

A little short cut I use, after I find the thermocline depth, I target structure at the depth.

^This^  From the thermocline up to the shallowest I mark large schools of bait. That's generally only 4-5 feet above it. My other most reliable option is to go real shallow into the THICK stuff.

[Rich12]

This I  have know since about 1964