I was diving over the weekend and taking some video of jigs(more on that later) and decided to drop down to about 65 ft.  Low and behold there was a largemouth about 4lbs lurking down there.  He was about 25ft deeper then the thermocline.  This is one of the first fish I've seen this deep especially that far below the thermocline.

Pretty interesting to see.

^{That is pretty deep for a LMB.
 
I caught Spotted Bass from 110 feet. Felt bad though, because they decompressed, and their air bladders blew out of their mouths (100% fatal). Granted, the Spots in this lake are overpopulated, and most are dinks. So I might have been helping the average size (to some tiny degree). But because many were not legal to keep, and I didn't want to waste them, I went back to shallower water.... and didn't do as well. This was in Jan. I believe, with like 48 degree surface temps.
 
Peace,
Fish}

You Should post some of your underwater footage! That's pretty cool have you ever filmed under water strikes etc?

That's fantastic!

 

Never thought a largemouth bass would go that deep and under the thermocline.

 

Thanks for the info.

You Should post some of your underwater footage! That's pretty cool have you ever filmed under water strikes etc?

 

When I was filming my jigs I had to fan off a LM and some bluegills to keep them from eating the jigs.  The LM came out of no where real fast.  He almost got it before I scared him off.

I have seen them strike and it is extremely fast.  Next time I dive I'll try and get a video.  Its not real easy with the speed it happens and holding onto the camera gets tricky at times.

Yea I know the stike fast I've seen videos and I have witnessed it from land. You probably see some pretty cool thing while diving

Curious, what were you testing? Tungsten jigs?

 

*edited for my terrible grammar. wow

Could it be Loch Ness Largemouth Bass ?

 

 

A-Jay

It was a little small to be Nessy. LOL

 

I made an attempt to video most of my jigs underwater and how they react.  I hope the video turns out.  Its going to be my first attempt at this.

Trailers were Rage Craws, Cosmic craw and chunk.

I hope once I edit it the video turns out have good.

Awesome Mike. Can't wait to hear more and see some footage...

Very cool, love to see a pic from down there if enough light.

Odd, indeed.  I've run into greenfish deep on Tablerock several times when diving in the 75-100 foot range.  In all instances, however, they were there to eat crawdads for a few minutes at a time, then they would move back up to around the 45 foot marker relatively quickly.  The spots would stick around right below the 50 foot thermocline mark for extended periods, seemingly never going above it.  (You are able to gauge depth because of the ascension line we use diving, so the depths are fairly accurate.)

Funny thing, too, is that I have never seen a smalljaw over 50 feet deep on The Rock. Deepest Portsmouth I've caught there is 61 feet, 77 for a spot.  Brownish- 34.

I maintain that fish don't read the same books we do.  The time I spend fishing and the time I've spent diving continue to back that up.

We have a population of very water LMrB iin DVL, Castaic and Casitas year around in 60' to 90' of water.

These lakes have aeration systems that create multiple thermoclines layaes and draw water from the bottom of the dams. For this reason it's always good to survey deeper water with your sonar to determine where the actually are. Finding very deep water bass doesn't mean they are catchable or if they will survive being caught.

Very interesting find, was this a natural lake?

Tom

I hear ya Hooligan.  This is the first time I've ever seen fish deeper then 30/35 ft.  He was just down there chillin.  Litterally. It was about 48 degrees.

 

WRB,  Its an old strip pit mine that was turned into a dive facility years ago.  The water is usually pretty clear but cold below the thermocline.  Its usually 42-48 deg at those depths year round.