Short video with a lot of info...

 

 

I try to read and watch all kinds of videos to learn all kinds of tricks and tips. As long as you've been fishing. Your never too old to learn something new.

Good video, and not what I expected!  

Excellent video.  I've got a thermocline question.   Is there a way to tell what depth the thermocline is?   I think I read that sometimes there would be a line on sonar.

 

 

Added: I fell out of my boat last week but didn't sink below the thermocline.  I remember swimming, diving, and skiing and feeling the colder water at a certain depth.     

26 minutes ago, Woody B said:

Excellent video.  I've got a thermocline question.   Is there a way to tell what depth the thermocline is?   I think I read that sometimes there would be a line on sonar.

 

 

Added: I fell out of my boat last week but didn't sink below the thermocline.  I remember swimming, diving, and skiing and feeling the colder water at a certain depth.     

Yeah, just turn up the gain on your sonar until it appears. It'll be obvious when you see it.

I usually start in 6" and work out from there. Lol. Shallow heavy cover is where I do best on the lakes I fish. Sometimes I move out to structure around the thermocline depth and drag a TRD Bug or finesse worm around. That usually results in a dinkfest with an occasional good fish.

 I have a buddy who catches more big smallmouth than anyone I know locally. His results are just flat impressive on our highly pressured little reservoirs. He gets most of them at night on a TRD in 15' -25' on rockpiles. Basically from the thermocline down to the deepest part of the main lake basin. You know, right where the "experts" say they shouldn't be. He hauled a 23 1/2" the other night. Didn't have a scale in the boat. Kinda skinny, but over 6# for sure. 

Bear in mind that thermoclines don't always set up.  Your lake or pond may not get it this year.  And if you do see it this year, it may not happen next year.  Some lakes never get a thermocline, for example, lakes in mild climates.  It just depends on temperatures, wind, current, and other environmental influences.

Good point Glenn. They're consistent in my local lakes. Shallowest lake is about 25' max, deepest is around 40'. Thermocline sets up around 15' in all of them every year, but as you stated, that's not gonna be the case everywhere.

 

 

Great video about an issue that confuses many bass anglers.  When I was young and first read about thermoclines, I wasted a lot of time riding around Florida lakes looking for deep offshore structure.  I wore out my flasher and never found anything noteworthy.  Here in Florida, most of our lakes are shallow featureless bowls with miles of nothing in deep water.  Unless you are fishing a rock pit, 20 feet is about as deep as it gets.  I'm not sure Florida even has thermoclines where finding grass is the key to finding fish.  Add the fact that our water visibility is only a few feet and you can catch fish shallow even on the hottest days.  

17 hours ago, T-Billy said:

I usually start in 6" and work out from there. Lol. Shallow heavy cover is where I do best on the lakes I fish.

I do too. But it's even better if it's close to deep water.

I don't think the ponds I fish have thermoclines.  I usually start off by targeting weed mats on the surface this time of year.

Excellent video and short and to the point. It’s nice to remember why we do what we do in different times of the year.

I do most of my fishing on Lake Wylie.   Since the spawn ended I've been catching quite a few bass under docks.   Saturday(yesterday) the dock bite was slim.  I managed to find them right up against banks that are being pounded by waves and at ledges/drop offs near these banks.    If there was a mudline in the water from the waves they'd hammer my bait right at the line.    There isn't much vegetation in Lake Wylie so I suspect O2 levels can get low.  Surface temp is low 80's at sunrise and climbs a few degrees during the day.  I caught 9 yesterday (1 under a dock) in 5 hours.  I caught 16 today in 7 hours.  None were huge.  The smallest were 12" with a few up to 18".     I see a BUNCH of people fishing on points where the water is 20' or deeper.  Everyone I talked to at the landing and on the lake were having a hard time catching any.   In recent years everyone says bass fishing at Lake Wylie is dead, but I've caught a BUNCH pretty much every weekend this year.  I've caught 4 there over 5 pounds this year.   I don't see any fish, or baitfish deeper than 20'.   

 

I wonder if oxygen is a problem in Wylie quite a bit.   I know of 3 spots that I can always catch bass, but none of the spots have "always catch bass" structure.   I wonder if there's springs there under the lake.  

 

 

Like any lake it's covered with wake boats this time of year.