The main page has a good reminder article of the importance of the summer period thermocline.

Today we have state of the art sonar and tend to forget the basics about bass and bait behavior.

Fish seek a comfort zone and during the summer that life zone is the thermocline.

 Good article read it!

Tom 

Struggling to find where this article is, could you point me towards it? 

9 minutes ago, FordsnFishin said:

Struggling to find where this article is, could you point me towards it? 

Go to the home page, You'll see it.

Thanks for the heads up Tom 

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/thermocline-bass.html

Fishing yesterday and there was an 18 ft thermocline but the shad were balled up around 10 to 12 ft. I caught a few at 10 ft. to 12 ft.

10 hours ago, scaleface said:

Fishing yesterday and there was an 18 ft thermocline but the shad were balled up around 10 to 12 ft. I caught a few at 10 ft. to 12 ft.

Similar Sunday. 15-18’ thermocline and a ball of something around 12’. 

Anytime time you meter bait balled up that bait is being feed on by predators, it’s their defensive mechanism to look big.

When you see this it’s structure spoon time.

Lob cast the spoon just past the bait ball and let it Pendulum falling thru the bait, strike occurs when the spoon stops.

Tom 

@WRB that's some solid juice sir.  Thanks as always.

what is the maximum depth before we have to start thinking about hurting a bass by pulling it up from?  is this only a salt water concern?

Basically 1 atmosphere of pressure or about 30’. What happens is the bass could be at 45’ and come up, and strike a lure, then the angler pulls the bass up quickly and out of the water.

The air bladder is like a ballon and expands as the pressure on the fish decreases. 2 atmospheres or 60’ causes severe air bladder expansion pushing the stomach out the throat of bass because unlike some fish (trout) bass don’t have pressure relief valves.

So my depth limit has been 45’ for bass. I have a 12 oz torpedo weight with a 7/0 hook (point removed) and hook the lower inside lip and lower the bass back down using my lure knocker cord. The bass swims off and retrieve the weight.

Tom