how does locating the thermocline help? say im fishing 20' of water with some nice bottom structure, would the presence of a thermocline make this a more favorable location? will a body of water that has a thermocline in one area of the lake also have it another? or would offshore spots with thermocline vs ones that dont be more prosperous? sry for the thread jack x2 lol

There shouldn't be any bass below the thermocline.

so in theory if you found a hump below the thermocline dont bother fishing it?

so in theory if you found a hump below the thermocline dont bother fishing it?

There is nothing theoretical about it. Below the thermocline the dissolved oxygen level will be too low. You can completely eliminate any structure or cover below the thermocline.

Where a thermocline intersects a significant piece of structure would be a place I fished....

Here's a nice article: http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/thermocline.html

Where a thermocline intersects a significant piece of structure would be a place I fished....

All of the lakes I fish regularly have a thermocline this time of year. If I didn't know a thing about thermoclines it would not really matter. By charting deep water structure it is soon very apparent a what depth the fish are holding. As John points out, find where structure and fish intersect and now you have something.

That was discussed on the area threads earlier and I posted a couple of unit screen shots of a thermocline:

The bottom post on this topic thread:

Most lakes that deep (<25') do not thermocline, usually. And most reservoirs that have current running through them (as JFranco said) do not as well, just like rivers don't. Large lakes with depths over 50' usually do thermocline once steady summer temps set in. (Notice I said "lakes" not reservoirs.)

You can find it if you have a sonar with over 480 verticle pixels, and you set your sensitivity and ping speed on max. and your chart speed at about 70%. However, once you find the thermocline doing this, you'll have to decrease your sensitivity - or you'll get too much clutter.

I've always wanted to have a temperature probe. One which would allow me to read the temps at various depths while staying on the boat! That would be a valuable tool indeed.

Awfully expensive gadget, but they do make them.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Boating/Boating-Electronics/Temp-Depth-Sensors%7C/pc/104794380/c/104707080/sc/104626980/ClineFinder-Temperature-Sensor/738056.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fboating-boating-electronics-temp-depth-sensors%2F_%2FN-1100526%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_104626980%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253BRCcat104793480%253Bcat104707080&WTz_l=SBC%3BRCcat104793480%3Bcat104707080%3Bcat104626980