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Hey Folks,
I have a small john boat and no money for depth finder or anything of that sort. I am wondering if any of you savy folks or old timers could help me out.
Any tips on fishing without fish and depth finders?
Is there any way to tell where the thermocline is without one?
Thanks,
BurleyDog
In my younger days, before I even knew what a thermocline was, we used to notice that the water was colder so far down. We found it out by jumping in.
Finding the thermocline can be done by measuring the water temperature at certain depths. You can do this with a temperature probe connected to a diagnostic electrical meter. To find fish, studying a good map of the lakes you fish is a good start to locate fishable areas for any particular season of the year. The crank bait and C-rig are ways to locate structure and active fish as well.
[QUOTE=BurleyDog;372855]Hey Folks,
I have a small john boat and no money for depth finder or anything of that sort. I am wondering if any of you savy folks or old timers could help me out.
Any tips on fishing without fish and depth finders?
Is there any way to tell where the thermocline is without one?
Thanks,
BurleyDog[/QUOTE]
Man I feel lazy because I have a depth finder but don't use it much unless I'm searching for a channel or roadbed. I never even consider using one to find the t-cline (maybe thats why I don't catch allot!:))
Anyway, fishing for bass I go shallow early and search for weeds and wood with a little more depth as it gets hotter. You can check a map then start throwing cranks to help you find some of those under water treasures. Read the bank as well you might see an old road ending in the lake. You can read the old creek channel by looking at the contour of the bank, look at the steep side and watch as it meanders across the lake and you can get an idea of where the channel is. Once found you can back off and try plastics and jigs to pick the place apart but it still comes down to time on the water.
Of course man made stuff like bridges and docks are a must fish because people put out old christmas trees and rubbage by their docks to catch crappie, panfish and bass and most bridges have rocks/riprap and bolders around them. If the dock has lights rigged up I would say they fish at night and have submerged trees/rubbage down there. Good luck....JMO.
I have always tried to fish above the thermocline and several years ago the Corps of Engineers made that job much easier. They started putting WATER QUALITY DATA for the lakes they control on their website. Long story short, by observing that data for several years I have figured out that once the surface water temperature gets around 78 or highter, it is a safe bet to assume that the thermolcline is at 20 feet or higher, sometimes as shallow as 10 feet. Actually, the line that I looked at to come up with this was where the oxygen goes to 3.0 or less. I looked at the corralating water temperatuse for the thermolclin and oxygen content and it was easier to read the oxygen side. My understanding is that fish will not go where there is less than 4.0 oxygen, at least not for long periods.
So the bottom line is, fish in water shallower then 20 feet in the summer and you will be pretty close to being above the thermolcline.
Hope this helps.
Grumpy
I just realized, I forgot something I had planned to write. If you get a good topo map of the lake you are fishing, you can use it to tell whether the bottom drops off fast or slow from the shore and by that you can make a good guess about where the 20 foot depth would be.
Grumpy
Thanks for all your help/tips/advice.
I have been using maps and had success with them for sure. Mainly my interest was sparked when good ol aceoky said something about fishing the thermocline on a Laurel Lake thread.
Heck, I also use a small rope and weight to estimate depth on the creeks I fish...
Thanks again, best board in the country IMHO
[QUOTE=BurleyDog;372855]Hey Folks,
I have a small john boat and no money for depth finder or anything of that sort. I am wondering if any of you savy folks or old timers could help me out.
Any tips on fishing without fish and depth finders?
Is there any way to tell where the thermocline is without one?
Thanks,
BurleyDog[/QUOTE]
Hey Burley, if you live close to Louisville or shepherdsville, I got a couple of older depth finders I`ll sell you for 20 bucks and will even install them for you. I got a X-65 that works fine. It`s a nice unit that works well.
Doug
Mark off 5 ft increments on your anchor line. Drop your anchor down any time you want to know the depth and read the rope.
You can get an "idea" of where it is (close to where it is) as Grumpy says, it's important (IMHO) to realize it starts out rather small and shallow around first of June and gets progressively larger (and deeper) through September on most Ky lakes. Then as surface temps cool rapidly you get the fall turnover and no more thermocline to be concerned with.