Use the thermocline to your advantage

Fishermen who know how to use a depth finder can tune their unit to find the ‘thermocline’ around which most stripers will be holding and feeding.

Guide Preston Hardin said that typically about the middle of the month, a thermocline will set up in the upper part of the lake, and the fish will literally just follow that thermocline as they migrate down the lake. He said that helps keep the preferred depth of the fish more definable, and thus he’s better able to predict the location of the fish.

“If you know what you’re looking for on the graph, essentially an area marked that’s darker or more dense where the water temperature changes quickly, you can see the thermocline as it sets up,” he said. “It will help keep the fish at consistent depths and in an active bite zone during the transition part of the month. With that knowledge, it helps me to know about what depth I’m going to find the fish from day to day. And if someone doesn’t go every day, then can quickly check for thermocline and have a good reference point to begin their search.”

Hardin said the thermocline will begin to form in the creeks in the upper portion of the lake and the fish will be found just above it. They make the migration move down lake over a period of several weeks and they’ll be in that certain depth zone and we can better keep up with them.”

About Terry Madewell 818 Articles
Award-winning writer and photographer Terry Madewell of Ridgeway, S.C., has been an outdoors writer for more than 30 years. He has a degree in wildlife and fisheries management and has a long career as a professional wildlife biologist/natural resources manager.

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