Thermocline

[Sickle Hook]

Attachment 351409 You can see some faint lines on the SI here...it was on auto that's why it's at 300 feet.

Thanks TK. Very interesting. Nice finder you got there.
SK

[jay the baptist]

I would think that is probably true about rivers because we catch catfish from 30 -50 ft deep in the summer.
But, what about sloughs that have depths of 12-20 ft?

[yobuck]

So when somebody says the fishing will pick up when the lake rolls over with reference to thermocline, what is meant by that? Anybody interested in a pair of Cannon Mag 10s, (cheap). Lol

[Moveon]

Another factor to ponder is that moving water will not have a thermocline, regardless of the depths. I fish a large reservoir and have never marked a thermoclone. Not to say that one doesn't exist, but I've read a lot about it and reservoirs where water is constantly moving will not thermocline. Same for rivers. I could be wrong, but this is what I've read over the years.

Generally if there is a lot of water flowing though the reservoir and it's a small reservoir you are right. There are many kinds of reservoirs. Some are deeper than others. There are highland reservoirs and lowland reservoirs and some inbetween.

I fish a small 8000 to 10000 acre reservoir called Patoka Lake. It will form a thermocline in the hot summer months. It's an earthen Dam across the Patoka River which is a small river. Not a lot of current flows though the dam most of the summer. The flow rate though the dam depends on the water level in the reservoir and the water levels down river and the amount of rainfall.

[CrappiePappy]

So when somebody says the fishing will pick up when the lake rolls over with reference to thermocline, what is meant by that? Anybody interested in a pair of Cannon Mag 10s, (cheap). Lol

If you are referring to "turn over" .... that's when the warm water above the thermocline gets a layer of colder water on top of it, causing the layer of colder (heavier) water to drop down thru the layer of warmer water .... essentially mixing the two. The faster and deeper the cold water layer forms, the deeper the turn over mixing will occur .... and that can stir up the bottom silt/muck, causing the lake water to turn brown to almost black (& let off a sulphur odor).