"Dead Zone"

"Dead Zone"

I usually put out a few jugs and then go chase the crappie, week before last June 24th I set out 10 late that eveining with the last one going in around 9:pm. Setting in my usual spots in about 25 fow with plans to pull'em the next morning at 7 or 8:am which would give them a good 10 to 11 hour soak. Well after a couple of delalys I was finally able to run them around noon, we had fish on 10 of 10 with 2 having doubles and 1 with a triple (I only use 3 hooks on my jugs) for a total of 14 both blue and channel cats. Out of the 14 caught I cleaned 12 two of the fish came up dead on the line; one being my biggest of the year about 26 to 28 incher probably would of weighed 15 to 18 pounds, and the other one a nice 2 1/2 pound range. At the time I just chalked it up to the late start and the fish being on the line longer than I wanted them to be, after all it is Summer and running the lines every 10 to 12 hours after an all night soak should be sufficenet right?

Well not hardly, the following week I did another set which was this past Friday July 1st same spots with another 10 jugs out except this time being mindful of the previous expericence I was going to make it a point to run the jugs at least every 4 hours. So off I go, setting them out around 4:30 with a scheduled run no later than 9:pm but this time I'm using a new bait that I made myself so around 7:pm I'm thinking "You know I really should go and check those jugs; 'cause if that baits not working I need time to find something else". Well GOOD news, the bait works really well; BAD news, I'm pulling dead fish mostly all small borderline keepers, now I'm puzzeled! I mean afte all some of these have only been soaking for 2 hours so as the famous saying goes "What's The Deal!". Well I wen't ahead a pulled all of the jugs which all together had about 7 dead fish and I released 3 or 4 fish aliv​e.

I then analyized the situation, mainly I went and run sonar over the area which I had not done previously and to my best guess the thermocline had set in on my fishing spot at about 20 feet, which my hooks were basically setting at 15, 20 and 24 feet. So I'm thinking that the fish seeing the food as a quick an easy meal were still entering the "Dead Zone" with the plan to grab the bait and swim back to safey (above the thermocline) but obviously were unable to and sufficated on the line.

I hated that I killed some fish at least it did turn out to be a learning experience; and though I have set jugs out when the temps were hotter with no issues now I know to pay more attention to where the thermocline is and to relocate accordingly in the future.

Yes, you are correct the thermocline has set in and that was what happened. The fish went below the thermocline, hit the baits and died. I would suggest setting the jugs at 15 ft along the channel and you should be golden.

Right now on Eufaula the thermocline is at 10' on the shallow ends of the lake such as both the south and north ends. It's at 18'-20' on the deeper portion of the lake. Keep thin in mind when setting your baits. The thermocline is very distinguished with the sensitivity turned up just a bit on 2d sonar, and very distinguished with HDS units as is.......Ranger