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| Name: |
fishing_graham
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/7/2010 10:39:29 AM
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Went out early Saturday morning to try and locate fish on my new Humminbird before the traffic got bad. I noticed what I believe was the thermocline at around 60' deep. Is this what everyone else is seeing? Also, this time of year would the stripers be holding near that are or below it? I did mark a large ball of bait at about 25' deep and had fish around it, pretty sure they were spots/white bass by there size. Got a light hit on a spot tail minnow, but not takers. Trying to see if I need to be searching below the thermocline this time of the year or what. Thanks.
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| Name: |
Mountain Man
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/7/2010 12:52:26 PM
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60' sounds awefully deep to be seeing a thermocline. If stripes are down there, they aren't finding much to eat!
Like you, I was marking bait at 25-30' this weekend and finally started marking a few small stripes at those depths. They seem to be hitting light or late. There were a couple releases using trolled spoons, but no hook ups. Changed to small swim baits and scored a double. They were 5-6 pounds, but better than nothing.
Went home early. Jet skies and fishing aren't a good mix.
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| Name: |
fishing_graham
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/7/2010 3:43:08 PM
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Are you using down riggers to troll your swim baits/spoons?
Whatever it was at 60' was showing up on the sonar consistantly whether I was in 90' of water or 65' of water.
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| Name: |
RecordBreaker
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/7/2010 10:41:23 PM
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I would look for the stripe holding from 30 to 70 feet deep
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| Name: |
Mountain Man
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/8/2010 9:19:41 AM
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Yup, I'm using down riggers. I generally set up to troll at 25-35' deep. Some other folks will probably have a different opinion, but in my experience, if the stripes are much deeper than that, they are highly stressed. At those depthes (below 35') bait becomes very scarce and dissolved oxygen can be in short supply. When they go there, larger stripes are just looking for colder water essential to their survival. In mid to late summer it isn't unusual to see long fish (40+ inches) that are very streamlined with very little of the belly you would see earlier in the year. They have simply slowed their intake down to the point that they are losing weight.
Fortunately, when the water starts to cool, they'll hit the feed bag hard and the fun really starts for us!
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| Name: |
fishing_graham
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/8/2010 1:18:15 PM
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What is your opinion on using planners to get the lures down? I was looking at getting some Sea Strikers. Also, what kind of lures do you troll with success?
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| Name: |
stripernut
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/8/2010 9:00:04 PM
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I have used Sea Strike planers (shovels) with some success in the past, and have used Mann's Stretch baits with the back hook taken off and a leader and spoon tied behind. These are fine, but you cannot accurately control where your lure will be. I know Sea Striker shovels tell you how much line to put out at a certain speed and all that, but in practice you will have a hard time when approaching humps, and you will get hung up on bottom. On top of that, Sea Striker planers (shovels) have so much drag you have to have heavy equipment to use them. The only way you can control where your lure will be with light to medium equipment is to use downriggers - believe me, I've been where you're at. Here's a winning recipe: 1) get you a couple of Cannon UniTroll Downriggers, 2) put your baits out 100 ft behind the boat, 3) put your line in the clip and lower it to 2 ft above where you're marking fish, and 4) run between 2 and 3 mph. Most of the time, during this time of year, I'm running 25-35 ft deep, depending on how deep I mark fish, and we usually catch stripes. As for lures, silver spoons or jigs with flukes work well. Good luck, and if you want to see what I'm doing, give me a call or shoot me an email. I put it out there, and I'm sure somebody will chop it off. Regardless:
Tight Lines!
Wes
URL: http://www.lakemartinstripes.com
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| Name: |
The Sundance Kid
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/9/2010 7:30:10 AM
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The thermocline will be at the 30 foot mark or right below. That is why you will see the bait at that depth because the water temp will be in the 60's. Down riggers are a lot of trouble to deal with and are expensive as well. Do yourself a favor and go
buy some lead core line and troll with that. Every color you let out at 2.5 to 3 mph will take your lure down 10 feet. That is much faster and easier to deal with.
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| Name: |
Mountain Man
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/9/2010 8:22:56 AM
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I agree with Striper Nut in that planer boards are allot more bother than they are worth unless your fishing live bait in the shallows. If you're running baits 80-100 feet back and 25-35' deep, there is no need to plane the lines away side to side.
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| Name: |
fishing_graham
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| Subject: |
Stripers/Thermocline
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Date:
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7/9/2010 3:50:36 PM
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Thanks for all of the responses. Wes, I fished with you last year with my dad and brother. I have also been emailing you back and forth regarding the Navionics map cards. Thanks for the input. I'm just trying to get on some fish in different situations and figured I need to be able to troll. I have all the info I need to decide what I want to do, thanks.
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