Thermocline reading

[OutTrolling (ot)]

It was suggested I move my question to the trout talk section so here goes:

Was reading an article about water temps and fish location in which it mentioned that the thermocline can be detected on a fish finder if the gain is turned up. I use an older Humminbird but never thought of trying to do that - didn't know you could. What do you look for on the screen? Different shading? Maybe mine has shown it and I didn't know how to interpret what I was seeing. Or do only specific models have that function built into them? Sounds like a good thing to know. Maybe I'm not the only one who is in the dark on this since I've never heard any comments about it. I always thought a thermometer had to be lowered and checked. If your finder does this, what model do you use and what do you see? Can someone help us out. Thanks.
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[trollin4trout]

My last Lowrance X65 occassionally would show it. I at first thought it was just noise from the motor or something. An irregular bunch of spots, but with an obvious average depth- everywhere in the lake. I kept trying to tune it out- 'till I realized that it was probably a thermocline indication.
I saw it a few times in the 10-15 ft. range. My new Lowrance X17 seems to show it more often.

I'm have never seen any fish yet hanging around that line so the information hasn't really been much use. I've tried fishing that depth in spite of not seeing any fish there- nada. In lakes where fish are seen on the sonar- I fish whatever depth they are at. If I don't see any- I start at the top and go down in 10ft increments with the downrigger until I catch fish.

That's all I know!

[hookjawfreak]

I have a med resolution graph (320 pixel). The only time I clearly see the thermocline on the graph is in the summer. Having the sensitivity set correctly is important, but once you find it it is very helpful. In central Oregon lakes, I was consistantly finding it at 30-40 ft last summer. That is also where my graph showed many nice arcs of big fish hanging out as well as a lot of bait schools. It made fishing a no brainer. Many big trout landed last summer.:twocents:

[FishnMike]

you need high power and resolution to pick it up and even then, in some lakes it still doesn't show up. You can often guess by looking at where you see all the activity during the summer months, bait, fish and blotches will tend to tell you about where the thermocline is.

FishnMike