Thermocline and suspended fish

[stratosjoe]

A lake I like to fish thermo sets up mostly at 8' I see tons of fish. Been catching them in 7 or 8 on points . What would work out off points. Tried cranks zip.

[Jtreed99]

Suspending jerkbait, bama rig, underspin, single swimbait, grub, wacky rig, lightweight ned, soft jerkbait, spinnerbait, call ‘em up with a spook, rip a flutter spoon through them, don’t overthink it, same stuff you use on them when they early/late season suspend in cold weather works in the heat, plus some extra options and you might not have to fish them as painfully slow as you do in the cold water.

[bassboat1]

That's a shallow thermocline - murky water? For comparison, a lake I fished a few days ago had the thermocline at 35'-40' w/ 8'-10' visibility.

[DrewFlu33]

I don't deal with thermoclines all that often on the lakes I fish as they're mostly weedy and the season is short--any thermocline that does set up is very often (not always) deeper than I would be bass fishing on a given lake. That said, anytime I'm dealing with fish (or maybe more commonly bait) suspended at a certain depth, my first move is to find structure that tops out at or around that depth. It sounds like that's what you're doing with the points in 7-8 feet. It's not that all or even most of the fish are on the structure, but the ones that are tend to be the most aggressive. Out off the edge I think they tend to be in a more neutral or negative mood as is often the case with suspended fish. To get them to bite, I think you basically need a reaction strike or something super subtle that they can't resist. Jtreed99 gave a lot of good suggestions there.

What cranks were you throwing off the edge? Did they dive deeper than 8 feet? I'm certainly not the best cranker or the best at catching them when they're suspended, but one thing I've found to hold true time and time again is that suspended fish like to feed up. Honestly I think I learned this ice fishing then found to apply to open water as well, though I digress. That's got to be even more true when any movement downward would have them swimming into a "dead zone."

Something like a DT-6 or Bandit 200 would be a good thing to try if you want to crank them. Something that dives deeper might also work, though the dive curve of the bait matters a lot then. Baits that dig down quick are going to go right through and below the strike zone immediately after they clear the edge of the structure. You'd want to try one that doesn't dig down as hard. If it were me, the first thing I would be throwing is a jerkbait that dives to around 6 feet. Even though the water is probably dirty to have a thermocline set up that shallow, don't believe the "common knowledge" that jerkbaits require clearer water. They absolutely work in dirtier water. I've caught lots of smallmouth in 6" or less visibility on the Mississippi to back that up, and smallmouth rely on sight more than largemouth. Opaque colors seem to help.

[stratosjoe]

Thanks to all of you will try your suggestions