How to Catch Catfish in August
Locate Roaming Catfish
 Editor’s Note: The late Carl Lowrance, who invented the depth finder, loved to fish for catfish. For the next couple of days, we’ll learn how to catch big catfish in August from Lowrance. His tactics are just as successful today as they ever were.
“In May, the thermocline may be down at 20 or 30 feet, whereas in July or August it may be only in 12 to 15 feet of water,” the late Carl Lowrance explained to me years ago. “But once you have established where the thermocline is, then you know at what depth to look for catfish. Catfish aren’t difficult to catch, if you can locate where they are roaming. I’ve been finding them for decades, ever since I invented the inland depth finder.” Lowrance reported that he didn’t start looking for catfish with his depth finder, until there was a well-established thermocline, which usually occurred in the late spring or summer in his area of the Midwest.
“A catfish will stay about 1- or  2- feet above or below the thermocline. It won’t remain in that hot water without cooling-down for very long. The thermocline, in any lake, is kind of a comfort zone for the catfish. So to find a thermocline, all you do is travel down the lake, watch your depth finder and notice at what depth you start seeing the most fish. Whatever depth that is will be where you will locate the thermocline and the catfish. These thermoclines are best defined in lakes where there is little if any running water. Watching your depth finder as you travel down the lake and looking for fish to appear along the thermocline is the best way to locate catfish.
What a lot of folks don’t realize is that there may be acres and acres of catfish along a thermocline in the middle of a lake. Although the water is 50-feet deep, the catfish may be suspended on the thermocline over that deep water. I have seen thick schools of catfish before that were 40-acres wide along a thermocline in the middle of a lake.”
Tomorrow: How Carl Lowrance Caught Fish Along the Thermocline |
