Catt In Serious Need Of Suggestions!

[Catt]

I have a teenager over on my thread "So Y'all Want To Learn Toledo Bend" who needs help fishing a high school tournament this weekend.

Problem: it's 26 degrees this morning with a wind chill of 12 degress, the low tonight is expected to be 18 with a wind chill of 5. The forecast for thursday-saturday is back to highs in the upper 60s to lower 70s.

Last week the bass were in extremely pre-spawn having already started the move to the mouths of creek channel coves and major points. Tournament sack of 25 lbs plus were caught on A-rigs and lipless cranks.

So whats y'all game plan?

[Nice_Bass]

Sounds like the upper Midwest springs...hint hint. 

[ww2farmer]

Since Sat. is the third day of the warming trend......or should I say, "the getting back to normal" trend..........do what you would normally do this time of year. In other words....................how the heck do I know what you should do? I have never so much as seen that body of water, let alone fish it LMAO................but if it were me, I 'd be yo-yoing a lipless crank out of the first patches of green grass next to deep water adj. to spawning areas.I guess if they didn't like that, I'd drop a jig on there heads in that same grass. If that hauls water, I might even go to the bank and look for some, and if they don't like that..................well I guess I would have a terrible finish in said tournament LOL.

[Dwight Hottle]

I'll play Catt. Sounds like they might retreat to deeper water. I would be checking points in 15-25 fow. Under water humps or islands in 15-25 fow or any other structure you can find in 15-25 fow adjacent to the said creek mouths & points.  I would slow fish a spinnerbait, a scrounger jig or a swimbait close to bottom. If that fails after a half day of searching I would continue for the rest of the tournament day same areas with a lipless crank fished close to bottom. 

[SPEEDBEAD.]

This coming from Mr. Deep Fish Aren't Effected as Much as Shallow Fish? 

 

 

They are still there, relatively speaking. May have moved off a little bit and suspended. Not sure of your water temps but I'd probably be fishing some type of flutter spoon as those temps are likely to kill some shad off IMO. They might just have the feed bag strapped on.

[Uncle Leo]

I would agree that a vast majority might still be there. I would try the same pattern but be prepared to adjust.

[tomustang]

Put a jacket on

[slonezp]

Cut a hole in the ice. Put 2 spikes on the tip of the jig. Set your tip up. Relax in the shanty with some cold pizza and 3 fingers of Jack. 

[CDMeyer]

Hahahahaha I wish I could have that problem, we have no school in the entire state of Wisconsin due to cold weather..... it is -32 and the lake I fish has over 4 feet of ice.....

[senile1]

I agree with ww2farmer.  The cold air will probably push the bass back to their deeper sanctuary, but by the third day of the warming trend they may be getting back to where they were before.  If not they will work their way up to some point on the path in between.  I would use a lipless crankbait in the areas mentioned by ww2farmer and the scrounger and slow-rolled spinnerbait mentioned by Dwight would be options I would consider as well.  As always, I would have a jig/craw on a rod to pick apart any area that is promising.  If the fish turn out to be active for the tournament, the A-rig could knock 'em dead once again.

[WRB]

The bass aren't moving, fish the winning tournament presentation and location and dress for weather conditions. I would also waste some time fishing jigs on those points, just something that can't be passed up.

Tom

[Mike L]

With a 3 day warm up, and considering they were in pre spawn before it turned cold, I'm starting shallow in any grass that hasnt completely died off.

I'd probably start with a spook on top and then a shad colored fluke with a nail weight to get it to fall horizontal and slow. If nothing, id look for the beds. The males cant be too far away.

If still nothing start working deeper looking for dying shad and start with a trap or soft swim bait, working the entire water column.

After 3 days of warming temps, and being in pre spawn just a few days prior, I'm betting the girls should be in the mood.

But then again thats just me.

Mike

[Fish'N Impossible]

Because it is several days after this massive cold front, and if you have no more time to practice with regular temps, I would do the norm. Start with what it was  taking in the huge bags and after a predetermined set of time if that wasn't working I would make the change.

So...

1) Start A-Rig on the points they moved up on. (succeed stay, fail change)

2) move further off those locations and fish deeper; Drop Shot, Shakey head, or Stroke a jig. (Succeed stay/fail move)

3) Move to the best cover around those areas, weeds thick wood/brush, and fish deep inside that cover. Flip, drop shot, shakeyhead)

 

basically if they are they stay aggressive, if they are not deep water deep cover finesse fishing.

This is just my opinion I could be wrong...never fished or seen that water so I am working strictly off of bass behavior.

[Nitrofreak]

I like Spoons after a quick chill , flutter spoons in particular worked down the entire depth of a point , I wouldn't venture too far away from the things that were working , but I would be working at getting them fired up if they are still a little hesitant to bite .