Cold Front Durring Spawn

[blackmax135]

The air temps around here have been 60's to 80's the past month.  I don't know what the water temp is, I didn't have anything on my boat last week when I went fishing but the fish have been spawning.  Im going this weekend and there's a cold front coming in dropping the temps to the 30's the days im fishing. How does a cold front effect spawning fish.  Will that low of a temp effect them enough they will start being finicky.

[Paul Roberts]

It may knock some spawners off their beds. In my exp males that have received eggs are more invested and I've seen them remain on their beds through severe temp drops.

 

Bass that do abandon -and this would include all the females- should pull back to nearby cover spots, channels, or bottom depressions. They shouldn't change depth all that much. Nice thing is, those drop-back fish may end up consolidated on key cover pieces or depressions. You may have to do some fishing to find them, but don't get dejected; they should bite just fine. Cold drops in early spring seems to bother bass less than in late fall as they've acclimatized by then, making short term acclimation a bit easier. I'd worry a bit more about how you acclimate, than the fish.

 

You will want to slow your approach then, with jigs, T-rigged creatures, and yo-yo-d lipless being top baits for me. A finesse grub is a good milk-run alternate, if clarity is adequate.

 

Do let us know what you find.

[Catt]

FYI; If ya got bass on the beds there will still be pre-spawn bass, they aint all doing the same thing at the same time.

I would search along the first & second break lines away from the nesting areas.

[blackmax135]

FYI; If ya got bass on the beds there will still be pre-spawn bass, they aint all doing the same thing at the same time.

I would search along the first & second break lines away from the nesting areas.

I keep hearing the word break line and I want to make sure I got this right.  A break line is a spot in the contour lines that has changed like a point or a piece of structure?  Well I knew they didn't all spawn at one time, so will those prespawners be pulling back also?

[Paul Roberts]

FYI; If ya got bass on the beds there will still be pre-spawn bass, they aint all doing the same thing at the same time.

I would search along the first & second break lines away from the nesting areas.

That's a really good point.

[Catt]

Few females drop all of there eggs at once!

Instead, they expel a portion and then move off to a near by breakline, brush or grass edge.

The male will stay locked on the nest unless there are no eggs.

[papajoe222]

A breakline isn't a point or piece of structure (actually a point is structure). A breakline is an abrupt change in depth. Contour lines can give these away if you see a coiuple of them close together on a map. On natural lakes a breakline can be as shallow as 3-5 ft. on deep lakes and impoundments it can be a 20ft.drop or more. It, in fact, is the first half of the definition of structure.

Pre-spawn bass will pull back to these breaklines during cold front conditions and post spawn fish will also stop somewhere along that break to rest.  If the fish are keyed in on spawning, or actually spawning they will likely stay in the area and just shut down.  Their focus is on spawning and cold front or not, they'll be tight lipped.

[WRB]

It takes time at cold air temps to affect the water temps at the depth the bass are bedding. If the cold front has a lot of wind, then it may impact the bedding bass.

I agree with Catt, target the deeper water adjacent to the bedding areas, pre and post spawn females tend to locate there. The smaller males usually stay near the beds until the fry leave.

A break in the case is a quick depth change and that depends on the terrain of the lake bottom. Easy way; find the beds and cast out into deeper water and work back up hill.

Tom

[blackmax135]

A breakline isn't a point or piece of structure (actually a point is structure). A breakline is an abrupt change in depth. Contour lines can give these away if you see a coiuple of them close together on a map. On natural lakes a breakline can be as shallow as 3-5 ft. on deep lakes and impoundments it can be a 20ft.drop or more. It, in fact, is the first half of the definition of structure.

Pre-spawn bass will pull back to these breaklines during cold front conditions and post spawn fish will also stop somewhere along that break to rest.  If the fish are keyed in on spawning, or actually spawning they will likely stay in the area and just shut down.  Their focus is on spawning and cold front or not, they'll be tight lipped.

I'm glad I asked what a break line was I would have been fishing points all day.  I knew points are structure but I was not sure if people just referred to it as a break line. My vocabulary it poor lol

[Catt]

A breakline does not have to be a depth change!

Grass, timber, brush, rocks ect. have edges (breaklines); these hold heat.

[Catt]

Y'all are looking for the obvious "breaklines" when y'all need to be looking for the unobvious!