Ideal temperature range for florida LMB?

[pondbassin101]

I have a few questions. To start out, there are a few retention ponds I fish and according to a thermometer the water is around 70 degrees. What is the ideal feeding temperature range for florida strain LMB, meaning when they are the most active and aggressive? I know florida bass are more sensitive to temperature changes, so I'm trying to figure things out. Also, how cold is too cold down here? I know people fish for LMB in 30 degree water up north but what about here? Thanks for any help

[Scott F]

9 minutes ago, pondbassin101 said:

.......I know people fish for LMB in 30 degree water up north but what about here? Thanks for any help

Nobody fishes for bass anywhere where the water is 30 degrees.  At 32 degrees, water becomes ice. 

Water under the ice, is above 32. 

[pondbassin101]

1 minute ago, Scott F said:

Nobody fishes for bass anywhere where the water is 30 degrees.  At 32 degrees, water becomes ice. 

Water under the ice, is above 32. 

I know that, I meant to write 30 degree range

[BassObsessed]

If water temps in Orlando get in the lower mid 30's there's going to be major panic in the state lol.

[davecon]

I have had some of my best days when the water was cold. In 2010 when it was terribly cold my buddy and I fished the same small lake (several thousand acres) from February thru May almost every Saturday and every Sunday. Water temp was in the 50's, air temp was as low as the 20's. That year the local temps in February never got above 50. That is very unusual for us.

 

During that 4 month time span we got at least one bass of 7 pounds or more every trip. It was fantastic. We looked like the Michelin Man, but boy was the fishing great. As I recall, we had 4 over ten with the largest 13.5. 

 

So - if you know where to find them, the cold will NOT shut them down (it may shut you down, but not the fish).

 

Biggest impetus to Florida fishing is the cold fronts that come thru. Unless they are locked on the beds, they pretty much quit biting and it gets real tough for about three days.

[Deleted account]

15 hours ago, pondbassin101 said:

Ideal temperature range for florida LMB

400º F, (20 minutes on broil)

butter, garlic, and your favorite herb, cover with some sliced onion and bell pepper to keep fillets from drying out.

 

Oh wait, you meant....

[pondbassin101]

21 hours ago, davecon said:

 

Biggest impetus to Florida fishing is the cold fronts that come thru. Unless they are locked on the beds, they pretty much quit biting and it gets real tough for about three days.

 

I didn't fish during the big cold front we had like 2 weeks ago, but you're saying that if I had gone fishing I would have been completely skunked?

 

The thing with florida weather during the "winter" is inconsistency. It could be 80° one day and 60° the next. Unless you count 2010, I can't really remember when we've had consistent cold weather. How do you work with weather like this and how it raises/kills the drive?

[davecon]

Lived in Florida my entire life. Caught my first bass 60 years ago (man I'm getting old) and started getting serious about it 49 years ago. Florida weather is consistently inconsistent. Real simple, if you don't like the weather, wait three days cause it usually changes.

 

Air temperature is not the key, it's water temperature. People say the fish are messed up by this. Not so. The fish are fine, it's us fishermen that are messed up !

 

Through trial and error and a LOT of time on the water you "might" be able to find them. Once you do, hammer them, cause they will move a little bit over a few weeks time. 

 

It's not that I'm a real good fisherman, I just catch quite a few because I limit my fishing to only a hanfull of waters that I know really well and have been doing it a long time. I also shy away from the well known locations and stick to small, unheralded waters. Not saying that a lot of really big fish/bags don't come out of the well known lakes/rivers, it's just that I'm a grumpy old man and don't want anyone near me. 

 

My best bass fishing is when it has been really cold (that's Florida cold, by the way), the water temp drops for a week or so, then the water temp bumps up a few degrees. That combined with a full or new moon is when the big girls go shallow. In early spring ,late  March, April, the females come up en-mass but they are usually the smaller ones.

 

One other thing worth mentioning - all bodies of water do not turn on at the same time and it is not always that those in the central part of the state turn on earlier than those in the northern part of the state. This I have never been able to figure - I just go with it. It usually holds true year to year. Go figure.

 

[WRB]

The ideal temperature is 75 degrees, the temp range is about 45 to 85 degrees for Florida strain LMD. Colder then a core water temperature of 45 degrees FLMB die off, higher then 85 degrees the DO levels fall below 3ml/G, too low for bass unless green aquatic plant growth can produce higher levels of DO.

Todays bass anglers tend to judge water temps by surface water, fortunately bass don't live on the surface.

TOm

 

[Catt]

A bass's metabolism is finally tuned to its circulatory system temperature which is the same as the surrounding water temperature. In cold water their metabolism slows down, their brain slows down, so the bass slows down. In cold water a bass's instincts are less finely tuned, it has less appetite and it mostly stays suspended at or near the bottom.

 

None of these means the bass will not strike moving lures like spinnerbaits or crankbaits. It does mean they will not chase it far, ya gonna have to hit on the head.

 

Y'all ever head the term "strike zone"?

 

Before a bass has completely digested what is in its stomach it will start hunting food regardless of water temperatures.

 

Stability is more important than temperatures; as in stable weather!

 

I don't care what the ambient temperature or water temperature is as long as the weather has been stable for 3 or 4 days. Bass DO NOT swim all over the lake seeking warm water.

 

[Fishing_FF]

17 hours ago, pondbassin101 said:

 

I didn't fish during the big cold front we had like 2 weeks ago, but you're saying that if I had gone fishing I would have been completely skunked?

 

I went fishing during that cold front in Orlando. While it was a slower day, I still found a way to catch fish. 

 

The fish are still there, just different conditions (wind creating chop, cooler water temps, pressure changes) requiring different presentation/techniques. I use Linders FLP=Success formula. You just have to locate the area where the bass are hold up. From there like Catt mentioned, it is more about getting the lure in the strike zone.  I found that slow rolling a 1/2oz Indiana/Colorado spinner with a 3.5” paddletail trailer. When I say slow, it was just barely enough to the blades turned. I also had success with Ned rigged TRD worm slowly hopped along the bottom. Again, it was slow with long pauses like a jerkbait would be fished in the winter. Jerkbaits, hard or soft plastic with a rattle insert, can work too, presented slow as well. 

 

 

[WRB]

Florida has a temperate climate and the LMB that have evolved there are not conditioned for wide water temperature changes and most lakes are shallow subject to cooling down or warming up quickly, cold fronts affect the bass more there than other states. Severe cold frontal conditions are not good times to be bass fishing in Florida unless you don't have a choice.

The same FLMB transplanted into deep structure SoCal reserviors behave similarly except go deeper to seek warmer water during the cold water period and cold fronts.

Tom

[davecon]

I think in Florida if they can go deep they do (deep is a relative term here), burrow in to the thickest cover near them, or just sulk. 

 

On on occasion I have found them on deep ledges that I know can be good but it usually takes repetitive casts to get them to bite. Sometimes 15 or 20 casts to get the first bite. They then seem to get in to a small feeding mood but this is very tedious as it takes a lot of patience to make 20 casts to the same spot without a strike. Then to top it off, they may not be there to begin with.

 

I guess that is why they call it fishing and not catching.

[pondbassin101]

Thanks for all the input guys, it help alot.

[pondbassin101]

17 minutes ago, gotttafish said:

I would suggest that there are temperature ranges for certain lures and presentations but not bass. Bass react to certain lures going within a speed range in certain water temperatures. I suppose some anglers have caught bass on spinnerbaits and Zara Spooks in 40 degree water, but on the whole I don't believe very many.

 

Some lures have a wider range of use, many don't, but as with any lure considerations, size, action and speed matter.

So basically it all boils down to how you're working the lure and what the fish want? 

[Fishing_FF]

23 hours ago, gotttafish said:

I would suggest that there are temperature ranges for certain lures and presentations but not bass. Bass react to certain lures going within a speed range in certain water temperatures. I suppose some anglers have caught bass on spinnerbaits and Zara Spooks in 40 degree water, but on the whole I don't believe very many.

 

Some lures have a wider range of use, many don't, but as with any lure considerations, size, action and speed matter.

 

Do you have a lot of Florida strain LMB or mostly Northern strain in TN?

[Fishing_FF]

On 12/19/2017 at 5:13 PM, pondbassin101 said:

I have a few questions. To start out, there are a few retention ponds I fish and according to a thermometer the water is around 70 degrees. What is the ideal feeding temperature range for florida strain LMB, meaning when they are the most active and aggressive? I know florida bass are more sensitive to temperature changes, so I'm trying to figure things out. Also, how cold is too cold down here? I know people fish for LMB in 30 degree water up north but what about here? Thanks for any help

I’m not sure if you were watching the SFWMD website and the FWC data on the local lakes. I was because I was curious what the temperature in the lakes would fall to as we hit 31 degrees in rural Orlando, coldest in 4 years. Nothing that was being monitored, lakes and canals, fell below 50 degrees. 51 was the lowest I saw for water temp.

 

Ive always heard the lakes are 10 degrees warm then colder air. It appears they can be quite a bit warmer, 21 degrees by the data from our last cold snap.