Dropping water level and cold front

[HeyCoach]

The home lake is currently in the process of its annual 5 foot drop in water levels to winter pool.

 

In addition to this, a cold front has moved in. Early this week we had highs in the upper 80s, tomorrow the high will be in the low 70s with a low in the low 50s. 

 

Talk about a double whammy. What would you do in this situation?

[TnRiver46]

Small finesse worm on light line near docks and brush

[Mobasser]

16 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Small finesse worm on light line near docks and brush

Agree. Downsize to smaller baits, and fish shallow first, working your way deeper

[NHBull]

If dam controlled, I would start there  usually deeper and this negative could be a positive 

[davkoz]

What do I do on a small lake that maximum depth Is 15 feet and its basically shallow everywhere, plus the cold fronts and winter coming up?

[Sam]

I would stay home and watch football!!!!

 

OK, if I was going fishing I would have the understanding that the fishing will be tough and I would scale down my plastics and line size to 8 pound test on a spinning setup and  1) hit all wood, 2) work my way out from the bank, 3) throw small Shad Raps, and 4) try topwater all day long.

 

Small Senkos and then finesse worms with 1/16 ounce weights rigged wacky may work. You want the bait to fall slow as the cooler the water the more lethargic are the bass. You can downsize to no weight on your finesse presentations or go with a smaller tungsten weight.

 

Shad Raps can work great in these conditions. Just throw them on a spinning rig with no more than 8-pound test.

 

And don't forget to rig and throw on a spinnerbait setup crappie baits on 6 pound test. Sometimes crappie baits can work great in tough conditions. Plus you can also throw a shaky head or a Ned Rig or a drop shot. The world is open to your presentations.

 

Speaking of presentations, try "dead sticking" with a finesse or trick worm, leaving the plastic bait sit on the bottom for five minutes at a time. Just let it sit there and keep a finger on the line to feel for any strikes.

 

If all else fails, make plans to attend a NASCAR race in Talladega.

 

Good luck and give some thought as to what you have confidence. Just experiment until you find the pattern.

[scaleface]

11 hours ago, davkoz said:

What do I do on a small lake that maximum depth Is 15 feet and its basically shallow everywhere, plus the cold fronts and winter coming up?

  Pick  several lures that will effectively fish the cover and terrain that your lake has to offer and use them all .  Dont let the cooler temps intimidate you . Bass are likely to be awaiting prey to ambush so covering water with a spinnerbait and crankbait are good choices . Earlier this week first day of a cold front I tried crankbait , plastic craw , buzzbait and spinnerbait . I caught 1 on a buzzbait and 41 on a spinnerbait .

[davkoz]

The problem is this lake is heavily pressured so finesse is key here, but I have never experienced fishing this late in the year and theres lots of rain. Cold plus pressured fish confuses me on the water

[SWVABass]

I used to buy into heavy pressure +dropping water+ cold temps = dropshot/neko rig type tactics. Until I fished with a better fisherman. As @scaleface said have multiple rigs ready to go. Same thing happened here last month, I whacked them in a squarebill up super shallow. Where they wouldn’t touch any soft plastic. Keep an open mind and try something new, you might find an awesome over looked fall pattern on your lake.

[WRB]

When the cold front passes leaving high pressure with wind and bright sunlight, then it may get harder to catch bass. Dropping water levels bass usually do deeper, rising water level they usually go shallower. The bass already deep stay put.

Tom

[Catt]

[SWVABass]

@Catt is that a Carolina rig? Never seen a worm hooked up like that

[Catt]

29 minutes ago, Swbass15 said:

@Catt is that a Carolina rig? Never seen a worm hooked up like that

 

?

[WRB]

You never seen a wacky rig trick worm?

Tom

[SWVABass]

@WRB yea seen it wacky rigged but never on a Carolina rig. I’ve had hell fishing a Carolina rig on my lake here, the amount of rock on the lake makes it impossible to keep from snagging and loosing set ups all day long.

 

About as close to fishing a Carolina rig I come to is pegging a bullet weight 12-14” above my plastic. I guess it’s closer to a split shot rig, and I usually fish a wacky worm on weightless or on a jig head. Learn something new everyday right?

[Catt]

2 hours ago, Swbass15 said:

@WRB yea seen it wacky rigged but never on a Carolina rig. I’ve had hell fishing a Carolina rig on my lake here, the amount of rock on the lake makes it impossible to keep from snagging and loosing set ups all day long.

 

About as close to fishing a Carolina rig I come to is pegging a bullet weight 12-14” above my plastic. I guess it’s closer to a split shot rig, and I usually fish a wacky worm on weightless or on a jig head. Learn something new everyday right?

 

The swivel does two things 

 

Stops line twist & adds weight 

 

The setup does imitate a Carolina Rig in that the swivel hits bottom first followed shortly by the worm. I don't fish it like a Carolina Rig but like a Wacky Rig.

 

As for as the way the worm is hooked, that's the way we were taught to hook a Wacky worm. It actually caused line twist & I've modified that since then.

[SWVABass]

@Catt and @WRB thanks for diving into to this a little more. Very interesting way of rigging and I’ll give it a try some time. Both of you are a wealth of knowledge. Right now they are still choking the cranks but when it slows down I’ll give this a try!

[Bluebasser86]

Agree with WRB, dropping water is going to pull the fish out deeper, unless they're already deep. Fish mainlake drops and points where bass can go from shallow to deep quickly would be your best bet. Places like channel swing banks are usually good options. 

[frogflogger]

We get 25' to 75' draw downs on our lakes it dislocates crawfish and makes them move.

[HeyCoach]

11 hours ago, frogflogger said:

We get 25' to 75' draw downs on our lakes it dislocates crawfish and makes them move.

Ours is only a 5 foot drop, but a good portion around the banks are very shallow.

 

At 1 foot below summer pool, there was roughly 6 feet of exposed lake bottom next to my pier. I was lucky to not get the bass boat stuck when I got busy and couldn’t trailer it for a few days. 

[HeyCoach]

And now lake levels are more than 3 feet lower than it was during summer. 

 

Lots of exposed shallow flats, points, and sand bars.

 

I’m hoping I can figure out where to put in as I can’t cast far enough from the pier to get to the deeper areas. 

[SWVABass]

If you can walk those points out to the end. That should put you close to deeper water. I think Rick clun said points point out the fish..

[geo g]

This is usually a good thing in south Florida fisherman.  This is when 100 to 200 fish days begin.  Dropping water concentrates the fish by dropping water levels on the massive flats.  They move out to the canals and deeper spots, or risk getting stranded and becoming gator bait.  Then the dropping water temps makes the fish more active, as long as the drop in temp is not too quick.  If its a sudden drop in WT the Florida strain will get lock jaw for a while, until they adjust, and get hungry again.

[HeyCoach]

I’ve always been involved with sports (football, wrestling, track) so I’m not used to fishing in cold weather.

 

I have two shallow jerkbait, a few crankbaits ranging from two 15ft, two 10-12ft, and a few 3-5ft SK KVD. I also have a few spinnerbaits and a YoZuri knuckleball for kicks. 

 

What techniques/lures are cooling water lures?

[TnRiver46]

For winter spotted bass try those jerkbaits, especially if they suspend. That and a shakey head with a finesse worm oughta ccatch them