How would you fish a 50 degree temp swing?

[txchaser]

10 acre lake, northern and probably hybrid fl/no bass, 15ft deep, lots of shallows

dock, standing wood

temps have been 70-90 for the last week or so, beginning to dip down into high 60's

 

Thursday 76-95 15mph steady

Friday 50-84 3/4" rain early AM, 15mph steady

Saturday 43-69 partly cloudy, 12mph AM, down to 8mph afternoon <-fishing this

 

No idea whether they will be lit up from it cooling off, or shut down by it.

 

At the moment I'm inclined to work the dock and the shallow water with both finesse and oversized offerings (big spook, 8" extra-fat worm, 68, etc) and see what shows up. Part of what I'm sorting out too is that the lake needs some serious culling, but the lake record is over 9, so perhaps I can motivate something bigger to get off its ass and come eat.

 

Trying to break the chatterbait/senko/buzzbait/swimmer/frog combo that serves me well, but leaves me wondering what I missed. 

 

recent report as maybe it's useful

Last weekend at few small ponds/lakes of similar size the active fish were very shallow or within sight of very shallow, and keyed on hollowbody frogs when there were weed mats to hide under, and swimming stuff within a few feet of the bank where there were no in the weeds. Some fish out deep, but they were spotty and would only bite offerings that took no energy to eat. Two fish coughed up shad when caught, one about 2", one about 4". Funny thing though, couldn't buy a bite on a white fluke. 

[the reel ess]

Before it. LOL. That's really a temp swing of about 30 degrees. I would concern myself with the water temp and not the air. But it's still warm here and we rarely ahve a swing that dramatic.

[bagofdonuts]

Florida strain bass are famous for shutting down with falling water temp. But you fish when you can. I would start out looking shallow as cold water sinks.

[OkobojiEagle]

Put on a jacket.

 

oe

[TnRiver46]

Dont over think it, go out and see what works. The water temp will not drop nearly as fast as air temp 

[papajoe222]

Falling air temps. affect small bodies of water a lot quicker than 500+ acre lakes. Chances are good that the water temp. dropped a few degrees, especially with the wind you mentioned.  Keeping in mind that colder water sinks, I'd concentrate on the upper water column if the wind isn't churning up the surface.  That upper 8ft. should still be warm enough by you to fish for active fish. Notice I said upper water column and not shallow. Yes, the shallows fall into that, and there is plenty of shallow water for you to explore.  Use your square bills and spinnerbaits to cover water looking for active fish.  If you can find shallow water with fairly quick access to deeper water, those areas will likely hold fish. If not active, I'd cover those areas with either a hard, or soft jerk bait and a jig. You could even use a swim jig in place of the spinnerbait and switch to a jigging retrieve if they don't respond to the faster, swimming retrieve.

[Bankbeater]

Around here in the fall a 25-30 degree shift in air temps will shut the bite down.  I have better luck when the day’s high and low is close together. 

[WRB]

Bass can't withstand more then a 10 degree water drop in a few hours so the bass go deeper where the water temps are stable. Air temps mean nothing to bass that live in water, it affects the anglers more.

Tom

[txchaser]

Thanks yall. To add insult to injury, it's going to be about 1.5 inches (instead of 3/4) of 55 degree rain. It's going to be interesting for sure. 

 

[Deleted account]

It's a 10 acre pond, so one can figure out what's going on (or not going on) on the fly, and since it is small, it will be affected by changes in temps quicker and more drastically than larger more stable bodies of water. I would start looking for them hunkered down a bit in the same places where they were, and work deeper. Of course the rain can add variables like feeder stream current, and water color boundaries. 

[jr231]

Yea I agree, 10 acres you can work the whole thing.... 

 

I find bigger bass up shallow when it rains HEAVY and the water rises/ darkens. 

 

 

[FishTank]

I will be dealing with a similar temp shift this weekend.....  

 

In years passed, we would fish deep and slow.  Generally big rolling crankbaits, jerkbaits with a long pause and jigs were the ticket.  Sometimes though, with big temp swings, fish seem avoid the bank at all costs. 

[txchaser]

Trip went pretty well, far better than expected. Boated around 30.  Couldn't get anything of size, but mostly deprioritized throwing big stuff because I had two wierd breakoffs (need to check the rod guides) on 19lb armillo so I knew I needed to stop before I lost something that didn't float. I did keep fishing spots until the smaller guys had been fished out, hoping that the lazy fat ones could get to it. Not so much... biggest was a little over two. 

On 10/10/2019 at 3:51 PM, papajoe222 said:

If you can find shallow water with fairly quick access to deeper water,

--This worked

 

Ended up with 2.5 inches of cold rain. Water was 10 ft vis, and bluebird skies to boot. And 50% of the time no wind.

 

There was a bluegill feeder, and when it went off the bluegill took a full minute to lazily wander over and start eating. Omen for a really slow day. 

 

They were not "on" in the sense that they wanted really specific things, and wouldn't touch anything else including a lipless, and a ned rig. I actually expected ned to carry the day, but I think the weedy bottom made it too hard for them to find it. 

 

1) swim senko in GP/watermelon or watermelon/red flake no dyed tail, no bite. 5 and 5.5 both worked fine. Used an owner light CPS hook to get the fall to be horizontal for a bit, vs head down with a heavier hook. They didn't want it swimming, lift and drop was the winner. Why I tried this: they are magic? Seems to always work.

 

2) black/red frog fished very shallow. I had to try it, and it was impressive. Tied with #3 for numbers. Black/blue sprinker frog (white got no hits) worked about the same, but I could cover the open water faster. My hunch here is that there's enough cue of down dragonfly to trigger a bite, as they were feeding on them a little. Why I tried this: worked last weekend, and even though the weather was different it wouldn't take too long to see if they were interested or not. The one thing I'd do differently is to also try a gill color to see if it got the same results.

 

3) Willow underspin with keitech. Keitech color didn't seem to matter much but the dyed tail mattered a lot. Ticked just above the weeds on the bottom, usually in around 6-8 FOW. Worked better than lift and drop. Have hauled around underspins and never actually fished them. Why I tried this: The logic here was small willow blade and the smaller keitechs since they should be keyed in on fall feeding, and it was weedless. Trying to get a baitfish presentation that wasn't overwhelming given the clear water. 

 

4) few on a bluegill jackhammer chatterbait at dark Why I tried this: I could throw it while trolling back in, and I've seen the bass turn on bluegills like mad at dusk so why not. Dark/dusk meant it might not be "too much" since visibility was reduced

 

5) Few here and there on other stuff like a Yellow Magic popper, but it appeared that they were reaction strikes on landing or sneaking up on them around a tree/bush/whatever, so I stopped throwing the misc stuff.

 

Gp/chart (gill-ish) worked better than white or white/chart.

 

I wonder if the clear water heats up deeper, faster. Surface water temps were in the low to mid 70's by afternoon.

 

This ran a little long, but maybe useful to someone else.

[Sam]

Go deep and dead stick a finesse worm, color of your choice.

 

Or, do as I would do. Stay home and rest and watch TV.

[IgotWood]

On 10/10/2019 at 11:25 PM, txchaser said:

Thanks yall. To add insult to injury, it's going to be about 1.5 inches (instead of 3/4) of 55 degree rain. It's going to be interesting for sure. 

 

I like this condition on my lake. Dropping temps, a big cold rain, and dirty water. Usually I find the fish on the same structure and depth they normally hold at, but have to fish slow and methodical. Even if the water is still warm enough for normal fish behavior, if it has dropped 10 degrees in a day or two, the fish be slow, and they will glued to structure if the water is dirty. I like pitching jigs in this scenario. Fish slow. And make at least a few presentations at each of your targets. I’m still waiting for the first big cold rain this fall. My lake fishes very well like this. 

[Bassattackr]

Downsize and slow down.

[TnRiver46]

I forgot to add: dont believe the forecast 

[txchaser]

New lake, new weather, new question, but figured I'd just keep this thread instead of jamming the forums up with a new one. 

 

Over the last three or so weeks the water has started to cool off a little, which down here means 70-74 at the surface.

Last 10ish acre lake I fished had 18" of visibility, no weeds. 

Some fish feeding near the shore sporadically through the day, seemed like smaller fish. All on the upper (nearest the dam) 2/3 of the lake. Minnows and small bluegills observed in the shallow near the shore. 

Shoreline configured with 2-3 horizontal feet (at most) of very shallow then a steep dropoff. 

 

Deepest 1/3 of the lake had either suspended organic matter or some sort of thermocline - about 6' off the bottom there was a lot of noise on the sonar, and the top of it was almost like a straight line.

 

Nothing happening at all in the inlet/creek mouth 1/3 of the lake. No bites, no action, no nothing. 

Multiple giant (or at least seemed that way for the size of the lake) shad balls at 8-10 feet deep, usually in 15-18 FOW. Middle 1/3 of the lake. Marked a few arches around and under the balls, but nothing of size. Caught a few of them.

 

Baits of the day were squarebills (not silent) and underspins with keitech.  Probably another 5 fish on misc stuff like a fluke or a senko. 

Pitching to cover was returning no bites at all. Nowhere to really fish a frog, spook (bone) and small popper (white) got no hits. 

 

Thinking back over the last few weeks, I've noticed the size of the fish are much smaller, and the bites much softer. Not the same lakes, but it's been a pretty consistent theme, including catching the smallest fish of the year this weekend. 

 

I cannot for the life of me find the medium or big fish with electronics or my lures. As an example, this weekend I expected they'd be

-up the creek mouth (maybe too early, nope)

-in the creek channel (nope),

-tight on cover because we had some weather, water vis dropped (nope)

-points because they weren't anywhere else

-shallow with the little guys that were rushing minnows (nope, or at least they refused to bite anything I threw at them)

 

None of these three lakes were that big, and I certainly could have been more aggressive about staying on the electronics... but of probably 75 fish there were maybe 5 over 3lbs. I feel like I fished the whole lake, although the deepest 1/3 end didn't get much attention.

 

Where should I be looking for bigger fish given the state of the transition?

 

[TnRiver46]

@txchaser, all i can say is it will get easier when that water temp gets well below 70. 70 has been my least successful temp as long as i can recall. Id rather fish 47 degree water or 88 degree water every single time