Techniques, Seasons, and Water Temperature

[ajschn06]

So i started out the year pretty slow.  When the water temp started to warm up I got a few nice fish.  Now it's 80+ and I haven't been able to get anything.  There's just so many options and so many variables it can get overwhelming...

 

For some of the more experienced guys, are there any techniques you routinely go to in certain seasons or when a water temperature hits a certain number?  Or anything you avoid in certain situations?

 

For example, Jerkbaits I've heard of as a colder water bait- ie early and late.  Is there a certain temp in the spring summer that you stop using them?  What temp does it have to drop back down to for you to pick them up again?

 

I've always heard cranks, swim jigs, spinnerbaits, etc are pretty much good year round, and those are my favorite things to throw, but I sense it's not the best option when it's boiling like this.  How hot is too hot for some of these moving baits?  What do you go to when it's really hot?

 

I know it's a pretty broad questions, and I plan to dig around this site for more info as I know it's out there, but I wanted to get some first hand opinions on the matter.

[geo g]

You could write a book on this topic.  Regardless of season, time of day, or conditions, no two days are seldom the same.  I usually start the same way, with the baits I enjoy throwing. I will start with a top water, or H/B frog fished at a good pace.  If nothing I will slow down with the same baits. Then plastics a little deeper, first at a good pace than slow again, and deeper.  If nothing, I down size and fish slow.  First in thick pads, then the closest significant drop-off.  The deeper the better.  Then a wacky rig with a slow fall and all the way to the bottom.  Snap off the bottom and let it settle again.  It’s like watching paint dry but saved many a day.  
 

I try to fish different speeds and depths until I find some fish willing to play.  Every seldom does just one technique work day after day.  The fish will tell you what they want that day, that hour.  It’s a little like gambling, you never know what the cards hold for you.

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

106 today, water temp? But Likely pretty high.

 

Today Ned=nothing, wacky worm=nada, didnt want swimbait, didn't want a crankbait.

 

Jerkbaits to the rescue, couple of nice smallies. Now for the jerkabait to work I had to switch colors several times and I had to really work the bait hard and fast. My go to perch pattern had followers as did shad pattern, tied on a silver bait same result. Clown got'em to commit and dude down the canal got them to bite on a pink fluke.

 

Rule of thumb will let you down when they are being difficult, have to stay flexible. Sometimes the stupidest thing will get you bit when the book says otherwise.

[RoLo]

39 minutes ago, geo g said:

You could write a book on this topic.  Regardless of season, time of day, or conditions, no two days are seldom the same.  I usually start the same way, with the baits I enjoy throwing. I will start with a top water, or H/B frog fished at a good pace.  If nothing I will slow down with the same baits. Then plastics a little deeper, first at a good pace than slow again, and deeper.  If nothing, I down size and fish slow.  First in thick pads, then the closest significant drop-off.  The deeper the better.  Then a wacky rig with a slow fall and all the way to the bottom.  Snap off the bottom and let it settle again.  It’s like watching paint dry but saved many a day.  
 

I try to fish different speeds and depths until I find some fish willing to play.  Every seldom does just one technique work day after day.  The fish will tell you what they want that day, that hour.  It’s a little like gambling, you never know what the cards hold for you.

 

Good stuff

Remarkably, you didn't once mention color  ?

 

Roger

[Dens228]

Today, temp low 90's, water 83.  VERY weedy lake, as in limiting what you can use in about 90% of the water. Not a cloud in the sky wind about two mph.   Before the sun topped the trees, shallow water, frogs, t-rig, caught a couple.  Sun came up, got hot, switched to a swim jig and ripped it around the edges of weeds on the shade side.  Caught several more that were hugging both the weeds and the bottom which was anywhere from 8 to 12 feet.   I tried a frog in the lily pads but no luck.  

[geo g]

3 minutes ago, RoLo said:

 

Good stuff

Remarkably, you didn't once mention color  ?

 

Roger

 

 

Color I have a rule of thumb for all plastics, which is pretty simple.  Clear water I use plastics of natural colors like watermelon, pumpkin, or shad color.  Heavy stained water, or low light conditions, Junebug or your basic black.  I try to keep it simple, placement and movement, or lack of movement, is more important than changing color.  A bait dropped close to a bass is drawing attention regardless of color.  I don't think she is saying, "I wish that object was green instead of junebug.

[scaleface]

Bass are pretty resilient and occupy lots of different waters . Because of the heat I've been driving around and fishing places others just drive by . Dont pick lures based on what you think bass are biting on , choose the lures that excel in  the areas you are targeting  . This past month most of the fish I have caught have been on Beetlespins and grubs , because they work well in the waters I'm targeting . Culverts ,  back water , ditches and streams.  If I was targeting deep bass I would use different lures . Same with grass , brush ...

[Herbert Lorenzo]

3 hours ago, geo g said:

You could write a book on this topic.  Regardless of season, time of day, or conditions, no two days are seldom the same.  I usually start the same way, with the baits I enjoy throwing. I will start with a top water, or H/B frog fished at a good pace.  If nothing I will slow down with the same baits. Then plastics a little deeper, first at a good pace than slow again, and deeper.  If nothing, I down size and fish slow.  First in thick pads, then the closest significant drop-off.  The deeper the better.  Then a wacky rig with a slow fall and all the way to the bottom.  Snap off the bottom and let it settle again.  It’s like watching paint dry but saved many a day.  
 

I try to fish different speeds and depths until I find some fish willing to play.  Every seldom does just one technique work day after day.  The fish will tell you what they want that day, that hour.  It’s a little like gambling, you never know what the cards hold for you.

You hit the nail on the head....well said .

[papajoe222]

I think I'm in a minority when it comes to catch rates and seasons.  I love fishing in the dead of summer. In July and August, my catch rate is way higher than in the spring or fall. In the spring, they move around a lot and in the fall, locating the forage is tough as we don't have shad up here. I find the bass are much more predictable then (summer) and I spend less time looking for active fish, or just fish for that matter.  Although they may move short distances, the general areas I found them two or three days ago are the same ones I'll find them tomorrow. I may have to change presentations, or work the area more meticulously, but I know they're there.

I should mention that in the summer, I target off shore bass the majority of time and find those fish aren't affected as much by changing conditions. A slight wind shift, or clearing sky seems to turn off shallow fish. With the deeper fish, it doesn't happen as quickly and generally not to the same degree.

 

 

[RoLo]

2 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

I think I'm in a minority when it comes to catch rates and seasons.  I love fishing in the dead of summer. In July and August, my catch rate is way higher than in the spring or fall.

 

To your point: spring and fall are both transitional periods, but winter and summer are stable seasons.

Also to your point, the metabolism of fish is the highest in summer, when fish consume the most food.

 

Even here in subtropical Florida, my wife's favorite month is July (mine is not)

Many of the lakes we fish have a max depth of 8 ft, so I really can't go very deep for them in summer   

 

Roger

 

[Bluebasser86]

The summer months are just like any other time of year, the fish have to eat, you just have to figure out what and where.

 

I personally prefer to stick to shallow areas. I'm targeting fewer fish but those fish are mainly up shallow for the main purpose of feeding. Picking apart likely areas and targets other anglers might miss is crucial. Moving baits are a big part of triggering strikes some days, there isn't a cutoff temp when I stop using them. Same goes for jerkbaits, they work year round.

 

They've been backwards for me lately. Get a hot, sunny calm day and they want moving baits and/or topwaters. Nice cloudy, rainy days  and they want all slow moving baits. I hate giving the response but it really is a case of having to let the fish tell you what they want.

[WRB]

"The Cosmic Clock and Bass Calendar" bass behavior seasonally.

Tom

[Catt]

6 hours ago, RoLo said:

To your point: spring and fall are both transitional periods, but winter and summer are stable seasons.

Also to your point, the metabolism of fish is the highest in summer, when fish consume the most food

 

I believe bass eat more during pre-spawn & fall.

 

During the actual spawn bass do not actively feed, so in preparation they gorge themselves. During winter the food source is not as readily available so during fall they gorge themselves in preparation.

 

I find that during the dog days of summer & during the dead of winter the biological fact; minimum output maximum intake comes into play. Given the choice of a 4" shad 10 feet away & a 8" shad 20 yards away the bass will choose the closest.

 

 

 

[OnthePotomac]

On the tidal Potomac when the massive grass beds kick in baits with an exposed hook stay in the box and it is either Texas rigged plastics, or frogs.  If you can hang on the outside edges you get more opportunities for a little variety of baits, but not a lot because under the surface off the grass edge is usually a thick sub surface growth.  Not uncommon to fish a half mile of an edge with zippo, especially on an incoming tide.

[Bass Ninja]

This is probably somewhat due to where I'm at in the country, but I can't say enough about the Jackhammer Chatterbait. For almost 3 years now, if there is open water (no ice or really thick weeds) it has saved me many times from getting skunked. I mostly only flip, frog, and throw a chatterbait, and yeah, I try to go to the best spots with the best structure, factor in time of year, day, temp, wind direction and speed, etc. and the chatterbait and the other lures have all worked fine. But on those days where I really need a bite, I put everything else down and find submerged weeds or more open water, and it just flat out works. Can't say enough about it. 

[RoLo]

On 7/26/2020 at 7:29 AM, Catt said:

I believe bass eat more during pre-spawn & fall.

 

That does seem logical, but cold-blooded animals don't have the luxury of choice.

A bass cannot eat more food than its digestive tract can metabolize.

During the pre-spawn season with water temps in the 50s, it takes a bass about 5 days to digest one minnow.

In mid-summer with water temps in the 80s, that same minnow will be fully digested in about 1½ days.

 

Quote

I find that during the dog days of summer & during the dead of winter the biological fact; minimum output maximum intake comes into play. Given the choice of a 4" shad 10 feet away

& a 8" shad 20 yards away the bass will choose the closest.

 

Not sure I follow, but bass in warm water are significantly more active & energetic

than bass in cold water. In summer, bass eagerly take on long, slow tapers,

but in winter they seek the shortest distances (fast slopes). This dovetails into the fact

that bass consume the most food in summer, which provides them the necessary fuel.

 

Roger

[ajschn06]

On 7/25/2020 at 4:14 PM, geo g said:

You could write a book on this topic.  Regardless of season, time of day, or conditions, no two days are seldom the same.  I usually start the same way, with the baits I enjoy throwing. I will start with a top water, or H/B frog fished at a good pace.  If nothing I will slow down with the same baits. Then plastics a little deeper, first at a good pace than slow again, and deeper.  If nothing, I down size and fish slow.  First in thick pads, then the closest significant drop-off.  The deeper the better.  Then a wacky rig with a slow fall and all the way to the bottom.  Snap off the bottom and let it settle again.  It’s like watching paint dry but saved many a day.  
 

I try to fish different speeds and depths until I find some fish willing to play.  Every seldom does just one technique work day after day.  The fish will tell you what they want that day, that hour.  It’s a little like gambling, you never know what the cards hold for you.

Great info, I appreciate that.  That's mostly what I do, I always start with my moving baits.  Something skirted (swim jig, spinnerbait, chatterbait), crankbait, jerkbait.  I don't get out for extended periods that often so by the time I make my way through those i'm usually out of time.  On occasion I'll have a half hour to throw a frog or a jig, but I can count on one hand the number of time it's produced anything.  It's also difficult for me to really fish how I want to, my 7 year old is with me bobber fishing for panfish and I'm just trying to find as much time to cast as I can and its tough to move around a lot.  I was doing pretty good early, but lately I've felt like I've been wasting my time.  Good to know others tend to go pretty random at times too......

[Catt]

22 minutes ago, RoLo said:

That does seem logical, but cold-blooded animals don't have the luxury of choice.

A bass cannot eat more food than its digestive tract can metabolize.

During the pre-spawn season with water temps in the 50s, it takes a bass about 5 days to digest one minnow.

In mid-summer with water temps in the 80s, that same minnow will be fully digested in about 1½ days

 

So you have never catch bass so full of Shad they throw em up on the boat deck?

[WRB]

Pre spawn bass are an opportunity to target the largest bass and they are hunting the highest protein prey available to add addition fat to sustain them through the spawn cycle. 

Where I fish the big bass target crawdads and planted trout, the smaller bass target crawdads and Threadfin Shad. The trout range from 8" 1/2lb to 16" 1 1/2 lb, nothing small about trout as a prey source. Trout feeding triggered the use big swimbaits.

After the spawn the big bass are still eating ounce they recover from the stress of the spawn. The warmer water triggers higher metabolic rates however the big bass are now scattered and tend be in deeper color water and become very difficult to locate and catch for me. The bass haven't left town, just so many choices of abundant prey availble.

in the fall the bass again tend to group back up and become more catchable feeding to add fat for the long cold water period coming.

I agree with pre spawn and fall the eat more prey.

Tom

[RoLo]

12 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

So you have never catch bass so full of Shad they throw em up on the boat deck?

 

I'm no stranger to feeding blitzes, where bluefish & bonito

have littered my deck with full bellies of disgorged spearing.

That's fine and dandy, but there's little nutritional value in that caper.

 

Roger

[J Francho]

Bass I catch in spring and fall sure seem fatter than mid summer.  Gotta love a livewell full of claws that don't count for cash, lol.