What's the pattern II?

[Chris]

You get to the lake and you find yourself in the middle of a bad cold front. Air temps drop and your freezing you backside off. Its early spring and the fish should be spawning but because of the bad cold front they might be off the nest. The shore cover is thick with weeds and some scattered wood. This lake does have docks but few that are worth fishing. This lake also has one small island that one side has a deep drop and the other side is a shallow flat. This lake also has several small coves filled with weeds and scattered wood. The deepest part of this lake is about 10 ft deep and is shaped like a goldfish bowl with the exception of the island there is no real sharp depth change. The whole lake is a sand box so the bass could spawn anywhere. This is a real lake with real conditions and winds pushing 20mph in the afternoon.  What would you do?

Hint: In the afternoon I caught 2 keepers on the outside edge of the weeds with a spinnerbait. This was a bonus not the main pattern.

A) Start off with a topwater bite and then change when the winds pick up

Fish the outside weedline thinking the fish might move off the bank because of the cold front

C) Fan cast the flat with a rattletrap and try to reproduce Takahiro Omori's pattern

D) Flip places where two forms of cover meet fishing tight to cover in the main lake area

E) Camp out in the coves away from the cold north wind

[Curado]

Probably B, I would work some soft plastics slow along the grassline or a jig. I might also throw a spinnerbait, diamond shad, and suspending jerkbait to try and trigger a reaction strike.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

I like all the options except A.  I have always found on my home lakes that bass will bury themselves in the grass when a cold front comes through because the grass acts like a blanket and will retain heat.  Flipping where two different types of cover meet is ALWAYS a good choice.  Cove that are shielded from a north wind will always be a littl less affected by cold fronts.  I like C through E to start the day off and then maybe move onto B when the water temp starts to rise through out the day.

[playmaker47]

I would definatly use D. flipping and pitching is my strong suit, and 2 pieces of cover are great spots for fish to hold to. plus in a cold front bass will hold tight to cover, and flippin and pitching is a slow type of fishing to get them to hit.

[Will]

I like D, with the cold front the bass that are not dedicated to the nests will be moving out of the shallow water. The weeds also sound good, like KU said the grass will hold heat the longest.

[DDbasser]

I like B.

I fished a lake that is real similar to the one you described late this spring.

Some fish were still spawning, some already done.

A cold front came thru on the morning I fished. like to froze my butt off!!

I used weighless plastic and fished the thickest weeds and grass I could find.

Caught 20 keepers    

[Gatorbassman]

I had the same conditions two years ago and the pattern I found was just like D. These are staging areas but when a cold front moves in they become holding areas.

[Kana]

i like B but would also hit D.  i also like the small coves, but perhaps when the weather warms up justa tad.

[jcrazy]

i'd hit both B and E

[Chris]

The monthly contest for May was held at Paris Lake on the 15th. 23 members fished the tournament and brought 15 keepers to the scales that weighed an impressive 46.26 lbs...averaging better than 3 lbs per keeper. And here's proof that some fish DO weigh the exact same, digital scales or not: a tie for big bass at 4.78 lbs shared by Chris and Jim (and partners). In 3rd place was Chad and Kent with 5.54 lbs; 2nd was Mike and Jim , and in 1st was Chris and Dave with 12.77.

The guys that won 2nd camped out in the coves flipping cover. What I found was that the fish where tight to cover so I had to fish quiet and slow. When they took off in the morning I just dropped the trolling motor and started fishing. I started at the ramp and worked my way around the lake. At 6:30 am I caught my first keeper on a jig. I was lifting the jig out of a spot that had weeds and a bush next to a dock when a bass smacked it just before I got it out of the water for another pitch. The topwater bite wasn't there and the shad was not up so I knew I needed to fish in the thickest stuff I could find. After I caught my first fish I knew that places where two forms of cover met was the ticket. At 7:30 or there abouts I caught my second keeper on that Island which was my kicker fish. It was caught on a jig in the thickest part of the weeds that was next to a drop. This spot had two forms of weeds meeting together and the drop made it even more of a sweetspot. I left the island and went to the other side of the flat that runs between the island and the bank and hooked my 3rd keeper on a patch of wood in the mouth of a cove. This was a piece of isolated wood that was right next to a patch of weeds. This fish I lost on a jig. This was at about 9am and after that I had a hard time fishing my jig because of wind. Later in the afternoon I refished the areas that I caught my keepers with a spinnerbait. When you out there fishing and there is little wind Its always a good bet to slow down and use a jig or worm but when the wind blows for me moving baits like a crankbait or spinnerbait work better. On two of my areas where I caught fish in the we caught two more keeper on a spinnerbait. The fish repositioned to the outside edge of the weeds. I did try out the coves and never got a bite. Let me also add that it was 40-50 degree air temps through most of the day.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

I would move out from the bank and find the staging points.  Places where they can sit in 6-8 ft w/ 10 ft nearby on one side and the shallows on the other.  

c-rig and jig the 10 ft water too.

[Grubber]

Hey Chris

Do you mean Lake Perris in California???

[Chris]

no