Plummetting temps.

[dink]

I'm sure this subject has been touched on before, but with the latest weather changes most of the country has faced in the past week I figured this would be a timely entry.

How do you fish when the mercury begins to fall rapidly?  Slowly?  Although all of us above the water's surface feel temp swings almost instantaneously, I am referring mainly to water temps.

So to anyone and everyone... enlighten us to your approach on possibly the toughest fishing condition out there.

[captaininsaneo]

The usual plan during/right after a cold front it VERY slow.  Jigs crawled across the bottom, and shaken around cover.  Also a fluke is very effective with its seductively slow fall.  A couple of twitches and a looong pause, and repeat.  Generally i dont work the bait all the way back to the boat as fish are really tight to cover in times like these.

[Nick]

Slower is a good game plan, but with the wind blowing pretty good and the temps around here falling about 10 degrees into the low 50's, the bass in prespawn have continued to bite jigs, cranks, and spinnerbaits at Lake of the Ozarks.  They really havent left their cnhannel swings and secondary points. I heard a very reliable source tell me today that the bed fish at Table Rock were still on beds after two days cold weather, but with two more days of freezing yet to come, they might back off the beds.  And for many, they have been up for about 7-10 days already, so this may be the end of their spawn cycle already.  So go into a day with a negative attitude, just because those who read "the book" tell you they shouldn't bite.

[Fish Man]

for e it really depends on how long the tep was low.....cuz water tep changes much slower then ait temp i usually wont fish differnetly after a a day or two of cold...but as already said when the water temp gets low i fish slower

[Bankbeater]

Jigs around cover.  If the sun is out I like to try and find spots where the fish will try and get warm like road beds in 3 to 4 feet of water.  

[cart7t]

I was just checking the Mo. conservation department fishing report that just came out for the first time this year.  Apparently most smaller lakes (under 500 acres) were effected by the dropping temps.  Fishing has gone from great to a complete shut-off, the worst lakes were also effected by a big influx of rainwater that came in with that big cold front.  

The larger reservoirs have been less effected and smaller lakes towards the North and northwest that didn't get quite the rainwater influx have also been less effected.

I'm skipping fishing this weekend.  I can hear the wind whistling around outside as I type and I know it's d**n cold.  If I was going to fish I'd probably throw a C-rig, slo roll a spinnerbait or throw a crankbait that was weighted to suspend.

[MALTESE FALCON]

You guys think you have problems. My canal has been clear of ice for two weeks and I was really enjoying the fishing after a long winter. Well, this morning I wake up to ice on my canal again.

I need to find some place warm real fast or I'm going to lose my mind.

Falcon

[bassnleo]

I'm really at a loss for words in trying to describe how the cold front has affected things around here.

April 1 I was fishing in a t-shirt and caught 30 bass from less than 2 feet of water. The main lake I was fishing was about 49 degrees, the backs of the Northern coves and bays was 55-58 degrees.

Now we have 6-8 inches of snow, temps haven't gone above 33 degrees since April 4, night time lows have been in the low to mid 20's. 10 day forecast is also not looking good, the highest temp I saw is 47, most days it's forecasted to be in the upper 30's to low 40's, lows around 30. Snow, snow and rain, almost every day is forecasted.

I have a club tournament on April 15 on the body of water I fished April 1.

There is talk of the event being cancelled, not so much because the fishing will be slow, but because this lake is shallow and severly affected by weather. A 15-20 mph wind turns this place into a frothing mess, combine that with low temps and wind chill, makes for a potentially dangerous day on the water.

Should the event be held, my plans are to go to the areas where I previously caught fish then back out to deeper water and fish any cover or structure I can find. This lake really lacks defined structure and drop offs basically don't exist, everything is a gradual fall. The lake does have alot of visible deeper wood, and also alot of not visible deeper wood.

I will most likely downsize my baits and fish really slow around deeper wood cover. A small jig, jighead worm, small crank, small worm or lizard on a carolina rig are my stragety. I'm tyring to mentally prepare myself for bites being few and far between. That's probably the hardest aspect for me since I can usually boat 20-40 keepers a day on this lake in the Spring. The first 2 events I fished there last Spring resulted in over 75 keepers boated in back to back events / days, first and second place finishes respectively.

Will this Winter ever end