Cold Front

[Crack1874]

what is the best to adjust for a temp drop suddenly on a natural resorvoir? It's been relatively hot  here in NC and now the temp is droppin and I got a tourney in two weeks and I am starting to panic b/c I haven't fish this lake in a year. The lake is straight and narrow but has good feeder creeks and is really deep on the dam end.                   

If anybody has any suggestions in general, Please Help!!!

[Buzzman]

If the water is relatively clear, I'd alternate between a Jig (3/8 to 1/2 ounce) with a larger profile trailer (experiment between dragging and hopping) across and along main lake and secondary points AND ripping a Rat-L-Trap over the flats between the points (windy is better for the trap).

If the water is darker, I'd trade in the Rat-L-Trap for a the biggest crankbait that I have confidence in.

[Ouachita]

Our water has already dropped 3-4 degrees, so the fall pattern is lining up. I head straight for the shallowest end on creeks, studying the sonar along the way, dropping off markers at creek channel bends or any other spot that holds fish. I begin fishing my way out, as that puts lures swimming upstream (water current rules don't apply since there is no heavy rain or current), the natural route taken by baitfish responding to lower temperatures. I focus on the marked spots, and work my way out to the mouth of the creek at the main lake.

Let me remind you of the big picture. Post-spawn sent big bass off to the depths where mostly deep structure fishing produces. They remain there only to recuperate up to a month, then begin distributing throughout the lake, some spending some time deep, but less each summer month. By now most of the baitfish supply is not coming by them enough to survive, so they are forced to follow toward the main creeks. The pattern is very much like spring pre-spawn, baitfish and bass alike following drainages to the source of feeder creeks. Intercept them along the way. Since the water temperature is still high, metabolic rates are high, so feeding is still frenzied. Lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits, all sorts of high frequency, fast moving lures will be chased. Even though bass are all keyed up and instinctively knowing cold water is coming, they have to rest most of the day digesting their last catch, so the same reaction and "easy meal" tactics apply during their passive hours.

Jim

[Ouachita]

Now, having laid that foundation, what happens to bass when a distinct cold front moves in? At whatever point of migration they are caught in, the bass are more affected by change in pressure than baitfish. They will be seen that day and the next still hanging around and actively feeding. It takes a lot of caloric energy for the larger bass to adjust its bladder or do any body tuning to changing conditions, so that along with discomfort leads the bass to find a more comfortable layer of water away from its preferred forage area. Some of us don't adjust well to a high air pressure cold front either, just not quite feeling "ourself".  It can take a fuyll 3 days for the bass to resume normal activities, just in time for another cold front.

They don't stop eating. If they did a series of fronts back to back (as is often the case beginning next month here, already up north) would cause mass starvation.  It just takes putting lures in front of them until you match their mood. I realize that's easier said than done, but bass are caught cold front or not. When a doosey cold front comes in I head for the nearest plain-jane clean gravel bottom and return to C-rigged worms. But each day I won't start with that. I begin the trip working the pattern in the above post, from uppermost end of creeks down to the clean lake bottom. On the first day of the front and probably the next I'll spend much less effort in the creek, slowing down at the mouth, then searching for a gravelly hump near there, usually where a creek interescts a a larger creek or river. But I won't venture more than a hundred yards from where I last caught quality bass. They don't swim way off as that wastes calories, something they are driven to do by hormones for the spawn. They mostly just go deeper, but I've found them suspended two feet down, too, as though stunned.

Jim

[LoonyToon]

  You are getting the same front we are experiencing in Delaware right now, so my best advise if you want it is to head for the headwaters(feeder Streams) and look for the boils along the shoreline. The boils as you know will be bait fish being driven shallow, so try to keep your boat at least 20ft from em cause the bass are skittish already, but hungry.Try to match the size and color of the baitfish as close as you can, cast beyond them, retrieve toward you....If this does not work with your style, try a weedless jig head with a fluke on it and hop it from the bank back toward you, but do this slow and pause on the retrieve...............One question be fore I continue, is it drizzling there as it has here for the past 10 days?

[Crack1874]

Yes, Okuma. It just finished the day in day out rain.....