Fishing tip of the week

Fishing Tip of the Week

Tuesday, 21 November 2023 12:14

Water Temps will Fall Rapidly
by Mike Gerry

As we continue to move into winter, we will see some severe drop in water temperatures.
The drop will slow down the fishing at some point during the change to winter fishing. I have seen the affects of water temperature for many years now. I thought it might be time to help my readers understand it also. My past years on the water I have seen the water temperature in early December go from the mid 60’s to high 30’s quickly. As we progress through December into January of course every year is different as to when we see the severe cold and quick drop. The results are always the same, it slows the bite for a while as the fish adjust.

The downward drop in temperature are always tough as bass become lethargic. It slows their system, and they don’t chase or react to movement, until their system adjusts to the change. Good days are few on the water and it becomes a struggle for some period of time until they become used to the colder water. As always if it stays cold, it becomes a tough bite until the sun shows a little of water temperature improvement.

The real question is what happens and what you can do to find active fish? I believe in order to find them under these conditions you must first understand what happened. So now we can relate to the issue and the result and the real answer is the fish need to be hand fed while the water temperature stabilizes or comes back up. This is an ideal time to really go to slow moving and precise fishing, like working a jig or a worm, a shaky head or even a Carolina rig very slowly around the edges of the very area you were catching them on top back in the fall.
This also is a perfect time to go to a suspending bait to let the bait rock and entice a bass while his body is recovering from the shock of the temperature change.
Dropping water temperature means activity slows so fish slower and you can deal with it.

When it’s cold you tend to move quickly and not realize it, so force yourself to work your baits slowly!
Captain Mike