Regardless of the time of year the bass react negatively to falling water temperatures. I have seen the affects of water temperature for many years now, and I thought it might be time to help my readers understand it also. This past month of March has been an example of my years of personal experience. The water temperature took a down turn around the 10th of the month, the bass were feeding and active and they shut off like turning off a facet. The water temperature dropped from 55 degrees to 49 and it was like fishing for ghosts.
To me this is not only been my experience in the spring but also in the middle of summer, I have seen times when we had 90 degree water and we were catching fish on top water all day long and all of a sudden the a cold front comes through drops the water temperature a few degrees and we are struggling for a bite. It like a shock to their system and a perfectly good few days on the water becomes a struggle.
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. 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 fish slower and you can deal with it.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email: bassguide@comcast.net
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry