Instant Cold Front

October 10th 2018

 

Herm was with me this morning and another road trip was in order! The winds were scheduled to turn 180 degrees and blow big from the NE not allowing us to fish locally. To make matters even worse, there was a huge fog mass engulfing this lake that would make it dangerous to run. We would play it safe!

After a long drive we launched and headed to our first spot to fish. The weather was absolutely spectacular with air temps 70 degrees and no wind. I had Herm casting along a current break looking for a big bite. Unfortunately the fish didn’t seem to be there and all he managed was a couple of missed strikes. I was on a hunt and wasted no time relocating!

I decided to do a drift with a drop shot rods next and we managed to get couple of fish with one of them being huge. Too bad there weren’t many more along with them though as we soon found out. I had made several short drifts through the same area and come up empty. Time for another change!

I soon decided to focus on something different and headed to areas with more current, with the water temps above 60 degrees. These fish should be active and I wanted to take advantage of both the warm water and weather. Right on cue, Herm locked up and so it began. Unfortunately it was fall fish and although it would have made great musky bait, it really wasn’t what we were after. He did however rebound with several other good smallies afterwards and plenty of misses too. It seemed like the fish were bumping the baits and most weren’t getting pinned.

I covered plenty of water now that he was into fish and held in one area that was producing the best. He had landed a good number of bass and I knew there were many more to be caught. What I didn’t know however was that this was all about to change. We had been commentating on how hot it was out when I saw the waters north of us start to roll. It didn’t take long before the cold air arrived and swung the boat completely around. We both had to put clothes on just to stay warm! I’m sure the air temps dropped 15 degrees in just a few short minutes. How was this going to effect the fish?

We were anchored up in the same area with the electric motor, but completely in the opposite direction now. The winds had spun us round and now we were pointing down current instead. The fish had even slowed down and we also had to present the baits much slower as well. It was almost as if someone had turned a light switch off and the only way we could get bit was by dead sticking. After doing this for a little while I decided to try another area and something different. It couldn’t hurt!

I had managed to find a place with slightly less wind in open water and we were catching fish. It may have been a little slower than before but at least some of the fish were cooperating. We even had a couple of double headers at one time!

With the day getting on, I hit as many places as I could before it was time to leave. Each of them produced fish but we were working harder to get the bites. I knew the cold front had really taken its toll on the fishing and we ended on a high. A couple more fish and we were done!

Today may not have been one of the better days but we did quite well on the bass before the weather changed. I was glad that we had made the decision to travel instead of staying locally to fish. It took a lot longer for the conditions to change where we were ,allowing us plenty of good fishing time. We will be back on the water again tomorrow and with any luck, closer to home. Walleye will most likely be the target but bass will definitely be a good backup if it fails. Either way, he should have another great day filled with lots more fish!!