Todays topic:Fall Fishing

[joedog]

I've read that cold fronts are actually a good thing in the fall.
Reason
Shad actually like cooler water and seeing surface water cools faster then lower depths they school and crowd the surface couple of feet.
Plus plankton and such will rise to the sunny top portion of the water.
The shad are also reported to prefer the shore line at dawn and dusk moving deeper mid day.
Also shad mate in the fall and lay eggs come spring, so again a reason for the fall schooling.
Up north here I understand the shad actually die in water below 50 degrees? This I'm not so sure of but have found large kill offs of thread fin shad come spring. But large is relative cause NO shad are naturally from Wi. Most in the water come from anglers dumping thier minnow buckets after a days outing.




Your input......

[joedog]

So no input?

[bassinbob]

When I was a kid I always wondered what those little silver fish were all lying along the shore. Mind you I never started bass fishing till I was a lot older. Back then it was just for walleyes. I guess I'll have to brave the cold now and try to find out if your theory holds water.

[Jrob78]

I'm sure that's part of the reason topwater baits are so effective in the fall.

[kennethdaysale]

"I've read that cold fronts are actually a good thing in the fall."

I don't know a whole lot about the shad connection with cold fronts but I will never forget what my Uncle and fishing mentor told me when I was a kid about the first hard freeze or two of the fall..........."Son it's suppose to get down in the twentys tonight so the bass should be "set up and stacked up" perfect, I'll pick you up at 630 sharp" Which was probably the most words he ever said in a row and when I of course pressed him about what he meant and why he grunted with a twinkle in his eye......
" It just does, you'll see"

" It just does, you'll see"

Those words danced around in my head all that night, I was just 13 or 14, could 5 crueler/kinder words ever be spoken

I've long since figured out the "why's" but sometimes it's the not knowing that makes it even funner.

[lilmule]

Dont know if its 50 f or what temp,but winter which comes after fall,the water has flipped,the deeper one goes the warmer it is the reverse of summer.Thus in a deep lake
shad may survive till next year.Also why kansas,missouri steam plant lakes are so productive in winter keeping the lake open and the shad within reach of our eq along with what feeds on them.
Different species of shad have different thresholds,thus different survival rates,and some are not true shad at all.
In say a 60 ft deep environment a shad would be more in danger from other deep predators say stripers,bass than getting to cold.Of course latitude of where it was located would also effect it.
A lake like Bull Shoals by first of the year can catch spots 60 ft deep,they are where the food is.
Ky lake one can spot shad balls 32-36 ft all winter,yet I have better luck with bass fishing shallower sitting in 30 tossing to bars that are shallow.

[keithdog]

The only thing cold fronts in the fall time seem to do is to me is make me colder. At least that's been my experience. Many of my best fall fishing days have been during cold fronts.

[joedog]

Originally Posted by keithdog

The only thing cold fronts in the fall time seem to do is to me is make me colder. At least that's been my experience. Many of my best fall fishing days have been during cold fronts.

Sorry to say,
me too!

Had two back to back great days.

Today after a severe cold front,
Six at around 6"- 16", pretty tough bite but was out from 5:30pm to like 7:30 only.

Wanted to test the 'bite better at dusk after sunny day theory' , in the fall.
Not a beleiver so far.

Water only droped like 1 or 2 degrees after a frost last night.
First frost of the year. Not a hard one but hey, still fluking cold.
Plus 10-15mph winds.
HATE IT!!!!!

[merc1997]

i will just address thread fin shad, and how they react to colder weather here on table rock. shad will search out the warmest water in the fall. as water begins to cool, the shad will migrate from the back of creeks and coves and move toward, and in a lot of cases out onto the main lake. after turn over occurs, the water temps and o2 levels are the same top to bottom. at this point in time, shad and bass alike can be at any depth. here on table rock, most often the shad will go deep, and their depth many times is determined by water clarity. i have caught bass here on table rock as deep as 111ft. we have experienced some fall and winters that the shad for whatever reason never got deeper than 10ft. or so all winter. there were some isolated areas where the shad schools did go deeper, but for the lake overall, the bait all stayed relatively shallow, and so did the bulk of the bass. when we have a very harsh winter and experience some ice on the lake, we will get a shad kill. the thread fin spawn in the spring, and most often the shad spawn occurs after the bass have spawned. bass that are feeding back up after spawn will dial in on the shad spawn and feed up. hope this will help some in chasing fall and winter shad balls.

bo