What would you expect update part II

[keithdog]

If you read the original post I posted earlier this week, I talked about how our weather the past 3 weeks has gone from late summer type weather to early November type weather overnight. There has been no gradual transition from season to season as we normally have. Getting out today I wasn't sure what to expect. Water temps had dropped from low 80's to high 50's in a matter of three weeks. Nightly temps averaging in the high 30's and low 40's with heavy winds and cold rains, I was afraid would have thrown the fish for a loop. Well, I got out today and thought I would report what transpired.

Although the day started awful, it turned out to be one of the best days of bass fishing in my life. I got up at 6 am and had some coffee. I wasn't in a hurry to get out as I thought I would let the sunny skies have a chance to warm to surface water a bit. At 7am I went to back the truck up to the garage to hookup the trailer. At 10am I was installing a new battery in the truck. Not the start to the day I had expected. Grrrr By 11.00am I was on the water casting away. The sun was shinning brightly and the wind was around 10 mph out of the west. The water was stained in color, and the lures were only visible about 18 inches under the surface. It had rained yesterday the entire day and part of the night, then clearing skies followed for today. I started off working some pads with a jig-n-pig and a Nemire spoon. I was working shallower sheltered bays where I was hoping the sun had warmed the surface water a bit. Had a swipe at the spoon but missed the hookup.

Changing tactics, I started working with my Bandit 100 bluegill pattern, and a couple spinnerbaits made by Strike King. Both were the KVD series spinnerbaits with one having gold blades, one willow and one colorado with a white skirt tipped with a yellow twister grub, the other the same only a bluegill pattern and no grub. I was still pitchin the J&P to likely looking spots such as open pockets in the weeds, and brush areas. I also was tossing a Rapala DT6 and Norman DD22. But as often is the case, the Bandit 100 was taking most of the fish, although they were running small. Between 11:45am and 1:30 pm I had only caught 5 bass, the largest one being a 15 incher.

About noon the wind really started picking up and by 2:30 it was gusting I'd guess around 20 - 25 mph. I decided to see if there was any action on the main points since the wind was kicking things up by now. I landed 2 bass on a main point off the Bandit and 1 bass off the white spinnerbait. Rounding the point, I could see the eastern shoreline in the south east bay was really taking a bashing from the wind and waves. This bay happens to hold the deepest water in the lake. I fired up the trolling motor and headed straight to that shoreline. There I hit paydirt big time. The bass were lined up along the shoreline in that bay on the eastern shore where the waves were pounding the shore. Using my white spinnerbait, I started hauling in bass after bass. Over the next 90 minutes, I landed 15 bass ranging from 2-4 pounds. My wrist was actually getting sore from all the action. As long as the wind was causing rough water and there was cover in the form of weedbeds or brush, my spinnerbait was working it's magic. As soon as I worked my way out of the rough water in wind protected areas, the action came to a halt!


So what I learned today is that bass are not as easily turned off by severe weather changes as I was affraid they may be. Despite the abrupt change in our normal change of seasons from summer to fall, the bass were still activly feeding and taking advantage of what other nature gave them. In this case it was strong wind action against an eastern shoreline. Baitfish I suspect were being hearded against this shoreline and battered about from the waves. This allowed easy pickings for bass fattening up for the comming winter. For me, it was knowing how bass would react to those conditions that made the difference. Experience is always the best teacher. Luckily for me, the bass reacted as I thought they might, which is not always the case.