Water Temps will Rapidly Drop

Water Temps will Fall Rapidly

As we continue to move into winter, we will see some severe drop in water temperatures, and it will slow down the fishing at some point during the change to winter fishing. I have seen the effects of water temperature for many years now, and 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 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, but the results are the same it slows the bite for a while as the fish adjust.

The downward drop in temperature is always tough as bass become lethargic. It slows their system, and they don’t chase or react to movement like they do 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; but 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 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!