Colder water just as good as warmer water!

[Spoonminnow]

I hadn't fished this pond in awhile and wasn't sure if the crappie school was still around or the bite softer and less. When I saw the water temp had dropped to 46.7 degree, I thought, this day is going to be a bust.
Man was I wrong!

For some reason I had always thought that cold water meant slower fishing, lighter strikes and scattered fish. I fished this water same time last year and the schools were phenomenal which caused me to think maybe that was a fluke since the water according to my logs was warmer. Yesterday proved beyond a doubt that cold blooded animals react just as well when the water is just over 40 degrees as they do in water over 70 degrees. What's more was the size of lures and lure design variety that crappies slammed!

Usually I stay with 1/16 oz jig heads rigged with finesse action soft plastics small and medium in size. After having just caught 10 crappie on those lures, I figured - what the h. - why not go larger in jig head and soft plastic lure size as well as try some lure designs I hadn't used much for years. A 1/8 oz. jig head was not a problem, nor were using the following lure designs:
three legged Joker grub
curl tail grub
2" tube
thin worm shape
larger cone tail and thin tail grubs (2 1/4"" vs. 1 1/4")

The morning bite was scarce, though I did manage eight bass - (one 3 lb.) and a few crappie. Plus, the strike felt like I was catching weeds, only to find a fish at the other end of the line. By late afternoon, heading back to the launch, I fished an area near weed lines and in a depth of 7'. The whole are was loaded! As compared with the soft bite that morning. For the most part, the bite was far more obvious and hook sets easier. Even small crappie were hitting larger lures - hard! - evidenced by the instant line bow in most cases. It helped that I was using braid to feel and set the hook on long distance casts, especially since if a hook set was missed, fish hit again on the same retrieve!! I was averaging two fish a minute, only stopping occasionally to photograph the various lures in fish mouths for future reference.

Now I know this is not the norm for most waters I fish, but I do know that fish schools do happen on most waters and that school fish are the easiest to catch when conditions are right - even with water temps in the low 40's. Heck, I've gotten into massive schools under the ice and gotten over 40 fish on 2" tubes. Too bad the fish in a school average the same size and most fish in the school yesterday were around 9". Still fun to try many different lure designs and see what kind of strike they provoked as well as dispel the idea that 1/8 oz. is not as effective in cold water.
Some images from yesterday:

[Tony the Tiger]

Wow. Very interesting

[barrelslime]

I totally agree with you. It depends on the fish attitude on any given day. Actually if anyone knwe the real answer they would be rich, being able to tell when fish will react aggressively. I to have had fish under ice breath on the bait and next day just SLAM it. Why I'm not sure but cooler weather seems to make fish more aggressive.
Great post.

[Spoonminnow]

cooler weather seems to make fish more aggressive.

I wonder instead if it's the change in water temperature, sometimes hourly, from am to pm on a sunny day. The temp rose three degrees by afternoon and then dropped by 4:30 pm as the sun angle decreased and the cloud cover increased.

A few days ago I fished another shallow pond and witnessed the same thing. In the am I was fishing bare from the waste up the sun was so intense and the air temp a comfortable 73 degrees (in Nov. no less!). Water temp was 54. The bite wasn't great until the clouds came and went and then came back, lowering the air temp five degrees. Fish activity increased along with water temp changes by the hour. Granted, clouds had a major affect seeing as how the water was clear down to 4' and fishing is always better on this water on cloudy days. But when the wind speed increased from dead calm, so did the activity - mixing the water a bit.

The most strikes started just before a powerful storm hit with wind getting up to 25 mph and a torrential rain fell. Makes me wonder if the change big change in barometric pressure also affected the strike in combination with everything else. All I know is - static weather conditions and cloudless skies suck !

[Crestliner08]

Very nice post and fish there. I've always found that the colder the water, the better the bite in early spring and late fall. They really need to eat up for the winter months.

[bee]

Now you know. One of the best times of the year to do good.

[Spoonminnow]

They really need to eat up for the winter months.

I thought about this fish fact we've read or heard about for decades and after a bit of thought came up with what I now believe: fish aren't like bears that eat more in the fall to store fat for winter hibernation. In fact fish eat all year long, how often depending on a metabolic rate which depends on water temperature. Being cold blooded, they don't need to be warm like most mammals, but do need to eat regardless the month.