First day out sucked; next day - not so bad

[Spoonminnow]

Water temperature 54 degrees and water semi-clear 4'. Fished shallow, deep and in between. Only managed four pan fish, none of them crappie, and a small bass/ missed 6 light strikes. Last fall when the water was 45 degrees I did fine. Too cold for crappie, bass, perch or sunfish spawn, but I did see schools on the sonar in water 6-15' deep well away from any shore, flat or hump.

Next day:
Did much better today. Three crappie, four yellow perch, five sunfish and 3 bass (one 14"). Missed eight bites. Wind was around 20 mph at times, water temp 54-56 and sunny with clouds. (blue sky with no clouds yesterday)

Wonder if the wind was a factor and the front starting to move through. But more than that, I increased the size of the grubs and jighead wt. from 1/32 to 1/16 oz. The strikes were more pronounced and I had a small bass chase my lure to the boat as well as multiple hits by the same fish on the same retrieve until it hooked itself. Sometimes I wonder if more meat on the hook does a lot to get fish riled more effectively than smaller offerings and slower lure speeds.

Fish were more concentrated than yesterday and in spots - IE in shallow water 4'-5' and along a shoreline and in adjacent deep water that didn't produce yesterday.

If I was younger (20 yrs. younger), I would be fishing in the rain tomorrow in 57 degrees where the fish usually leave the bottom weed beds and swim closer to the surface. This lake has a seasonal weed growth that clogs all parts of the lake except extreme north and south ends until dying off by early June. Still a few weeks left to fish at least in this lake.

Here a few of the lures that did the trick (note the photos show examples of lures used):
Cone tail stick:


2" spoon minnow:


Another straight thin tail grub:


and a prong tail grub:


But regardless the water temperature, clarity seems very important or I should say less is better.
Late in the fall I caught fish when the water temp was 39 degrees, but the algae hadn't completely died because of a summer bloom. But now in 54 degree water, the suspended algae is beginning to increase and should be normal by next week with water temps surging to over 60.

Never too late to learn a thing or two.

[Spoonminnow]

PS
The spring bite is always better in the waters I fish and has been so since I can remember. One possible reason is that all species before the just after the spawn along with increasing water temperature are becoming more irritable as the instinct to spawn becomes a major factor vs hunger. Granted, after a long winter with lowered metabolism due to cold water, fish haven't needed to feed as much. But the rise in metabolism in combination with the necessity to spawn, increases activity in general as displayed by an increase in the strength of the strike as well as more fish striking that wouldn't have the month before.

The colder the water in spring, the longer it seems to take for fish to reach that level of aggression we associate with the can't miss/ no brainer fishing we take for granted in spring. SD has higher water temps most of the year than the NE and maybe not as affected by the seasonal extremes we experience.