Thank God fish are cold blooded!

[SPOONMINNOW]

Water temps in southern NY have been dropping by the week. A week a ago they were around 50; today 46-47 and with night time temps at 29 degrees, soon 40 will happen. Until this year, I figured it's time to pack it in for the year once water dipped below 50 degrees. But a friend of mine has be using a float, long leader under it and a small jig and lure beneath it, catching decent numbers of pan fish from shore.

A local lake has been good to me this year and large numbers have been caught shallow (4') and deep (14') all summer long. But now with the water much colder, I have found that fish strike just as hard in cooler water as in warm. I use my own minnow design on a 1/16 or 1/32 oz jig depending on depth and  6# test line. The wind has been crazy in the last 5 days, but strike detection has been easy as long as line watching and feel is observed.</p>

I would have thought crappie, yellow perch, sunfish, bass and pickerel would have slowed down, but not in the waters I fish. Of course beating the banks is useless but working shallow flats that have some stumps and the bottom in deeper open water has kept me busy and very content.</p>

Hope nobody gives up fishing in cooler water - even ice fishing. Fish bite as good once you find them as in warmer water.
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[EricM]

Congrats and welcome. We mostly fish year-round here in Tennessee and do well in the cold. Thanks for the report!

 

[djsmarinelectronics]

50-60 degree water temps are ideal in TN on these lakes; for crappie OR bass

 

[fishinvol]

Love winter fishing down here !

 

[jsb]

I fish year round like a lot of guys do here in Tn. Some of the biggest bass are caught in the winter here.

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

UPDATE: water temp 40; air temp over 50. four species of fish using my hand poured minnow grub and Bobby Garland's pearl Baby Shad dyed chartreuse with Spike-It.
I found that using a 1/32 oz jig head worked better than the 1/16 oz. More important are the new locations I'm catching fish. Up until last week I was catching fish in deeper water, jigging bottom in 10'. Yesterday and today, I've been doing better fishing the flats adjacent to deeper water. Depths range from 4.5' to 7', sometimes 20 yards from shore or 50 yards from shore depending on bottom variations (humps).

Caught today were over two dozen combination of perch, bass, sun fish and crappie. The strikes were anything from a slight bow in the line to the feeling the lure was caught on soft weeds. I stayed with 2" minnow grubs rather than use my usual 2 3/4 - 3" size. Chartreuse or clear plastic with silver flakes caught everything in water that is still murky. Slow and strong>unsteady[/b] retrieves are always productive regardless the time of year.


It's possible the above pattern may exist where you fish. Since the lake is only 15 min. from home, I can't see going 35 minutes south to lakes that hold far better quality fish. Heck, this time last year everything was in storage and a fish bending my light action rod is good enough for me regardless of size.

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