20181025-Near skunking in the Cold-Water Period

Checking my logs it was hard to believe it’s been over two weeks since I have been out on the lake last. In that period of time, a fisherman easily loses contact with the pulse of fish activity on the BOW. We have made the quick change of summer-like temps in early October to near winter-like conditions at night currently.

We are now in the fall Cold Period historically my worst seasonal period to fish. Quantity and quality of fish are at the yearly lows. Much of this period is unfishable due to the transition of soft to hard water. Many years I will lose an avg of up to 2 months of actual fishing due to this transition.

Estimating water temps in the mid 40’s I knew the bite would be tough but I didn’t think I was going to take a beating… near skunking… with only 4 fish in the boat in just over 3 hours worth of fishing time spent. This beating took place on a lake I have easily tagged over a hundred panfish in a single day several times this season!

It is certainly a tough time to be out on the water. If fishing was good there would be more fishermen out on the lakes. Like today I had the whole lake to myself.

Weather was good… sunshine and very little breeze with air temps near 50°. I layered up with sweats and took my ice suit.

Once on the water I confirmed mid 40’s for water temps and crystal clear waters.

I was without my sidescan imaging HOOK2… great tool for finding tight schools of fish over wide areas. At the time I was confident in my waypoints and knowledge base of the lake.

I did a perimeter check In the crystal clear flat waters in the shallows near my waypoints and found no fish activity whatsoever. One lowly crayfish was the only sign of life in many yards of the shoreline of a visual check. It was going to be a tough day I thought.

My first area of fishing was an expansive area of wooded flats with projecting stumps… scattered weed beds or better described as patches were noticed.

Two slip float/fly/waxie setups were immediately employed as I fan cast the area in between with micro-jigs and crappie swim jigs… nothing.

Moving on I encountered the same pulse… negativity! I was on a Major.Major and striking out! I projected casts tight to cover in less than 2’ FOW and encountered a scrappy 17” class LMB on the slip/float/mousie-fly/waxie. The LMB got me out of skunking status and I moved on after zeroing out on any more tags.

Moving to a shallow expansive bay I made long casts with the slip/float/mousie-fly/waxie setups and detected no activity… long casting the Lil-Minnow proved futile.

After a long period of time I started working my way back to the boat launch still determined to find fish … any fish. I noticed a dimple along a line of stumps in 8 FOW/weeds on the flat water. I over shot the dimple with a long cast slip/float/mousie-fly/waxie and ended up with a lowly 7” B.Gill. Excited to find any activity I worked the area thoroughly and tagged a nice P.Seed with the long-cast/.016 oz Simple Spider jig.

The bite fell off so I decided to scan the creek channel with down scan imaging and sonar. I discovered a tightly packed school of small to medium sized fish. Vertically jigging the school produced a 7” single Y.Perch on a tiny tungsten waxie tipped micro jig. 4 fish in 4 hours… very tough outing.

I started back to the launch after scanning more channel area and deep flats coming up empty.

One of the main purposes of the trip was to work the newer jig and fly ties. I was completely satisfied with its action under the float and the jig on the cast… I have a good feeling it will be a top producer for the next open water season.

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