Cold Water Bass and a Freshwater Tautog - Jigging is Key…

Mon, Oct 20, 2008

I had the day off today and the sun was shining, so I decided to put the boat in the water one more time and try to find some bass. Cedar lake is being lowered 5 feet this year so association members can work on their docks, so getting the boat in was a challenge. It was nice being the only boat on the lake though.

I got on the water around 1:30 and fished some black and blue fleck hula grubs on a 1/4 ounce jighead on the East side of the lake, with no luck in the first 30 minutes. I then decided to switch gears and hit the West shoreline since I figured the water would be a few degrees warmer from the strong morning sun. On the way over I hit some of the submerged rock piles with no luck.

Once on the other side of the lake I started throwing watermelon cabin creek spider jigs and texas rigged senkos around my favorite deeper water docks (which aren’t so deep anymore now that the lake is down over 2 feet). I got a strike on my third cast and landed a 2 lb largemouth bass on a jig. Hoping I had found a pattern I kept fishing the sunny side of docks on the West shore. 20 minutes went by and finally another hit, again off a deep water dock, and another 2lb largemouth.

I didn’t find any other fish on the West side, but did catch a couple smallmouth on the North shore fishing some submerged rock piles in 6 feet of water. Senkos produced nothing no matter what color, size or presentation I threw… One of the smallmouth I caught was so dark it look black. As I was reeling it in I actually thought it was the first freshwater tautog (a.k.a. blackfish for those who don’t know what a tautog is).

I fished for another 45 minutes on the East shore with not as much as a hit, and then I called it a day around 4:30… It wasn’t a great day but with a cold front coming through this week, lowered water levels, and cold fall water, at least I caught something.

Hopefully I will be able to get out at least one more time this year on the lake, but it may not happen if the weather continues to get colder and the lake gets more shallow.