HOT THEN COLD

TURNING INCONSISTENT TEMPERATURES INTO CONSISTENT BITES

Mike Butler with a Stud!

Crisp air rolled in this past week, long overdue in my opinion. Normally we should get our first cold snap around the 2^nd or 3^rd week of October but this year it decided to wait until Halloween. At least it’s here now! October was pretty good for us, nothing huge this month but still plenty of fish in the 24-26” range and a few going 27-28”. Overall not a bad start to fall.

Now that the colder air is finally here, I am sure that all of us want to break out the Simms waders and jackets. Unfortunately, history tells us that for the next 4 weeks the weather that prompts us to reach into the cold weather closet will come in short windows. This is the main reason why Fall is my least favorite season, I prefer consistent cold but above all else I prefer consistency. This month is anything but consistent. So how does that affect the fish? I am not so much asking the question about where they go, but more so how does this affect their feeding habits and behavior? This article is going to discuss different strategies used to draw strikes from trout that may be tougher to catch due to inconsistent weather patterns.

Now most of us can catch fish on perfect weather days this time of year. Good wind, clouds, prefrontal, barometer dropping, and if you need a tutorial on where or how to catch them on those days I have a few days left in November or the October blog explains some patterns I like to follow this time of year and where I like to look for them. This month we are going to be discussing those not so easy weather days. High pressure and cold following a long hot streak, or unseasonably warm temperatures after a few days of 50 degree air and little to no wind. Also, we won’t be discussing a lot of what areas I fish because I do not believe the fish really make a drastic move in areas during these temperature changes. How they use the areas or where in the area the fish turn to when the weather becomes unpredictable is more that I am talking about.

HOT THEN COLD

That first cold front is always a relief to us and I am sure it is for the trout, however that first day or two they are certainly in a state of “transition” and not worried as much about eating. Although, they will eat out of opportunity or annoyance. Most have read the article or heard me use the phrase “we have to make them eat”. This is one of those times, and truthfully most days we have to make them eat either way because there are very few days when they just jump on our lines. Fishing is work, and most anglers who fish at the level required to chase big trout know that and put the time in. A strong work ethic to me is a must have for trout anglers who wish to be successful day in and day out, that and a high level of patience and a yearning for understanding. Make it about the puzzle and the chase, not the fish.

Back on track… after the first cold front when our water temperatures drop 10 to 20 degrees in a matter of a day or two, I believe this causes trout to not transition from one area to another but rather transition their feeding habits into more of a survival mode versus a feeding mode. Therefore, making them eat when they don’t want to is our only option and there are two ways we can achieve this; opportunity or annoyance. Starting with opportunity, this is where the new Coastal Brew Deceiver paddle tails come in handy. I know some of you are thinking “Eric praising a paddle tail, what the hell happened to the world?” I get it, but trust me I have put the time in with this one and under the right circumstance it works. Typically after a front we are fishing deeper structure such as drop offs and deep points, and something I have found is a bait that floats or swims to the bottom can be more useful than a bait that does a nose dive. By no means am I bashing a Dart in these situations, we need something to annoy them beyond reason. But when I need a bait that will float rather than free fall, I am reaching for the deceiver. I like to twitch the bait the same as I do a Dart however, I will swim the bait after my cadence especially if I am coming up to a desired piece of structure such as a pothole or grassbed. I believe if trout aren’t as eager to hit a bait zoomed past their face, they will follow a bait and eat it as it falls. Same thing with a corky, most hits come on the pause because the trout is following that bait and waiting for the sharp erratic motion to stop (BUT NOT FOR LONG!! NOTHING IN NATURE STANDS STILL FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME!). By swimming that Deceiver for a half second with my rod tip after my cadence, I am allowing that trout to catch up and eat an easy meal, all while imitating a bait fish that is struggling to run away from the predator.

COLD THEN HOT

Once trout have acclimated to the cold it is pretty easy for them to adjust to warmer temperatures, barring any extreme temperature swings but we rarely see those going from cold to hot. This to me is where things get tricky, because every sign we see is telling us to move shallower and chase bait up in knee deep water. Me being a shallow water fishermen and believing big trout spend 99% of their lives in less than thigh deep water, it is especially hard to stray away from the shallow flats teeming with bait. But, what I have noticed is that bigger trout will actually wait to move up on the flats a few hours of maybe a day later than they used to. Why is a mystery but my hunch is it has something to do with the 2021 freeze. That cold snap was brutal but what killed those fish was not the temperatures, it was the little bit of sunshine that came out on that Tuesday right before the second wave of the front hit. Trout and Redfish pulled up shallow to soak up the sun rays and within a few hours The north wind was howling again and it trapped a lot of fish up on the flats, killing most of them. I respectfully disagree with Gerald Swindle when he says “they’re stupid fish”, I prefer to think they are creatures of habit, habits that will occasionally get them killed. But one things for certain, the fish that survived the freeze learned a thing or two that day. There is no science to back this up, just observation and a theory based on those observations. So, what do we do when it has been cold and warms up into the 80s the next few days. In my opinion, it is not cold enough yet for water temperature to truly dictate what their pattern is going to be, so I look to the same areas I would look for them when the water temperature was falling or at it’s cold peak. My presentation is what changes, I try to stand out. Working a loud topwater, an aggressively worked corky or Double D, or a 6” dart worked very aggressive have all produced for me in the past. Now that the bait has returned to everywhere and the fish are starting to feed up ahead of the next front, trout do not need to seek out specific structure or specific areas holding bait. Which is probably another reason why trout do not seem to leave their deeper cold front hide outs, they already have a good food source. Now, after a day or two of warm weather convincing the fish that they can return to shallow water, I will move up shallower to chase them with the millions of mullet up there. But my approach stays the same, create as much commotion as possible and make a scene that looks like it needs to be a crime scene. Most times it will become one, murder by trout in the first degree.

So, recapping. When the temperatures drop from hot to cold, keep your retrieves erratic but swim that Deceiver just a little after your cadence. After the front has passed and its back to hot again, work it like you’re a new drummer for Nirvana trying to prove something.

Hope this gave you some new tricks to try out this fall, if you need help applying them give me a shout. I have several days left in November and December before heading south to Mansfield for January and February.

Tight Lines,

Capt Eric