Since lakes vary so widely with depth, clarity and cover options for bass during the pre spawn period, it’s difficult to anticipate or define exactly what bass may do under post-frontal conditions. On this day however, smallmouth bass were stacked and found staging outside of known spawning sites.
On Thursday May 23rd, the coldfront that came was awful. I never imaged seeing myself catching giant smallmouth wearing bibs, layers of clothing and winter gloves. This was my typical fall musky weather, but for big bass? Please….. I purposely slept in until 9am. I launched at 10am to find the lake had dropped six degrees in two days, from 57 to 51. The bass didn’t mind however, as I found them stacked in a few minor areas such as rock ledges, shallow rock bars, and sand flats – all of these areas which were exposed to the sun had numbers of big bass on them. The same bait I used the previous day worked again. One rod, one lure all day long. Best part about these last four days was I was the only boat on each lake I fished!
Lake Profile
Size: 1,400 acres
Lake Type: Mesotrophic
Maximum Depth: 45 feet
Avg. Depth Fished: 3 to 12 feet
Water Clarity: 5ft (clear)
Primary Fishery: Smallmouth bass, walleye, muskellunge, northern pike, yellow perch
Areas of Focus: Sandbars and rock bars, rock ledges, downed wood
Time of Day: 11am to 5pm
Lure Used: Matzuo Phantom Minnow 4.5″
A bad coldfront had just passed through. With it it brings a full day of cold, nasty post frontal conditions with strong north winds and bluebird skies. What should the smallmouth angler do?
Spring cold fronts generally make spawning and staging fish leave a shallow spawning area, although they can also return rather quickly, as soon as the weather stabilizes. This indicates that they may not retreat very far. Rather than fleeing and escaping to some form of deep-water sanctuary, they are most likely to move a short distance and hunker down in some form of cover, or on structure, or in slightly deeper water, until conditions moderate and they are able to resume their normal spring behavior.
While a major cold front like this in the spring can make conditions miserable for anglers, a little adaptation to the conditions at hand will save your day of fishing. If done correctly, and as crazy as it sounds, you can possibly have one of your best days ever. In order to do so, think slow and apply patience. Fish as slowly as the fish are reacting to the coldfront. For smallmouth bass impacted by cold front, cover minimal water, by focusing on specific locations and staying on top of them. Fish each location thoroughly and diligently. For coldfront smallies, the keyword is slow. With suspending jerkbaits like the Matzuo Phantom Minnow, that means utilizing its loud rattles with a few jerks, and long pauses sometimes up to 10 seconds or more.
The Matzuo Phantom Minnow’s erratic darting action and holographic color patterns appeal well to coldfront smallmouth bass. Known to draw slashing strikes, enticed by its rattle chamber and suspending profile, the Phantom Minnow is an exceptionally versatile lure that can be used for pulling up fish suspended in deep water or shallow water. This particular bite was illustrated by camping out on a shallow mid lake sand flat for the entire four hours of fishing this new lake, and finding the fish stacked and staging just outside of their spawning sites.
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