As we discussed yesterday in the Part One of this feature, catching fish in clear waters is seldom easy.
As difficult as this fishing can be, there are times when your chances are better than others.
The first warm trend of spring is one such time. The early warming rays on the water act like magnets to draw the fish out of the depths.
Largemouth bass move into the shallows. Smallmouth roam the sun-drenched rocky shores, while walleye explore the edges adjacent to their soon-to-be spawning sites. Pike patrol fast-warming sand flats and shallow-water sloughs or congregate at the mouths of creeks.
During this early period, look for warmer drainage waters from spring rains, melt-offs, or any other freshwater source.
Man-made canals and channels warm quickly and usually have enough depth to hold large fish. During my mid-teens I consistently caught two to five bass each spring--from five to over six pounds each--from the Columbus Park Lagoon within Chicago's city limits. They were all caught in April from a small creek no more than 75 yards long attached to the main lagoon. In summer, catching these bass was next to impossible.
Look for sloughs, flooded shorelines, shallow sections between lakes, river backwaters, sheltered eddies, shallow black-bottomed bays, shorelines with exposed dark rock.
I don't try to catch spawning fish on clear lakes, and I'm not too crazy about the post-spawn period either. But the start of a good weed growth is one of my favorite peak periods. The weed growth I look for is in the deeper main weed beds of cabbage, coontail, milfoil, and similar vegetation These beds get productive when they become thick enough to attract bait fish. In our northern tier of natural lakes this usually occurs in June, while in Canada it may occur well into July.
The blossoming of the weeds happens quickly. I've seen semi-barren flats turn into lush forests of aquatic vegetation in just a week or two. This peak period doesn't last long--a good average is 7 to 10 days.
At this time of year it is not uncommon to find bass, walleye, northern pike, and muskies all turned on. The new weed growth in many clear lakes gives fish their first extensive to move into the shallows. The shallow water that isn't too warm yet to drive the fish deeper and many fish are now bunched up in the post-spawn, plus hatching insects and other forms of aquatic life in and around the weed beds make this cover even more desirable.
This new weed period is one of the few times of the year when you can get a crack at big, clear-water pike or muskies in shallower. These eating machines invade these weed beds like hungry sharks, throwing much of their caution to the wind and making themselves vulnerable.
Trolling medium to large spinner baits in a brisk, lazy S pattern is often deadly. Troll so the lure ticks the higher weed tops or runs between sparse growths. Casting crankbaits and jigging also work well. Larger crankbaits are preferred. Grassel's Swim Head jig dressed with a 3-4 inch chub or sucker will tempt just about any game fish in the weed beds.
After the weeds have grown to almost their full height, the next peak I watch for is the first sustained hot blast of summer weather. Get two or three days (the more the better) of hot, muggy weather in the upper 80s or higher, with the sky getting hazier and hazier each day, and watch out!
I generally don't spend much time on the clear lakes in midsummer, unless the weather is right. Favorable fishing can occur when a sustained hot spell, especially if the winds are down, eats up the deep-water oxygen. The oxygen-rich middle layer of water, called the thermocline, is "pushed-up," forcing the normally deep-water game fish shallower and making them easier to reach.
When this happens, usually in August, walleyes are forced into the deeper weed growths, bass often become night oriented and/or feed heavily at dawn or dusk, and the big, deep-water pike will generally relate to the outside edges.
As summer comes to a close and the first cool nights occur, activity begins to pick up. It's as if the fish sense the coming of winter and the end of the easy feeding periods. Bass and walleye bunch up in larger groups and feed for longer periods.
Panfish will begin to school up heavily in and around weed beds and this usually brings the pike and muskies up again.
This period, just prior to the "fall turnover," is the best time I know to bag a trophy pike out of deep, clear-water lakes. It's also an excellent time for muskies. The lake starts turning over at about 60 degrees and completes its cycle at approximately 55 degrees. You want to fish the lake just prior to this turnover.
The second cold snap of fall--or in the pike's more northern range, the second night of hard frost--will usually trigger this peak.
Once you have the right weather and the water temperature starts to plunge, find and fish the biggest expanse of deeper weeds on the lake. On clear waters the weeds in the 8-15 foot range will usually be most productive. Best conditions are dark days with a fairly heavy chop, but even sunny days are fine if you have wave action and deeper weeds.
This is about the only time of year I don't mind strong north/northwest winds. I look for weeds being stirred by the wave action as a starting site. I first troll big spinner baits and bucktails over the weed tops in a lazy S trolling pattern. If nothing happens in an hour or two, I a move to the deep weed edges and troll deep-diving crankbaits such as Spoon plugs, Bombers, Hellbenders, or Bagleys.
After the fall turnover is complete, the water temperature becomes consistent from top to bottom. I don't like fishing clear lakes during the turnover period or the week or so which follows, but when the water temperature stabilizes at about 50 degrees, fishing becomes more predictable.
Fish leave mid-lake and move to shoreline-connected structures. They'll also tend to suspend at mid-depths less frequently. The keys now are usually sharp drop-offs and hard bottom.
Generally the fish will be deep and schooled. It's a prime period for live bait and jig fishing, and a great time for bagging a trophy walleye, pike, musky, or bass out of a clear lake with some depth to it.
Since fishing pressure is usually minimal during this late fall period, the textbook spots produce best: major points breaking into the deeper waters faster breaking corners, or projections off flats or other edges.
Although most of your late fall fishing will be deep and at slow speeds, unseasonable warm weather can pull the fish up into the shallows. On a warm "Indian summer" day, largemouth often move around shallower wood or still-green weed beds; smallies cruise rocky areas where they can easily be reached with a crankbait, and muskies invade the shallows, sometimes only a few feet deep.
There are other times when fishing can be easier than normal on clear water: cisco/whitefish night spawning runs on coarse sand shores during the full moon of October or November, walleyes moving into necked-down or current-influenced areas at night to feed, bass schooling deep on bluff banks and submerged river channels, stripers schooling near the surface of reservoirs.
If you're going to fish those tough, clear lakes and reservoirs, you'd better have something other than luck going for you. But there's no reason you can't succeed at one of fishing's greatest challenges if you go properly equipped, keep an open mind, and understand when the conditions are likely to improve your odds.
Copyright (c) 1996 Spence Petros. All rights reserved.
Home | Library | Fishing | Freshwater Fishing