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Posts: 7036
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Seems as though there will be a lot of people chucking bucktails in cold water this season, and I've always seen a lot of people saying (though I've rarely seen it) they throw topwaters from iceout to iceup. Do any of you base your lure choices on water temps? |
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Posts: 216
Location: Belleville, WI | I'd like to be the first to say: Lures are just tools. And, tools are just tools. Also, I throw all my lures from ice-out to ice-up (and beyond). They've all worked in every situation imaginable, but some more than others. However, gliders suck. Except the ones that don't - they are just the right tool for some specific situations, of which I don't have time to discuss. Hope this helps! |
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Posts: 8777
| Slamr - 3/22/2011 12:45 PM
Seems as though there will be a lot of people chucking bucktails in cold water this season, and I've always seen a lot of people saying (though I've rarely seen it) they throw topwaters from iceout to iceup. Do any of you base your lure choices on water temps?
It's not the only factor, but yes. |
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Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | For me, cooler water below 60 degrees means throwing something that works slower like a twitched crankbait or a glider or a tube. However, in the heat of the summer, I have some success getting follows on both twitch baits and tubes. I troll crankbaits more in cooler water. |
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Posts: 256
| We had crazy shallow water action on a lake this fall with low-40's water temps on topwaters. We didn't put a fish in the boat but on one small spot we had 4-5 fish up (7 follows total) on topwaters and a couple of missed strikes at the boat. Nothing else was working so we put on a topwater and all of a sudden the fish were everywhere. It didn't matter what kind of prop-style topwater either. They were chasing whopper ploppers, pacemakers and top raiders.
With that being said, at those water temps we are normally throwing dawgs, gliders, suicks or slow rolling bucktails. |
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| lardonastick - 3/22/2011 1:12 PM
I'd like to be the first to say: Lures are just tools. And, tools are just tools. Also, I throw all my lures from ice-out to ice-up (and beyond). They've all worked in every situation imaginable, but some more than others. However, gliders suck. Except the ones that don't - they are just the right tool for some specific situations, of which I don't have time to discuss. Hope this helps!
Why do you say gliders suck? I presume it is the percentage that actually bite compared to the number of follows. |
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Posts: 612
Location: Michigan | Not only lure choices, but lure action/speed. I definitely slow things down when the water gets cooler (<55) and throw a lot of gliders, weighted jerkbaits, twitchbaits, slow moving SuperDs/Dawgs. |
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| Water temp does affect my choices when I think about what I'd start searching with when the water is warm---almost always a bucktail or a noisy topwater. Colder water might be a twich bait or crankbait. That's me, anyway. |
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| it strikes me that water temp is a good place to start in general terms. ie., warm water temps means fish are likely to be active more often during the day so faster moving lures are going to be effective more frequently; cold water means fewer times of activity during a typical day, so slower lures may move more neutral fish. but there are times when the water's warm and you have to slow down, or fish deeper. likewise there's plenty of times when the water's cold that fish get "hot" and chase fast. one of my biggest "ruts" is not changing up quickly enough or ignoring feedback from the fish on the water when what i'm doing isn't working. i want to be better at starting with a general idea based on temps/conditions, and then letting the fish change my mind if they're telling me to do something different. |
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Posts: 433
Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin | I take it into consideration, that's for darn sure. The lower the temps the more I'll be working lures that have great action with minimal forward motion. I have noticed that when the temps go under 39 some of my wood gliders no longer function right, so that precludes using them just from temperature.
In summer the temp definitely dictates lure usage. I see whether there is a strong thermocline and at what depth it is set up. Then I use lures designed to put me maybe four to ten feet above this depth in open water trolling situations as I want the fish looking up at the baits. But in very clear water, I won't hesitate to run lures 20 feet above the thermocline or even higher. |
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Posts: 682
Location: Sycamore, IL | The more extreme the water temp is(hot/cold) the more I think that speed(fast/slow) of lure retrieval becomes a factor in your success. There is not one type of bait that works at different temps but, many baits that if presented at the right speed/ depth will trigger a strike...often times it is the angler that can get his lure moving the fastest through the strike zone or has the patience to go as slow as possible that catches the fish in early spring/ late fall. I would not hesitate to use a bucktail or top water early or late in the year if the situation called for it... Good luck
Matt |
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | Not just water temps, but the current trend of the water temp (rising or falling) is the first thing I think of when choosing a bait.
This is an old article I wrote on the subject, it fits this discussion nearly perfectly.
http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/articles/01.06.2006/1003/Making.Wis... |
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Does water temp affect your lure choices?