Question

[John Bales]

January is almost over and its very possible that there will be open water in 60 days. I am surrounded by small natural lakes. I want to be out there the day after the ice comes off. What do you suggest I do? The water temps will be around 40. Do I troll, cast? Do I check deep and if so , where at deep? Should I expect any fish to be shallow right away? What lures should I be using when checking out the shallows, the deep and below 20 feet if I check it? What areas of a map should I look at for my game plan? What species should I be targeting? What would you do? John

[Bink]

31 days and I’ll be launching the boat in 70 degree water(hopefully above 32 air temp) . Fish will be shallow, deep and inbetween can’t wait

[John Bales]

Wrong answer............. I didn't learn a thing from you. John

[Steve Craig]

Ill give it a shot.
For Bass...
I would pick a Smaller, shallower lake to start as probably it would warm up first.
Id find where the deep water holes are in the lake.
If I had a bar close by, I would start there.
Id check out the shallows, briefly, then go directly to the deepest spot in the hole.
Casting with those temps will more than likely be better than trolling.
Id sit in the middle of the hole and fan cast all the way around the boat. Lures would be the jump type.
Blade bait or Spoon, then a small Spinner bait for a slower fall rate, then jigs in smaller and smaller weights so all speeds could be checked.
Move around in a methodical manner checking all depths and speeds as i go.

For Pike,
I would want to be in the back bays, close to that deepest water. again casting would PROBABLY be better than trolling, but a guy needs to check it out.
Casting big spinner baits, big crack baits, and then to the blade baits , to check for the different speeds.

Let me know how I did?
Steve

[John Bales]

Steve, This is the kind of answer I was looking for. Smaller lakes, and especially smaller holes. If the deeper holes are too big, it takes much more time and effort to locate them. That would be a good time to fire up the new depth finders and take a look at different depths and what you see at a certain depth or area can shorten the time it takes to find them. If I saw no fish anywhere, that just tells me that nothing is going on at that particular time and that would be a good time to check the shallows and come back later. But if we see a bunch of fish around the hole at a certain depth, that would be a good place to start. The absolute deepest water is sometimes where they are but sometimes they are not in the deepest water but at another place close by.
I would use small blaid baits, lighter jigs and line with small plastics or swimbaits. Short hops and pauses between jumps is in order for the early stuff. I know a lot of guys who use the jerk baits really early and do well but for me, it seems to take a week or two for the fish to come shallow enough to have some success with those lures. I do know one thing, the deeper sections are hot right off the bat but it doesn't take long for them to move out of the holes with any stable weather and warming. A severe front will put them right back into the holes and you start all over.
Casting is in order for this time of year but in shallow dark water, I have caught the crap out of the bass trolling at over 3mph in 40 degree water and you can barely keep up with them while bringing them to the boat. In one lake(these were small fish), we were trolling the first week of ice out and we kept getting hits but couldn't hook up. We had to drop the rod back or don't set the hook at all to get them to hook up. I did that two days in a row with these fish and you couldn't get a hit on the cast.
There is a lake about 45 minutes away that has shad. Right at ice out, the bass follow the shad into a large channel with a dredged 30 ft hole dug for fill to build a bridge over the channel for new homes. There is a couple of off channels to the side and they are about 8-10 feet deep. The guys use the A rig and slaughter the big bass immediately after ice out. You would think that the 30 ft hole would be the deal but those off channels are really good too. I can go there thinking I am going to be the only person there during the week and there are 6 other guys in that area. The A rig is not a slow presentation and the bass on some days don't have any problem catching it even when the water temps are 40 degrees.
The one thing that Bink said that was really perfect is that they will be either in the shallows, the deep or somewhere inbetween. This means that in order for us to be successful consistently, we must be prepared to do anything that is necessary in order to find the fish, whether it be casting or trolling. It is much harder to find the answers by casting alone although having previous knowledge of a lake, more times than not, you are able to make the right call. And the rest of the days, you wonder what you did wrong or what you could have done that would have made a catch. I guess that's part of the learning. There are weather and water conditions that do not allow you to make a good catch every time and we may not understand what part of that condition caused the fish not to move, but we must still go about our fishing with the guidelines that we have. For most of the time, these guidelines will put you in the right place , at the right time and fishing in the right manner. The early season can be a lot of hit and miss but you learn every time out and it sure beats sitting in the house looking at a frozen lake and a bunch of snow.
Steve, you did good. John