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I've always spent all my time in the fall hunting, but this year I'm postponing until duck season in November. Not a whole lot of experience with the fall pattern, for the last week and looking at the 10 day forecast we're having cycles of up in the 80's for a few days and then 65 one day, then it creeps back up. Do these fall cold fronts shut down the bite like in the spring or do they have the opposite effect and kick start the fall gorge.
Your going to get all kinds of answers on this one depending on where you fish. In my experience it doesn't affect them as much as the spring but a major front will slow them a little. The small fronts don't seem to affect them to much.
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I'd just like to hear some opinions, i assume down size, tighter to cover, and slowwwww dowwwnnnn. But those are just assumptions I'd like to hear from some guys with experience
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For the most part, I have found that it will slow them down a bit. Not necessarily slow down the bite, but actually slow down the fish themselves. Rather than chase a bait moving by, they want it just hanging in their face. Not always, but often. Also,as you mentioned, they can get real tight to cover or the bottom. I use very small baits all year, so down sizing isn't really an option for me, but it might be worth a try if you generally use 1/32 ounce baits you might try 1/64 or 1/80. Here's a previous post of mine which includes a video of this very situation that might help you out a bit.
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/conte...an-by-Slabsrus
One of my best days this year was back in February with a North wind about 15 and a front that just came through . Couldn't hardly keep the boat still and caught about 8 nice ones.
MacDaddy and I caught some GOOD ones last year on November 6th at Grenada fishing in the rain when I foggy front came through! It was a pretty good bite! I was unprepared and did not have rain gear. Bobby was prepared with his rain gear....but at the end of the trip I think he may have been as wet as I was, it was raining so bad hahaha!
More importantly in my opinion is watch for fall turn over on some lakes .
I actually have some of the best days on North wind. It always affects the other species more than the crappie. I cast primarily and they will still be aggressive even on a pretty strong front,even during rain squalls.Sometimes it's tough because the fish are not back in a sheltered cove out of the wind,they are on main lake structure and points.You have to fight the wind to hold position to cast to the right place. About twenty years ago I was mostly a Southerly flow man. But I told a friend one day who was the best fisherman I know that I did not fish for a month one time because every Thursday or Friday a front blew in and I just did something else rather than go out on Saturday in a cold front or just post frontal when the wind was Northerly. He told me that he actually did good on those days and for me to get out and go .So I did...had some good outings...just kept going and learning more and more about fishing Northern fronts and he was right. Some of the most miserable weather days on the water can be my best catch days.
I'm calling foul on the cold front myth, I think it's something all the best fishermen came up with to keep others off the lake [emoji12]http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...319f7d51e3.jpg
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Good input so far. I also believe that it depends on how deep you're finding fish. The deeper they are the less they are affected.
seems to drive them a bit tighter to cover here and make them really smack the bait , sometimes they move with the bait that is affected by the food the bait eats .
the cycle of life you know . algae blooms move with the water temperature dropping and the shad move with their food source and that in turn has the crappie moving with their food source as well