Want to start an argument?
Just put a bunch of otherwise amiable people in the same room and mention the topic of global warming. Many are convinced that the temperature of the earth is rising, and that this spells disastrous consequences for our planet. To back up their claims, they cite such sources as former Vice President Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” as demonstrating beyond the shadow of a doubt that global warming is real, and that carbon emissions caused by humans are primarily to blame for it. Others scoff at the notion of global warming, believing instead that temperature fluctuations are a normal part of the natural weather cycle.
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Whether indicative of a naturally occurring cycle or a man-made threat, most people agree that we’ve been undergoing a period of extreme weather in recent years. The year 2007 saw some of the weirdest weather in recent memory, such as floods in Oklahoma, Texas and Ohio; extreme drought in Tennessee, Alabama and Florida; and spring that seemed more like winter in the central United States.
Regardless of your stand on the topic of global warming, climate changes, whether long or short term, are having a very real impact on bass fishing. These weather extremes create both problems and opportunities in our fisheries. Bass anglers must adapt to these changes.
While it’s true that there’s little you can do about the weather, there are some things you can do to cope more effectively with climate changes on your home waters.
Coping With Weather Extremes
Virginia bass pro John Crews is one of the hottest young anglers on the cast-for-cash circuit. He’s fished from coast to coast while competing on the B.A.S.S. Elite Series tour. He says learning to cope with changing — and often extreme — climate conditions is becoming more important than ever.
“The 2007 tournament circuit dished out everything from flooding and extreme cold to insufferable heat and record drought,” Crews says. “Spring was unbelievably cold in the Southeast, with snowfalls reported well into April and unrelenting winds out of the east and northeast. Then there was flooding in Texas, Oklahoma and parts of the Midwest, followed by record drought and weeks of 100-degree-plus temperatures in the Southeast. I’ve never seen so many weather extremes packed into a 12-month period. As a tournament angler, I had to learn to adapt to these conditions quickly or risk missing out on a paycheck.”
Drought and extreme heat make bass fishing especially tough, Crews has found.
“When you get little or no rainfall, you have very little flow from upstream dams because there’s not enough fresh water entering the system to warrant current generation,” he explains. “Current serves three important functions. It moderates the water temperature, increases dissolved oxygen levels, and concentrates both baitfish and bass. Without current, the water temperature increases, dissolved oxygen levels may fall to dangerously low levels, and bass and baitfish scatter out, often to the middle of the river channel where they’re hard to locate and even harder to catch.”
Heat extremes were sufficient in some parts of the country during the summer of 2007 to create severe water-quality problems.
“Many lakes suffered fish kills, with acres of bass, bluegills and baitfish floating dead,” Crews notes. “It was a bad scene, and it gives you a helpless feeling because there’s nothing you can do about it.”
So how can the savvy angler consistently score strikes in the face of drought and high water temperatures?
“It’s important to realize that high water temperatures by themselves have little or no adverse effect on bass,” Crews points out. “I’ve caught bass from 100-degree-plus water that were as healthy and hard-pulling as you could wish for. The real key is current flow. As long as there’s current, the water temperature doesn’t seem to matter. But if there’s no flow and the water is hot, the fishing gets real slow. The bass become stressed due to lack of oxygen, and they’ll go where they need to in order to survive.”
The best locations for bass under extreme drought/high heat conditions are often in shallow water.
“They’ll move from deep water to right up against the shoreline, which seems hard to believe when the lake’s temperature is in the upper 90s,” Crews says. “We’ve been taught that bass in hot weather always hang around deep structures such as creek channel drop-offs, humps and offshore ledges. But when there’s little or no oxygen in these deeper areas, the bass can’t survive there. Above all, the bass is a survivor. It’ll move into the shallowest water because that’s where the most oxygen is. So in low-oxygen/high-water-temperature conditions, you’re probably better off pitching a tube bait or jig around shoreline cover than chunking big crankbaits and Carolina rigs to deep structure.”
Proliferation of shallow weeds is one benefit of prolonged heat and drought conditions.
“Hot, stable weather over a long period of time usually results in extremely fast growth of junk weeds like hydrilla and milfoil in shallow bays, tributary arms and coves,” Crews adds. “This makes for superb bass cover. It attracts a number of forage species, including bluegills, shiners and crayfish, and it can concentrate large numbers of bass that were roaming about aimlessly in search of food due to a lack of current. Aquatic vegetation also produces oxygen through photosynthesis and provides overhead shade that cools the water. Weed cover creates plenty of great fishing opportunities, but it tilts the competitive balance in favor of those anglers who are adept at pitching and flipping versus using deep-structure tactics such as cranking, Carolina-rigging or spoon-jigging.”
Underground springs become critically important during drought and extreme heat conditions.
“If you know where a spring enters the lake, you can absolutely load the boat,” Crews claims. “Last August, I fished a reservoir in the Southeast that was a good 5 feet low due to lack of rainfall. While I was fishing down a channel bank, I noticed a spring bubbling out of the ground and spilling into the lake. I pitched a tube into the run-off and immediately caught a 6-pound largemouth. That fish was obviously drawn to the spring water, which was a good 30 degrees cooler and more highly oxygenated than the lake water.”
Given a choice, Crews would opt for high water over drought any time.
“High water puts bass tight to cover, opens up hundreds of acres of new areas to fish and creates plenty of current,” he says.
A good example of this occurred recently on the Arkansas River with two B.A.S.S. events a year apart.
“In summer of 2006, there was a drought that virtually eliminated any current flow,” Crews recalls. “Fishing was so tough that if you caught two or three keepers, you were in the money. Nobody caught a limit of bass four days in a row. The lack of flow at the dam made the bass virtually impossible to pattern.”
However, a tournament at the same venue in summer of 2007 produced dramatically different results.
“Prior to the tournament, there was torrential rain and flooding in Oklahoma, at the headwaters of the river, and this resulted in plenty of water flowing downstream where the tournament was held,” Crews says. “The difference the current made was incredible. Some guys were catching 40 bass a day, with many fish averaging 3 to 4 pounds apiece. Bass were holding tight to current breaks exactly like you’d expect them to be in a river system.”
Great Lakes
Bassin’ Changes
Northern Michigan bass guide Chris Noffsinger has fished the Grand Traverse Bay section of Lake Michigan most of his life and has seen some profound changes in weather patterns that have impacted this tremendous (and largely untapped) smallmouth bass fishery.
“There have been significant climate changes up here during the past 10 years, most notably in winter,” Noffsinger says. “Our winters are shorter than they used to be, which has definitely lengthened the number of days in which you can fish for bass. Where Lake Michigan used to ice up practically every winter, you don’t see the big ice flows that you used to. Inland lakes are also freezing up later than they formerly did. We’re not seeing ice coverage on these bodies of water until January now.”
The warmer winters have dramatically altered fishing patterns.
“Although most northern Michigan sportsmen quit fishing once deer season kicks in, I have seen guys out bass fishing both on inland lakes and in the bay in December, even early January, where this was practically unheard of 10 years ago,” Noffsinger says.
In recent years, Great Lakes water levels have dropped to record low levels.
“Lake Superior is at its lowest point in 80 years, while Lake Michigan has also dropped significantly,” Noffsinger reports. “This means thousands of acres of shoreline are being left high and dry. Scientists aren’t in agreement about what’s causing the lakes to lower, but it’s got something to do with our warmer winters and the lakes not icing up like they used to.”
Places where Noffsinger used to consistently catch smallmouth are now too shallow to hold fish.
“Many of these spots are 3 to 4 feet lower than they were 6 years ago,” he says. “I now have to back way off and fish weedbeds and rockpiles in deeper water to get on bass.”
According to Noffsinger, spring also comes earlier to the northland than it used to.
“Early spring bass fishing is a lot better here than it used to be,” he says. “It’s now common to see a week to 10 days of warm weather in April, where it historically remained cold throughout the entire month. I’ve seen many 60-degree days in April in recent years, which old-timers will tell you used to be really rare. This brings bass out of deep water and into the shallows, where they’ll hold tight to dark objects such as rocks, wood or grass against a white sand bottom.”
Of course, if anglers don’t like the weather in northern Michigan, Noffsinger tells them to just stick around a few days, as it’s bound to change.
“This region is known for picture-book summers, but occasionally we’ll get a week or two of unseasonably cold weather, and this will send bass out of the shallows to the first deep breaklines,” he says. “Some of these steep drop-offs may be a half mile to a mile offshore. You can catch bass off them by casting or dragging a tube bait along the drop.”
Combating
Frigid Springs
Veteran Tennessee pro Charlie Ingram certainly knows how to whack bass during unusually cold spring conditions. While fishing a mid-south lake one day last April when it was spitting snow with a brutal 25 mph wind out of the east, Ingram managed to catch more than 30 largemouth bass, the five biggest of which weighed almost 30 pounds.
“I seem to attract extreme weather wherever I go, so I decided long ago that I’d better learn how to catch fish under adverse conditions,” Ingram jokes.
Ingram employs a one-two punch during abnormally cold spring weather.
“I don’t care how severe or pervasive the front is, you’ll always be able to trigger a reaction strike from some of the bass in the lake,” he says. “I’ll comb big stretches of shallow water — flats, gravel bars, the back ends of tributary arms — with a spinnerbait or a lipless vibrating crankbait. I’ll retrieve these baits quickly around boat docks and isolated pieces of wood cover, going for a reaction strike. You’ll be surprised at the number of quality bass you’ll catch on this pattern, even under extremely harsh weather conditions.”
If Ingram’s reaction-strike pattern doesn’t pay off or is only resulting in keeper fish, he’ll revert to a much slower approach, saturating the thickest wads of brush and weed cover he can find with a jig-and-pig.
“This is the surest way to put some real tonnage in your livewell,” he promises. “I’ve jerked 9-pounders out of thick brushpiles on the coldest, nastiest spring days you could imagine.”
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