This recent cold front will certainly change fishing patterns on the area lakes and rivers.

Last week surface water temperatures averaged about 62 degrees.

I am not certain how cold the water is now but I am headed to the lake today.

I would guess water temps will be around 57 to 58 degrees. Two patterns will be going on with the bass and white perch.

The good shallow water bite will slack off but there will still be some fish shallow.

There are always some fish in shallow water.

With water temperatures below 60 degrees the deep water bit will improve.

On Lake Bruin check out the man made brush piles and the deeper ledges for bass with jigs, Zoom’s Brush Hawg or anyone of the many creature style lures.

The eight- to 12-foot depths are probably as deep as you need to go right now.

Once the water cools off a bit more you can find bass as deep as 25 feet on Lake Bruin.

That pattern should cast off by the end of the month if the cold fronts keep coming.

The neat deal about deep fish is you can get closer to the fish without spooking them. A vertical, or near vertical presentation is deadly on our lakes when the water is this cold.

Just make short underhand pitch cast with a heavy jig or soft plastics fished behind heavy slip sinker.

I like to get the lure flat on the bottom and leave it there for a minute or so before slowly dragging it through the cover.

Right now crawfish and bluegill are the major bass food source in deep water.

In the shallows the bass will be holding around the deeper cypress trees ambushing small bluegill.

If the bass don’t seem to holding tight to the wood cover try fan casting a bream or shad pattern Rat-L-Trap in the shallow flats between the piers. It never gets too cold to catch fish on a Rat-L-Trap or any of the lipless, sinking crank baits.

Several of the local bass clubs will meet Monday to vote in the lakes and dates for the December events.

The Miss-Lou Bass Club has set its December tournament for Lake St. John out of Spokane Landing on Dec. 12.

Guests and new members are welcome to compete.

Just contact me at Eddie’s Marine for more information on the club tournaments.

This is the time of year we began catching fewer bass but larger fish. We will have those slightly; warmer days when numbers are not a problem but for the most part big fish and fewer strikes will be the rule.

This is when jig fishing is at its best. Some say certain color jigs represent a bream but I think most bas eat jigs because they think it’s a crawfish.

Dress warmly, slow your presentation down and you can catch some big bass from the cold water.

Eddie Roberts writes a weekly fishing column for The Democrat. He can be reached at fishingwitheddie@bellsouth.net.