The recent cold front will send many people to the woods and up a tree while others will be getting ready for some great bass and white perch fishing.

We needed a cold front like this one to bring the water temperature down below 70 degrees, and this should do it.

Some fishermen fear the wind that comes with the cold fronts, but if your boat is set up right and you have a good trolling motor and batteries, wind is not a problem. The wind is our friend.

Fish the windy banks. Wind blows plankton to the shore. Shad feed on plankton and fish feed off shad, and we feed on fish unless you practice catch and release.

This is fall fishing at it’s best. The water is not quite cold enough to limit everything to slow bottom lures for bass. Spinnerbaits and crank baits will still produce on windy banks. Rat-L-Traps are also great lures to fish when the wind is blowing.

We will still have a few warm days when surface lures will produce some action. As long as the water temperature is in the 60s, a host of lures will produce fish.

The best reports from last week on the bass fishing came from the Saline/Larto Complex and Lake Bruin. The best reports on the white perch came from the Old Rivers.

Lures and patterns varied from surface action to bottom bouncing with jigs and soft plastics around and under boat docks and cypress trees.

As the water gets cooler, Lakes Concordia and St. John will produce some nice catches of bass and hybrid striped bass. This cold front along with the wind should do the trick and get these two lakes stirred up.

I gave up on the water levels. Lack of rain and already low lakes has been a problem since spring. All we can do about low water levels is adjust and figure out where the fish are.

There will be a lot of figuring out going on Nov. 3. The Top Rod Series will cast of the first of five qualifying bass tournaments on Lake Bruin out of the State Park Landing. This is the second round for the Top Rod Series.

Early last year, we created this series for the advanced tournament anglers. The payout is the highest of all the tournaments in the area. The entry fee is $125 per person and this is a singles only series, meaning there will be only one person allowed per boat. It is you against the fish.

The 2012-13 Top Rod Series are non-profit bass tournaments with a 100 percent payout of all fees collected. Eddie’s Marine will host the events. After the five qualifying tournaments conclude in March, we will conduct a championship event in April.

The top five pound leaders will not be required to pay an entry fee into this event. If you do not make the top five you can still compete in the championship with an entry fee. After the Nov. 3 tournament on Bruin, we will head to the Saline/Larto Complex on Dec. 8 for what will probably be the event that produces the heaviest limits of the series.

The complex is a great place to fish in December. On Jan. 5, we will head back to Lake Bruin for some great cold water bass fishing. Then, it’s off to Lake Concordia out of Lakeview Lodge for the Feb. 9 event that will be right in the middle of the pre-spawn.

That’s a great time for big bass on Lake Concordia. The Top Rod Series qualifying events will conclude on Lake St. John out of Spokane Landing on March 2. Entry forms are available at the Sports Center Natchez and Eddie’s Marine Vidalia. For more information you can contact me.

 

 

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