We woke up to cooler weather yesterday (Saturday) morning.

A cool front passed overnight. The cooler temperatures will certainly help the fish activity on the area waters.

This is our second cool front of this fall season. The weather forecast looks real strange but everyone knows our weather forecast changes real fast.

This morning, before sunrise, the lows were around 55 degrees and the high air temperature is supposed to be around 84 today which is a lot better than the 90-degree highs we had most of this week. The strange part is Monday’s forecast shows a high of 90 again and a low of 64.

On Monday, there must be another cool front passing because the predictions say a high of only 84 degrees and a low around 54 again through at least Thursday. That will help keep surface water temperatures in the 67- to 70-degree range. I am still waiting on the annual fall shad spawn. Normally, the shad start spawning when water temperatures drop to 65 degrees or lower on the landlocked lakes like Concordia, St. John and Lake Bruin, as well as our other landlocked lakes and Old Rivers.

Of course, when these cool fronts pass, we have wind. Hopefully, since it looks like a cool front will pass on Monday night, the winds will lay flat by Wednesday and not mess the balloon race up again which I believe is coming up next weekend. If the winds blow, the balloons won’t fly so hopefully the timing will be right because it is a gamble with the wind and fronts in October.

I spoke with several white perch fishermen and ladies that are doing good on Lake Mary just west of Woodville. I have no clue how deep the perch are on Lake Mary, or if they are suspended over deep water or holding on visible stricture. It is a safe bet that both patterns are going on much like they do on the Old Rivers at Yucatan, Deer Park and Vidalia. You can catch a perch here and there off visible shallow cover, but most of the perch on these Old Rivers will follow the shad which were still suspended last weekend about 12- to 15-feet down over depths of 25- to 35-feet of water. When the shad spawn does kick off, the bait fish will be spawning near visible cover in thin water, so that is where you will find the bass and white perch.

Last Sunday evening, I ran Lake Concordia from one end to another just looking more than fishing. I found no shad in the shallows. The only shad I could find were in the Big Blew Hole and Little Blew Hole areas, and that was the only place I caught fish. The shad were suspended about 10- to 15-feet deep over 25- to 45-feet of water. The bass I caught were suspended with the shad about 12 feet down. The shad spawn could happen any day. When it does, Lake St. John is a great place to be. St. John has been under little fishing pressure. It is one of our best fall fishing lakes. Lake Concordia will be good too and Lake Bruin, but if you want to stay close to home, I would head to St. John next weekend.

To find spawning shad, just check any green cypress limbs that touch the water. The shad will hold tight to the green limbs for some reason. My guess is for protection to keep from getting ate by bass and perch.

October is a major transition month and the transition of game fish moving from deep water to shallow or just getting more active usually casts off when water temps fall below 65 degrees. This recent cold front will probably do just that; drop the water temperature below 65. So get ready. The lakes have been real quiet with not many people fishing but that is about to change as surface water temperatures continue to slowly fall and the fish turn on.

 

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