Submitted by . (ip 74.139.206.113)

Date Fished: 4/6/2007
Water Temperature: 59
Water Clarity: 2-3 feet

Lake: Lake of Egypt, Federation Bass Club T’ment

Date: 6 Apr 07

Take off Weigh-In

Weather: Wind: N-NW 15 gusts to 25 N-NW 10 gusts to 20 Precip: Light occasional snow flurries None

Clouds: Mostly cloudy some breaks Partly Cloudy

Air temp: 19 F wind chill near zero 34

Water: Temps: 58-59 F

Color (depth to see a white spinner bait): 2-3 ft

Bass Caught: Slot Lake (Limit=2 under 14, 4 over 16 in) : 1 in the slot , 6 over none under. My 4 best fish 12-4 lbs for first place

These were the coldest conditions I have ever-open water fished. Luckily LOE is a power plant lake and had experienced a huge warm up the previous two weeks. Two weeks of weather in the 70-80’s had brought the water temps up and even after three nights in the 20’s they remained in the upper 50’s.They remained there all weekend. The power plant had very little influence on water temps, as the plant end water temps were the same as the rest of the lake. On Friday I arrived at the lake late morning. The conditions were miserable-high north winds, snow flurries and temps around 30 F. My original strategy was to fish at high speed with horizontal baits and hope for a reaction bite. This did not work because the fish were nowhere to be found. I thought they would move out to the first drop of deeper grass line or even snuggle up to visible wood. Nope. They weren’t there. I fished 5 hours without a bite. I knew that the fish had moved somewhere else that I wasn’t looking. But I was COLDDDDD and I gave up. That afternoon while I was putting my frozen boat away two local clubs came in and everyone had fish. One tournament took 16 lbs the other an amazing 21 lbs to win! In these conditions!!! I was flabbergasted to see such weights posted. How could they do that??? I recalled seeing the winners fishing out on the lake. I thought they were nuts. They were hugging the shore flipping-something I didn’t try. That night while freezing my butt off at an outdoor fish fry at the hotel…I put one and one together in my frozen desperate brain. Many shorelines of the lake had mats of vine-like “grass” (I don’t know my grass names). The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that these guys were flipping into the holes of these mats. Yes- the fish had retreated under the mats where they were insulated from the falling cold surface waters and the sun. That had to be it. I left the fish fry and went to my boat and tied on the heaviest watermelon jig and a heavy tungsten-weighted lizard on another rod. I resolved to punch the mats the next day-and stick with it all day. Those fish certainly were not anywhere else I looked during pre-fishing. I knew all mats were not created equal so it would probably take me some time to figure out which mats worked. I had renewed confidence! At take off the conditions were brutal. I had every stick of clothes on that I brought with me. My 100MPH BPS rain suit was worth its weight in gold. But nothing could help my hands. I blasted across the lake to my first mat. It sat near 13 ft of water on a point. I flipped up on the mat and allowed my jig to punch the holes and feed line to allow it to sink. I then aggressively popped the jig twice. I continued down the mat and within 15 minutes I had two 3 lb fish in the live well. But within a couple of hours I had reached my limit of cold endurance I simply could not feel my feet and hands anymore. My reel and rod needed constant attention because of icing. The only way to clear the rod of ice was to dip it in the near 60-degree water and shake the ice off. Before take off I had confirmed with our club TD that it would be OK to go to the truck to warm up if needed. I did just that. There were literally dozens of guys in their trucks warming their hands and feet. I had never seen anything like it. The radio said the wind chill was minus 5. But I felt confident that if I could duplicate the first mat I fished I would get more fish. After warming I went looking. I found another mat near 15 ft of water about 10:00 and promptly caught 2 more fish that just bumped at 16 inches. The sun popped out and it helped a lot. Plus I knew that it would keep the fish under the mats. By the end of the day I culled my 2 16 inchers for three pounders and ended up winning with 12-4. I caught one slot fish and missed one good bite. The key was –only the mats with the “vine-like” “grass”. They had to be very near deep water too. I also think that popping the jig elicited a reaction bite. I was darned proud just to catch fish let alone win. I used a custom Todd Bates jig in watermelon/tan with a watermelon seed zoom salty chunk trailer. The second and third place guys employed a similar strategy but dropped white spinner baits right along the viney weeds near deep water. Next week we fish Glen Shoals Lake near Hillsboro IL. I can only hope that this entrenched cold air has moved on by then.

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