Dale Hollow Friday???? Help Please

going to try to take a trip friday to dale hollow but need some opinions. I know what a front does to fish in the summer but i dont know what a front does to fish in the winter. IS it the same???? Is it diffrent where to water temp is colder and stuff.There is an artic front coming through thursday night and i want to go down to dale hollow and cast and troll live shiners, would anyone go anyway, do you think i will do good or will the front shut the smallies down and make them suspend over open water... give em lockjaw?????

We also will be there Fri/Sat putting in at the State Dock. Guess we'll start with cranks and jigs and if no luck will go to shinners!

So many different opinions on this subject that it's hard to tell who is right.

Here is my take on this. Cold fronts effect the fish more in the summer months. When the water is already cold. Below 50 deg F the fish are able to access the deep water as the lake should be turned over and thoroughly mixed from top to bottom. Fish that are found in the deeper waters won't be effected by the changing weather like we fishermen. We are the ones that are exposed to the cold air and winds.

Bright sunlight and clear waters may push the fish deeper. Cloudy weather and windy conditions with waves on the water will allow the fish to come shallower. But it all depends on the amount of sunlight and the water's clarity as well as the time of the day.

That's my take on this. Others will tell you that the air pressure will effect the fish's moods. Increased Air Pressure will increase the hydostatic pressure on a fish slightly but all a fish has to do to compensate this change in water pressure is go up a few feet in the water column and that puts the fish at the same pressure it was at before the front moved though. Ie High pressure. With a low pressure system you get increased weather ie clouds and winds.

If the fish have moved away from their normal spots then that is why you are not catching them. Fish where the fish go and you'll catch them.

Not only does the weather effect the fish but it effects their prey even more so. The wind will push the small organisms around the lake if there are wind driven currents formed. After a few days of the wind out of the south a lot of the small phytoplankton will be pushed into the north shorelines. The baitfish may follow as well as the sport fish. But a few hours of winds out of the south may not setup large enough currents to push the food around.

What type of fish are you going after? Walleyes, smallmouth bass?

The In-Fishermen produces a series of fishing books and they have several that are species specific. They have one for smallmouth bass and one for Walleyes too. They even have one for Largemouth bass and one for crappie. All are very good and I recommend them all. There is a lot of repetition in classifying the differnet types of lakes and the ten calendar periods but the rest of each book is devoted to that species of fish and where it hangs out at diffent times of the seasons and in different types of lakes. Small mouth bass should be moving into winter quarters. If you find them you could catch a limit in a hurry because at this time of the year and all winter long they school up in big schools in deep water.

Most Librarys have these books on the shelf so you can go take a quick look at them maybe.

Regards,

Moose1am